My name is Bill Faust and like the guest blogger Greg Coley the Creative Director of VGroup I too have spent 20 years working marketing in the international advertising agencies like Bates and DMB&B etc being based in London, New York, Paris and Sydney.

In short is the CV dead?

The traditional reverse chronological CV I would suggest is being put to rest and that’s a good place for it.

Here’s why.

Lets just look at CV we all know and l— !

It is a snapshot of what you have done, some will think that is a good thing. No it is not, as all it does is show what you did and where you did it e.g. the past. A buyer like Greg needs to know how you will perform in the future.

It does not talk the language of the employer, as it is mistakenly written in nearly all cases from the candidate’s perspective not the buyer’s. A CV, well the whole recruitment process is a marketing strategy that needs careful, exacting planning and execution. It needs to be created from the buyer’s perspective or in this case Greg’s perspective.

It needs deciphering as it does not show how you think and it is your thinking that differentiates you from everyone else. For example every open ended interview question (which is 99% of them) is trying to find just that, how you tick. Therefore start to think about how to demonstrate this before you get to the interview if you don’t you may not make it to the interview.

Greg like many of us who recruit people have the problem of trying to work out why the work you have done previously will have any relevance to the work we / he and our companies / his agency are doing right now and in the future. So you need to understand the product you and understand the business of the company you are applying to.

A survey of 200 CVs to a search firm concluded:

1 in 3 were poor because of basic mistakes in grammar and spelling

4 out 10 had issues with structure and therefore understanding

25% were just too long at over 3 pages this puts undue pressure on a reader

34% of the CVs did not show what the person does or where they had done whatever it was they did! E.g. The CV failed to show what the candidate was offering

The right question to ask of yourself is how do I answer the employer’s crucial question. What do you offer us?

A few weeks ago I wrote a series of articles for Freelance Advisor based on ideas from my book “Pitch Yourself” that some of you may wish to refer to and find out how to do this. The article is called: Pitch Yourself into the Freelance Market

My name is Bill Faust and like the guest blogger Greg Coley the Creative Director of VGroup I too have spent 20 years working marketing in the international advertising agencies like Bates and DMB&B etc being based in London, New York, Paris and Sydney.

In short is the CV dead?

The traditional reverse chronological CV I would suggest is being put to rest and that’s a good place for it.

Here’s why.

Lets just look at CV we all know and l— !

It is a snapshot of what you have done, some will think that is a good thing. No it is not, as all it does is show what you did and where you did it e.g. the past. A buyer like Greg needs to know how you will perform in the future.

It does not talk the language of the employer, as it is mistakenly written in nearly all cases from the candidate’s perspective not the buyer’s. A CV, well the whole recruitment process is a marketing strategy that needs careful, exacting planning and execution. It needs to be created from the buyer’s perspective or in this case Greg’s perspective.

It needs deciphering as it does not show how you think and it is your thinking that differentiates you from everyone else. For example every open ended interview question (which is 99% of them) is trying to find just that, how you tick. Therefore start to think about how to demonstrate this before you get to the interview if you don’t you may not make it to the interview.

Greg like many of us who recruit people have the problem of trying to work out why the work you have done previously will have any relevance to the work we / he and our companies / his agency are doing right now and in the future. So you need to understand the product you and understand the business of the company you are applying to.

A survey of 200 CVs to a search firm concluded:

1 in 3 were poor because of basic mistakes in grammar and spelling

4 out 10 had issues with structure and therefore understanding

25% were just too long at over 3 pages this puts undue pressure on a reader

34% of the CVs did not show what the person does or where they had done whatever it was they did! E.g. The CV failed to show what the candidate was offering

The right question to ask of yourself is how do I answer the employer’s crucial question. What do you offer us?

A few weeks ago I wrote a series of articles for Freelance Advisor based on ideas from my book “Pitch Yourself” that some of you may wish to refer to and find out how to do this. The article is called: Pitch Yourself into the Freelance Market

Anyone who compiles their CV on MS Word will get put to the bottom of the pile and rightly so!

Anyone who compiles their CV on MS Word will get put to the bottom of the pile and rightly so!

Quite a few years ago I dj’ed at a large london hospital radio and one of the girls at another hospital radio station we knew achieved a real coup by getting a top radio jock position.

She recorded her demo tape and had it put in a big red heart balloon, with a middle clear section showing the tape. Clearly this was overkill but in the highly competitive world of radio DJ jobs in London, this landed her a job at capital radio!

By standing out her talent was noticed. Good luck!

Quite a few years ago I dj’ed at a large london hospital radio and one of the girls at another hospital radio station we knew achieved a real coup by getting a top radio jock position.

She recorded her demo tape and had it put in a big red heart balloon, with a middle clear section showing the tape. Clearly this was overkill but in the highly competitive world of radio DJ jobs in London, this landed her a job at capital radio!

By standing out her talent was noticed. Good luck!

I also heard of someone send tea-bags with their applications and a small note saying “Have a cup of tea and relax while you read my CV”.

If you can think of some creative way to get noticed, especially in the creative industries, then I’m sure you’ll find you’ll get a lot more interview offers.

I also heard of someone send tea-bags with their applications and a small note saying “Have a cup of tea and relax while you read my CV”.

If you can think of some creative way to get noticed, especially in the creative industries, then I’m sure you’ll find you’ll get a lot more interview offers.

I def think that sending a hard copy as well as an electronic copy owould improve your chances of your CV being reviewed.

I def think that sending a hard copy as well as an electronic copy owould improve your chances of your CV being reviewed.