Thoughts On Online Recruitment And Stuff – Net Natives

Because of the developments in online recruitment and the massive increase in services such as flat fee recruitment, more and more clients are seeing CVs that have not been “improved” by recruitment companies.

This means the candidate is back in control of their presentation, which is a wonderful thing, but means as an applicant you are responsible for how you are presented.

The CV is a marketing tool for you. It is your introduction to your future employer and dream job and it needs to have NO SPELLING MISTAKES and be relevant to the job/sector you are applying for. Here are a few do’s and don’t's that are essential when creating your CV and applying for a job.

First the dos…

1. Do make sure you highlight your CV with relevant keywords. With improvements in technology, more and more CVs are read with intuitive “parsing” technology. If you wish to be considered a sales executive, call yourself one!
2. Do make it clear in a 3 sentence synopsis who you are and what your skills are. Make this flexible but relate it to each job you apply for.
3. Do list your experience with most recent experience first.
4. Do clearly mark job titles and time of employment for each employer.
5. Do add facts and examples of work.
6. Do list duties AND achievements.
7. Do check EVERYTHING.
8. Do add the URL of your LinkedIn profile to your CV. Not sure how to use LinkedIn effectively for job searching? Have a look at our “Using LinkedIn for Job Searching” post.

Now the don’ts…

1. Don’t make any spelling mistakes. EVER.
2. Don’t waste time with video technologies. It’s just a gimmicky fad that succeeds in telling the employer what you look like and how you come across on camera, but not much else. Even worse, the format you use might not be viewable on a recruiter’s PC; or they might not find your CV from their database because they use a keyword search to find candidates. Even worse, some recruiters exclude any video applications – because they show the recruiter your age, skin colour and gender – all of which a recruiter cannot take into account on the grounds of discrimination.
3. Don’t include photos, unless you’re applying to be a model.
4. Don’t include tables or fancy formatting as your CV may not be read effectively by recruitment tools.
5. Don’t save in any format apart from word, as before, your CV may not be read effectively by recruitment tools.