How to win that great new job

Supercharge your CV!

A young lawyer asked me the other day if I had any ideas to help her get another
job. Following redundancy 3 months ago she’d not been invited to one interview.
She showed me her 4-page CV, which surprised me with its blandness and
complexity. Then when she told me she was with all the major recruitment
agencies, I began to understand the situation she had created.
I sent her a simple plan for how to go about attracting the attention of the bosses
she really needed to impress, at a time when every firm is getting more
applications than they could possibly have vacancies. First, the CV:
1: Open with the heading “OBJECTIVE”. Then state what you are looking for in a
job, in one line.
2: Add a head and shoulders image of you for a real personal impact.
3: The purpose of your CV is not to get you a job, only an interview; give them
just enough so that they ask you in to learn more about you.
4: Try using a less common font than the default Ariel. I like Verdana and Tahoma
for more authority, but there are dozens more.
5: Use colour, bold and varying font sizes to emphasize highlights.
6: Keep the CV to 2 pages max. As an exercise, edit to one page and see what
you’re left with.
Secondly, having produced the perfect resume, you need to execute the perfect
campaign:
1: Forget agencies; try taking your career into your own hands!
2: Research the key partners/directors/chief execs of companies you would really
like to work for, and write to them directly by name, marking the envelope P&C.
3: Write a really concise, punchy covering letter which says why they should read
your CV. Start with something like, “I’m writing to you personally as I admire your
management style and would love to work with you and add value to your
business…”
4: Follow up with a phone call within 48 hours to ask if they received it.
5: Use the same approach with 3-5 handpicked companies, then review and tweak
as necessary.
Getting a great job is like any other marketing campaign, only with YOU as the
product!
Have a question you'd like Jon to address? You can submit it by either adding a comment to this
post online or by e-mailing it to jon@jupiterdawn.com