Working CV Is About Consistency

Intro

Looking for a job can be so challenging that it takes a mental toll on us, and we tend to avoid this irritating task of reviewing and editing the CV one more time. Even when we read the CV, it can be overwhelming to stick to the goals. And the CV has only one goal – to get you in the door, or, in other words, to get you to the first interview round, which is usually with HR. HR people don't know anything about your job, especially if you are well qualified in your field – so well that it's hard for anyone outside your field to understand what you are actually doing. So HR people tend to concentrate on the 10% of the CV they can understand and whether the overall picture is taking shape:

  1. What was your career path?
  2. What did you achieve and what were you actually paid for?
  3. What do you do well and want to do in your next job?

These are tough questions, as your career path can be non-linear, with movements back and forth, career breaks for many different reasons, and jobs you did well but are no longer willing to do. Well, I don't have the statistics on hand, but I think this is a common case, so the task here is to make it look linear, even if it isn't. Why linear? Well, human beings follow linear stories best, and your CV is your story. Your next job should look like a logical next chapter of this story. And storytelling is hard, make no mistake about that. Stories that only scratch the surface don't touch anyone, so this should be a story about how you found your passion and followed it despite all the obstacles. Mistakes along the way are actually advantages because they mean you risked something, gained experience, and are persistent enough to follow your path further. I would hire a person like that. Let's start from the inside.

Finding your passion

First, there are a lot of great books on the topic, and if the tip below doesn't do you any good, just go out there and find some information. The only thing I'm sure about is that you shouldn't approach work without passion, because passion indicates that you have high expectations and are ready to invest your time and energy to get what you expect – so you're just waiting for the tasks. And my tip would probably work best for people with some work experience. For students and schoolkids, I'd definitely recommend getting some experience; the best time is probably a year after finishing school. But let's get back on track.

So, here's the story. It was an interview at a mining company with an almost nonexistent project culture (in terms of business transformation) and some red flags regarding the internal atmosphere. But it was a functioning business anyway, and they somehow managed to get some stuff done on a large scale. And the manager asked me this question: Who are you? I was surprised by this direct question, and it made me reply without questioning myself: I'm a consultant. I had worked as a consultant before and felt emotionally and professionally in the right place in that role. The point was that they didn't have consultants; they had managers who took full responsibility, so I obviously didn't fit. If your answer is "I don't know", that's fine, as long as you're passionately looking for your place in life, the place where you bring value to society and are happy about it. In a case I saw recently, three different roles were mixed in one CV, and obviously, only one of them reflected that person's passion. Just ask yourself.

Cutting the excess

I assume that a CV is a 100% functional document: it should get you in the door; that's its only function. It works or it's worthless, and people tend to forget about that. It's not a monument to your life, it's not about describing all the experiences you've had, and it's not about showing the world what a multifaceted person you are. It doesn't need to look nice or smart, so if you're hesitating over whether it makes sense to edit your latest "holy" version, which you like so much, just ask yourself: Did it get you interviews? If it didn't, edit it now.

Obviously, you need to match your skill set and experience with the positions on the market, and I know exactly two approaches that work here. The first is resource-consuming, and you need some skills to do market research. So you analyze the open positions, probably the economic situation as well, to calculate your chances. Then you tailor your CV to target a particular segment and go for it. At this stage, you probably know the words used in job titles and descriptions, and that's a serious advantage. The second approach is hypothesis testing: you say, "This job probably exists, and I could do it." It seems that the chances of guessing correctly are low, but I prefer this method because I get feedback quickly and collect valuable information. You probably won't succeed in the first iteration, but the information you get will allow you to tailor your CV faster.

And tailoring is the key word here. It means cutting everything that distracts attention from your target role. I compressed the first five years of my career, during which I worked at different companies and completed very challenging projects, into one sentence because otherwise I got only roles as a Microsoft Dynamics consultant, and I had decided to go into management consulting. It's hard to overcome the emotional attachment to those years of my career, but in that case, it was worth it, and I got what I wanted. Bonus tip: it allowed me to cut my CV to one page, and I got more interviews because HR people were kind of intrigued by this short version.

Making it consistent

A very special HR tip is that HR people are just normal people reading your CV, so they can't understand your highly specialized professional stuff, but they can understand inconsistencies that any human being can spot:

You see, I could write about many more inconsistencies, but I chose the three most important ones because there's a magic trick behind the way people process information in series of three. An inconsistency can also reveal itself in how you write about different positions: if some of them are described in more detail, you're probably hiding something about the others. And if the style is different (the language, the rhythm, even the grammar), you simply haven't done your homework and haven't read the CV yourself to make it consistent. It's just about respecting the other party, the reader: they shouldn't have any difficulties reading your CV from beginning to end. Nothing should stick out or catch their attention if it shouldn't. Just pretend for a moment that you're the reader and read it one more time. Mark all the inconsistencies ruthlessly, then take one more iteration to correct them. For some psychological reason, a printed CV works better for this exercise because you don't switch to "editing" mode immediately.

Making it work

That wasn't easy, but that's not all there is to it. The hardest part is this: if it were your job to hire this person, would you do it? If the answer is no, you probably need some more iterations. But if you just send your CV "as is", you close the doors (the opportunities) yourself, because you can send your CV only once. There is some reasoning behind people just spamming others with their CV: it's better than doing nothing, I'll be noticed at least – and so on. But "at least" is not enough. You either get the attention you need to be invited to an interview, or you don't. Many things can go wrong, starting with the CV format, the words you use, or the job market, but, all other things being equal, I'd hire a person who acts reasonably in a stressful situation over a person who goes into full panic mode. I'd actually prefer a reasonable person with a huge handicap in skills and experience. There was a reason to put "Don't Panic" on the cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you know.

Conclusions

If I were to write a history of the present time, I'd describe it as a time of transition, and it's the hardest time to live in (probably not that hard compared to times without the Internet and toilet paper). We are stressed because we know something has changed, but we don't know how to adapt, or adapting is too painful: it seems that you need some black magic to satisfy LinkedIn algorithms and AI, which won't let your CV reach a human. And I just don't buy it: if a company can't choose a functioning AI, I don't want to work for that company, because they have probably made some other bad management decisions. The same goes for using strange LinkedIn features or hiring unprofessional HR people. How do I deal with this craziness? I deal only with reasonable people. My motto is: if the world goes crazy, it doesn't mean I have to. But communicating your strengths to sentient people is important and worth investing some effort in, from my perspective. I also assume that the percentage of craziness is constant; it's just more visible now.