CV Writing: worst ever?

As a Recruiter and Professional CV Writer, I am often asked what is the worst CV you have ever seen?

I think before answering this question, as anyone who approaches me with the need for CV Help clearly recognises that it is bad, and hence they ask for help. Hence some of the technically “worst” I have ever seen can not be publicly disclosed, as the owning job seeker recognise that it wasn’t working, and hence found some help from us.

However, the following examples all come form my day job of being a recruiter. These people either didn’t recognise how bad their CV was, or just didn’t care. In either case, they failed to get our advertised job, and probably many more afterwards!

CV Writing: measurement

Which brings me to the main point of this post: measure your job search success, or lack of it. Whether you decide to write your own CV or seek the help of a professional, the key to success is measurement.

The key tipping point measure for me when chatting to job seekers is that of job application to telephone interview ratio:

• If its less than 1 in 20, then there is a clear problem and hence cure
• If its better than 1 in 5, then there is probably not a lot I or any other Professional CV Writer can help you with
• In between, and its either structural or tactical.

But if you do not measure your job search success, then expect to end up in the pile of “thank you for your application,” or in the Worst CV history books.

Worst Ever CV?

Graham, a job search coach, asks: As a hiring manager or recruiter, what was the worst CV that you ever laid eyes on and why? The worst I have ever seen and this was years ago, was hand written in pencil. Through shear pity, I was compelled to read on. It was pitiful, needless to say, but it for some reason humbled me and I felt momentarily compassionate for this person who seemed to be trying. I know you are asking, “did you hire this person”…no of course not, I didn’t. But it was certainly an unforgettable CV.

In answer:
I’ve seen the pencil one – and yes they are humbling.

A friend had a copycat, who copied his (ie: the hiring manager’s) career history and achievements.They had worked together at a previous company, and this job applicant had simply “copied” the hiring manager’s CV! My friend thought about calling him, but in the end wrote a quick note to HR to ask them to deal, and in return himself stole the best of the phrases from his reworked CV.

But the best as I would consider worst was from a lady. I knew it was bad because a researcher started laughing, and just couldn’t stop laughing. She beckoned me over with a red face, still laughing, and handed me the CV.

Line3 was the answer. It took us about 15mins before we read past line3, and her skills were excellent, but on line3 was her eMail address. I won’t detail what her email address was, but lets they say she must have thought of sex constantly with more than one person!

Some times, things which you may place in a draft CV, you miss when they are placed in the final version. Always have it read through by at least three people, or use a CV review service.

Good Luck!

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CV Writing Service

With competition in the Job Search market increasing, and job seekers wanting to secure a good position in a suitable time scale, the demand for a Professional CV Writing Service has increased.

But, when price differentials between the UK CV Writers and those in North America or Europe are compared, what are many Job Seekers actually buying in their chosen CV Writing Service?

CV Writing UK

There are three basic forms of CV Writing Service:

• CV Typing: former or existing secretaries and competent typists who take a set of often faxed hand written notes and combine them with a downloaded CV Template into a typed CV. These services most often offer printed paper format CV’s as optional extras. Expect to pay around £30 or less
• Professional CV Writers: there are a growing number of Professional CV Writers in the UK. But, unlike North America where there are three competing bodies in CV writing alone which accredit Professional Resume Writers through testing, there is presently no such body in the UK. Most therefore tend to be creative writers or copy writers who have entered the employment market place as another place in which to use their skills. Expect to pay £50 and above
• Employment Professionals: many employment professionals, from either a recruitment, Human Resources or employment background, provide CV Writing Services. This is the fastest expanding part of the market, although the largest number of providers are still CV Typists. Prices start from £75 and upwards, but still low compared to similarly skilled North American providers which start from $150

There are also a large number of part time providers who use the newly evolving Contract and bidding service websites to provide occasional CV Writing and additional income. But all services are charged up front, as in essence CV Writing is factually orientated creative communications.

What CV Writing Service?

With the diverse number of CV Writings Services, the question is: what do they provide, and why the price differential?

The market is still dominated by singular operators, often home based, over the three largest company based providers. The service demands of the job seekers means that most UK CV Writing Services are orientated around:

• Taking your career history
• Interviewing you for 30mins or more to understand what you want to do next
• Creating in 24hours or less a draft CV

This approach panders to the Job Board orientated modern employment market, where by recently redundant or unemployed job seekers wish to gain work as quickly as possible.

CV Writing Tips

But, in a recent experiment, an employment professional body took 20 job seekers to find the affect of CV Writing. 10 were given a CV Writing Service, while 10 were trained in how best to apply for jobs, using their existing CV.

The results showed that both groups did equally as well, but that the affect for either group was multiplied five fold when both aspects – a CV Writing Service and guidance on how best to apply for jobs – were combined.

Hence, if all you are shopping for is a CV Writing Service, expect your job seeking results to improve, but probably not as dramatically as you may wish.

Professional CV Writing Service

If you look at the headline price of any CV Writing Service, it should be easy to understand the level of expertise you will be engaging with.

After taking away a profit margin and overhead costs of one third, and the minimum three hours time required to take your career history and place it into a standard CV format, you can see that any service charging £30 or less will be employing people on UK minimum wage. If that is the skills level you are happy with, then at least you are now aware of the choice you are making the results should expect.

To engage a full time CV writer or Employment professional, expect to pay around £50 for a two page Professional CV. When taken into account with the results of the recent study, ask to speak to the actual person who will be writing your CV so that you know you will be happy with the engagement.

If you want a Professional CV Writing Service, then look for CV Services which provide additional information and guidance to you as a job seeker. Worry less about free rewrites and the quality of the paper printouts, and focus more about how they help you with guides and advice on how best to use your new Professional CV in getting the job you want.

Good Luck!

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Job Application: employer direct

As a recruiter, of course I would always prefer that as a job seeker you come to me over going to an employer to find a job. I get paid a fee for vetting out the unsuitable job applications, and reduce the time an employer takes to fill a job.

But I actually make more money in hard to fill positions, and employers are making more use of new Social Media. So more job seekers and potential employees are going direct: our are they?

Job application: jobs boards

Many job seekers find that the job they thought they were ideally qualified for in actual fact is advertised by a recruiter. In fact, in a recent straw poll, I found over 60% of the jobs on a well known jobs board were recruiter advertised over employer direct.

As I have said before, recruiters have tighter tolerances and a different view to an employer over who could fulfil a position. While both have the same core brief and view:

• Employers – are happy to accept less than ideal qualified candidates who could become a long term employee
• Recruiters – think as much about their future income as they do about the ability for the candidate to deliver results from day1.

Hence, many job seekers find if they apply via job boards to what are often recruiter advertised posts, they are rejected.

Job Application: quick

How do you solve this job seeking problem? Go direct, and try to avoid the jobs boards! One reason that so many jobs end up advertised on jobs boards is the cost of collecting CV’s for future roles, or those skills which know the market is short off. Jobs boards don’t do themselves any favours by competing on price, and hence the cost of that ideal job advert you see could be as low as zero to the recruiter/employer! Job boards often offer special deals for either new clients or repeat posts, and hence the effective cost of advertising could be zero.

When the cost is zero, you can see how 60% of jobs on a jobs board end up as recruiter adverts.

Job Application: employer direct

In example:
David, a part-qualified financial planner, asks: How do I find jobs direct with employers without going through recruitment agencies? I am fed up with being rejected. can you tell me where I can find many finance jobs where I do not have to go through recruitment agencies and can submit my CV for jobs directly to the employer?

In answer:
The key here is to make a direct job application to the employer and have a conversation, over using an anonymous internet process in which you will will be rejected.

Firstly, do some research. Define the job you want/are skilled for, and the geography in which you wish to work. Then – and here’s the useful use for job boards in a job search – see how many of those types of jobs you can find posted. less than 20, and you need to widen your job specification or geography.

Once you find your job search is possible, now make a list of target employers. Use free resources like Yell.com, Kelly’s Directory and your local newspaper: spot for the job adverts or read the business section. From this you need a list of around 50 potential employers.

Now go to the websites of each listed employer and see if they have an employment section. If they have posts advertised, then don’t fall back into the anonymous job seekers trap, by applying online. Either call first using a Telephone Interview technique called the Informational Interview, or even better attend some local networking events for the local professional society, in your case an IFA society or group.

If you can not make contact this way, either because you are remote, then see if you can use Social Media to make an online inside contact via a website like LinkedIn.

Going direct to employers make a lot of sense.

Good Luck!

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If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a FREE CV review

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Job application: rejection in your CV?

When job seekers make a job application, and are rejected, many think that its probably in their Professional CV that the problem lies.

But, on reflecting on a variety of statistics and personal experiences, I will happily tell you today that the problem is probably not in your CV. But most often, rejection from a job application is confirmed by your CV

Job application: experiment

Last year, we took 20 job seekers. For 10, we rewrote their CV and let them choose and apply for jobs how they wanted to. For another 10, we didn’t touch their CV’s, we just guided them on what jobs to apply for and how to apply.

The results? Equal numbers of the job applicants got employed from the two different groups in exactly the same ratio/outcome curve. All 20 are now happily employed.

Why should this be true?

Job application: ambition

Around one third of job applicants are rejected because of their own ambition.  People, and particularly man, like to move onwards, upwards and forwards. This means that the last job you had, becomes the floor level of the next job you want.

There is nothing wrong with this, but the question becomes, do you have the skills, qualifications and experiences to do the next job upwards? This follows into problems number two

Job application: communication

If you have the required skills, qualifications and experiences to do a job you see advertised, do you have the ability to communicate this to the recruiter or employer? In my early analysis of CV’s and Job Application – which is why I became a CV writer – of those rejected, equal numbers were rejected either because they didn’t have the required SQE combination, or could not communicate it.

You may say this is unfair or unacceptable: and I could agree with you. But is it really up to the employer to find and confirm that you have the right SQE combination, or the job seeker? The balance initially has to be on the job seeker, and it is for both the reasons of ambition and communication that I wrote the article Why Was I Rejected? This is effectively the same test that every recruiter and employer applies to every job applicant: pass it, and apply for that dream job

Job application: clarity

Do you know what you want to do? This seems like a simple question, but on my own statistical measurement, around a half of job seekers suffer from “Any Job Will Do” syndrome, and a third from an unclear next job objective.

If you can not communicate in your Personal Statement what you want to do, then how does an employer know how to position you?

Our solve for this problem is getting our Professional CV clients to focus on their Elevator Pitch. If you have that clear, then you have clarity of purpose.

Job application: method

The third reason for rejection is in the method of application. Lets assume that you have clarity of what you want to do, and know you are qualified for the jobs you find. How can you now be rejected from the process?

Firstly, job boards are full of “fishing” jobs. Before job boards, the cost of advertising a job was £300+. Now, its an average of £25, and possibly even free. So the ideal job you see may not actually exist, it may be there for the purposes of fishing for CV’s

Secondly, posting your CV to every jobs board means that you could be rejected before you even apply. Most recruiters will reject you after you confirm or are found on three or more jobs boards.

Thirdly, you could be seen as too available, and hence desperate. Neither employers or recruiters want to engage desperate job seekers.

Fourthly, you could be too internet reliant. People employ people. No one yet employs mass robots, so real job adverts have real managers behind them. Making people contact early results in lower job application rejection ratios.

Job application: made easy!

The answer for most job seekers when they are rejected is to focus on their CV. It is a tangible asset, and more easily focused on than ambition, communication, personal clarity or method.

All a poor CV does for the employer or recruiter is to confirm your unsuitability for a particular job. Giving you a better Professional CV greatly improves communication and personal clarity, but doesn’t address ambition or method of application. It is with this in mind that we created our Interview Guaranteed CV Service, which addresses both sides of job application: a Great CV, and the best method. It is why it has a full money back guarantee, and a job interview guarantee.

Good Luck!

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CV Writing: toasters?

What always surprises me when reviewing Professional CV’s – either as a recruiter or from candidate inputs to our free CV Review service – is how when people are CV Writing, they don’t consider how they are presenting themselves. If they considered how they would buy toasters, then perhaps they would make more progress in creating a compelling CV?

When you go to buy something for your home – lets for the sake of this debate choose toasters – what do you consider first? Some will start with looks, some with function, or some with the good/bad experience they have just left smouldering in the kitchen. But eventually, you end up with a specification for the “ideal” toaster.

CV Writing: what do employers buy?

This is where the marketing spin of the product manufacturers comes in. As much as though they don’t know you personally, they do know the top five reasons people buy toasters, and the top five reasons why consumers buy their toaster. These then are listed in order, and often have a tick by them: you want easy clean, tick – we do easy clean.

Now that you know by looking at the toasters on display in the shop that these have all the functions you require, then you will want to handle them. Do they look and feel right, or is it all function or all show? The individual combination you seek will be wholly individual to you, but – eventually you get down to two or three you really like. And then you buy one.

CV Writing: what are you offering/selling?

A CV is a focused and factually based sales document – pure and simple, no more and no less. It is written to get you a job interview: again, no more and no less.

So, when you read a job advert, do you think:

• Tick – I have the core Skills, Qualifications and Experiences to do this job? Because that’s the first question in a recruiters or employers mindset
• Do I make it easy for the employer to find that I conform to their specification requirements? As the employer has spent 100+ hours and around £1000 in direct costs and advertising, just sending in a CV won’t do. Writing a Cover Letter with a “you want, I offer” list confirms your capability to do the job
• Do you add in something about yourself? How you approach tasks, what you consider important results, how you prioritise things? You mange money, manpower materials and time, so how do you prioritise those?

CV Writing: you are not a toaster!

You are not a toaster, but if:

• You don’t position yourself
• Your don’t sell yourself
• Or you don’t tell employers what they want to hear

Don’t expect them to treat you much more than the office toaster which needs replacement.

Good Luck!

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Professional CV Writing: Horrors

Yesterday, we put up an article about Professional CV Tips, going through the major points of Professional CV Writing. One of the steps was to get some CV Help, getting three friend and making use of our Free CV Review Service to check through your CV before a Job Application.

Today, I thought it would be good to step through some CV Horrors, things that just don’t work to get you employed – at all! The examples I have used either come from my own experience as a recruiter and CV Writer, with quotes from real CVs and cover letters printed in the July 21, 1997 issue of Fortune Magazine:

CV Horrors: English language

Almost everyone these days will be using some form of word processing software, which in its main menu will have a spell checker. Every time you save your CV, and every time you save it before sending it out in a job application, use the  spell checker to make sure all is right. That is stage1 of the process, but remember all that a spell checker does is check whether the words used actually exist in a dictionary. Some modern spell checkers check grammar, but few check it as well as you or a friend actually reading your CV out loud. If you don’t do this at least once to what you consider your final basic CV, then the errors contained with it will get you rejected by at least 10% of readers. Examples include:

• I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor and spreadsheet programs
• Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year
• Reason for leaving last role: maturity leave

CV Horrors: wages and salary

You should never, ever mention wage demands in any initial or follow up correspondence. Only once the job is outlined and the employer know should you ask about the package. I never advise anyone to focus on wages during package negotiations, but always ask what’s in the package. Why? Most operational and HR managers have a wages budget set by the accounting or board, and have to sit within that. You can push it so far, but eventually it won’t go any further. In a package, there is access to training budget, additional holidays, better car, improved health benefits, in fact almost anything you could want. So why focus on wages when package can get you further? For instance:

• I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience

CV Horrors: negativity

If you use a STAR write-up format, then you will know that negativity doesn’t work. It should always end positively, or at least with a what was learnt/what I would do differently next time conclusion. Employers don’t like to employ, let alone know they have employed losers and failures, unless they know that the likelihood of you failing again on the same issue is minimised. For instance:

• Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions
• Failed bar exam with relatively high grades
• Its best for employers that I not work with people
• I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing
• I procrastinate, especially when the task is unpleasant
• Note: Please don’t misconstrue my 14 jobs as job-hopping. I never quit a job

CV Horrors: personal details….

A CV, and most specifically a job application, should focus on how and why you are the best person for that job. As a recruiter, I couldn’t care less initially who or what you are, as long as you have the minimum skills, qualifications and experiences to do the job. Hence, why put in any distracting information which means you make it harder for me to come to that conclusion, if at all? Would you prefer to read a job application which answers “you want, I have” or would you want to wade through 20pages of “me, me, Me!”

• Marital status: single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments
• I was working for my mom until she decided to move
• Marital status: Often. Children: various

CV Horrors: human, not robotic

As Julian Richer of Richer Sounds says in his customer service guarantee document you get when ever you buy any product from one of his shops:

We try hard, but we’re only human! Due to recent changes in government legislation, our lawyers tell us that it is necessary to employ real people in our stores. Although we think they are the best you’ll find, please don’t expect the impossible.

I love this quote when reading some CV’s which are over written, and it also applies to job applicants who think they have a horrible work history and will ever get employed ever again. Employers expect normal and connected human beings NOT robotic perfection. So don’t be too over positive:

• Lets meet, so you can ooh and aah over my experience
• You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time
• Am a perfectionist and rarely if ever forget details

CV Horrors: self contradiction

I see this one pop up again and again, but less regularly than it did. If it does occur, then its normally with those who are being negative about themselves. They write one thing, and then instantly – contradict themselves. If you do this, why apply in the first place? Thank you for just making it easy for me to reject you:

• I am loyal to my employer at all costs…. Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail
• My goal is to be a meteorologist. But since I possess no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage

CV Horrors: former employers

Probably the worst and most common mistake in Professional CV writing. Prospective employers don’t care if you failed or made a mistake, they just focus on how right you are for their job. Once you get into the interview, then focus on the what you learnt over the what you failed on. Honest, if you failed and learnt you are probably a better employee than one who has never failed. But when you fail and are negative about a former employer, then instant rejection is within your grasp:

• Reason for leaving last job: They insisted that all employees get to work by 8.45 a.m. every morning
• The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers
• References: None. I’ve left a path of destruction behind me

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Professional CV Tips

When it comes to giving Professional CV Tips, the answer is always to keep it simple, and concentrate as much on the Professional CV as the CV Tips which focus on you and the process used for choosing which jobs to apply for and then the job application process.

We have covered CV Basics in a previous post, so will address here the main points of Professional CV Writing, which are expanded further in the article How to Write a Professional CV.

Firstly, make sure you know who you are and what you want to do. You can not start CV Writing if you do not know what your Skills, Qualifications and Experiences are, and particularly if you do not know what you want to do. Use our CV Stories sheet for creating the SQE material you can include in your CV, and our Elevator Pitch book to create a compelling I know what I want to do story for your ideal next career position

Secondly, do not worry about CV Format initially, but content. If you can not remember your work history, then chat to friends who may have a better memory than yours! You do not need to remember exact titles – in fact, when writing out your eventual CV, it is easier for the reader to have descriptive over actual position titles. The key in the early stages of creating a professional CV is what did you do (Skills, Qualifications and Experiences), and what did you achieve?

Thirdly, once you have down a chronological list of positions, plus associated Skills, Qualifications, Experiences and Achievements, you need to turn these into a series of STAR format stories. Many job seekers looking to write Professional CV’s search for information about CV Layout or even CV Templates. But a good Professional CV is primarily about content and how it is communicated, and then secondly how the job is applied for; over CV Layout or CV Format. A STAR CV Format states for each position the: Situation, the Task set, the Action taken and the final RESULT. Hence, a STAR CV Format will show application of your Skills, rather a simplistic listing.

Having completed your STAR CV Format stories, now in step four read them back. In their raw format you may have included some things that should not or do not need to be included. Hence you should never include in any Professional CV: any reasons for not liking you last job or boss, or any reasons for dismissal. You should never on legal discriminatory grounds include any comments on your health, age, ability or sexual preference. Further, never include on any notes or explanations for periods of unemployment that you have been in jail or suffered long term health issues. Also, beware of CV Security, so never include: your full name, your full address, your National Insurance number or passport. Unless you are an actor, or an artiste in the creative fields, never include a photograph!

Step five may come as a surprise, but I recommend that once you have completed your STAR stories, that you think about who could verify these accomplishments? You should never lie in a Professional CV, and hence step five is to find your CV References. References at such an early stage may seem a strange step, but the most successful job seekers have their references lined up before making a job application. If your references are willing to verify your accomplishments openly – I suggest you test this initially by getting them to recommend you on a social network like LinkedIn – then they will happily state the same story in a job reference. In the eyes of the employer, if you can not verify a position and your accomplishments, then at best the claim is questionable, and at worst dismissed – much like your job application, at which ever stage of the employment process you are.

Now in the sixth step, we can focus on Professional CV Layout. There are three choices of CV layout: reverse chronological, skills based, or combination. Most people presently use a combination format, opening with a Personal Statement, then a short list of key skills, followed by the reverse chronological insertion of the STAR CV Format you created in Step three. Those in technical based fields or where minimum skill and qualification levels define progression should concentrate on making sure their skills list reflects what the job advert of the particular job they are applying for is reflected. If you are changing career paths from one industry to another, then a skills-based CV Format will nominally be a better choice.

In the sixth step, I suggested that the ideal CV Format for a modern Professional CV included a Personal Statement. There is a lot of debate in the recruitment and employment community about whether to include a personal statement, and if so to what format. But, I personally known as both a recruiter and CV Writer that a personal statement will have the effect of both engaging the reader as well as making them read your whole CV through: and that is what you want them to do! Hence on the seventh step, write your personal statement in the format: I am; I do/deliver; I seek.

Step eight is pretty simple: edit your Professional CV! Now that it has come together, concentrate on clarity of communication and the English language. Your CV should be no longer than two pages, plus an option third with a complete of qualifications, certificates and institutions. Read it through, and make sure that the spelling is right and the grammar correct.

Step nine is to get some CV Help. Ask at least three friends – one of whom should be female – to read your CV through and make comments. If you have a friend who works in HR or who regularly employs people, then get them also to read through your CV. We also provide a free CV Review service, complete with a check of your Social Media profile. You should undertake steps eight and nine every time you make changes to your actual CV, so that you know it is the Best CV you can produce.

Step ten is simply to apply for jobs. You can improve your Professional Cv at this stage by focusing on the particular job you are applying for, by removing any irrelevant information, and expanding specific skills or experiences that the job requires. Your job application should always answer the question indirectly: Why should I employ you? When applying, watch out for the higher rejection ratios that comes with applying for job listed on job boards, and always include a Cover Letter.

I hope you found these Professional CV Tips useful, and that you are employed soon – Good Luck!

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If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a FREE CV review

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CV Writing: what’s in a word?

In CV Writing, never is it more true that you need to watch your words and language. Not quite sure what I mean? Let me explain.

As someone who has crossed the Atlantic more than enough times – at some point I have promised myself I will cross it on a ship, as opposed to an aircraft – the intrigue of Winston Churchill’s statement often strike me as wholly true:

Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language

Churchill was taking a light comical dig at the differences between English and American English. But even in every day language there are huge differences in how individuals interpret words.

When CV Writing, these small differences can create critical reactions in employers, and make them reject your job application.

CV Cake v Resume Cookie

My latest personal reference to Churchill’s quote was when debating the words biscuit and cookie. In much the same way that our modern society uses text language, both sides of the Atlantic have lazily used either biscuit or cookie to cover a whole plethora of sweet hard comfort foods.

So what is a biscuit? In my debate with an American, I used the venerable Merriam Websters, the American English version of the Oxford English Dictionary. What M-W says, is that:

• A biscuit does not rise while cooking
• A cookie (derived from the Dutch for cake), does rise, much like a cake

Further, as anyone who likes UK tax law, in HMRC v McVities (Jaffa Cakes), while a biscuit softens as it ages, a cake hardens. Hence why there is no VAT on Jaffa Cakes (classed as a cake) or biscuits, where as there is on chocolate covered digestives!

I am told it all of this food minutia goes back to the days of the creation of the laws around import duties, but you can now see what a difference a simple classification and a chocolate coating makes to how the Government sees and hence taxes something.

CV Writing: words check

What words should you be careful of when using them in your CV? CV’s communicate your combination of SQE (Skills, Qualifications and Experiences), and their suitability for a particular job. Although all jobs are an SQE combination, as they are written around a Job Description, and job sector requirements tend to fall into one of two streams:

• Technical/qualifications lead: employers seek a base of qualifications (ie: nurses, doctors, scientists, teachers, etc), and advancement of those tend to define your maximum possible position (eg: medical, scientific, research, engineering, etc)
• Results lead: employers seek a defined set of outcomes/experiences, seeking someone to achieve the same thing for themselves (eg: sales, marketing, management)

Results lead employers won’t care as much about words as technical/qualification lead employers, who tend to be as precise as a sharp cooking knife in their interpretation of words associated with their market:

• What type of engineer?
• What grade of nurse?
• Which level of accounting?

These employers will probe and dig to their hearts content in the job interview, and much as though your title may have been “manager,” they in their interpretation in all probability will not translate it or see your responsibilities that way. If an employer has doubt, then you will be rejected.

How do you avoid these doubt issues? Simply, call the employer before applying! Then “what do you mean by” becomes your tool of differentiation to all the other candidates, over the sharp meat skewer this type of employer will use in interpreting and probably rejecting many of the other job applicants.

What’s in a word? A job, that’s what.

Good Luck!

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If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a FREE CV review

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