Getting over CV and cover letter hurdles… without stretching the truth

By Eoghan McDermott at The Careers Clinic

They seem to like sporting analogies at joe.ie – so here’s another one. The best way to think about your CV and covering letter is that they are competitors in an obstacle course. Hitting any one of those obstacles can permanently eliminate you from the race – so you need to clear them all.

The first set of obstacles will be faced by the envelope. Get the name and address right and spelt correctly. The logic goes that pretty much every job demands a degree of attention to detail. If you can’t figure out who you are applying for a job from and be bothered to get the spelling sorted – you can’t be trusted.

Also, they don’t want, unless you are applying for a reality TV show, the unhinged. So, standard A4 envelope (means the CV and letter don’t start life folded) in a boring business colour (white or manila) with a bog standard font (Times Roman or Arial). No bright red birthday card envelopes stuffed with pink scented paper and text in crayon.

Next up is the covering letter. It needs to identify the job you are applying for clearly – particularly if the process involves a recruiting agency. They’ll have tons (well, pounds) of CVs coming in every day in response to any positions advertised. So you need to make sure you don’t get lost in the paper flurry.

For jobs that have been advertised, a code is usually included in the ad for the position. Include it in your letter, bold and underlined, centred above the main text. It is a courtesy that saves the recipient time, and it also sends a message of competence.

It is too easy to get caught out in a fib. Everyone knows someone. And Google knows everything else.

Your cover letter, thereafter, should give the reader the sense that you know and understand the company to which you’re applying, together with the challenges they face. It should also leave them in no doubt that you have the skills and experience to help them address these challenges. In addition, it should include your contact details and indicate that your CV is attached.

Oh, and try and keep it to a page. Don’t make the reader’s life hard.

Tricky

The obstacles get more tricky to negotiate for the CV. Make sure everything in your document is factually accurate. It is too easy to get caught out in a fib – especially in Ireland. Everyone knows someone. And Google knows everything else.

And apply decent discretion. Every now and again, people put data on CV’s that should never be shared with anyone, except possibly a GP. Or the Revenue Commissioners. I see CVs containing dates of birth, marital status, numbers of kids, sexual orientation.

Some even have lists of irrelevant hobbies that give huge amounts of unnecessary and sometimes embarrassing details about the person.

No employer needs to know if you spend your weekends travelling between Alcoholics Anonymous and Mensa, and discovering you’re a genius with a booze issue will be highly entertaining if your CV ends up in the hands of a third party.

Under equality legislation, age, marital status and sexuality are all off limits to potential employers and few if any employers give a job based on the person’s hobby, but that doesn’t stop many candidates including that information on their CVs.

The most embarrassing mistakes (or terminal obstacles to continue the analogy) on CVs are also the most common. People know they’re meant to sell themselves with a CV. That means we see a lot of lists of self- indulgent assertions in CV’s that have no particular link to any specific job. The end result is a document that might as well be titled “The Wonder of Me.”

The key to the good CV is inference not exaggeration. The objective is to provide enough detail about your experience for the prospective employer to deduce your skills from your experience.

Regularly I see CVs littered with statements like “I am a great communicator, I am a people person, I am hungry and enthusiastic.” Those statements read like the empty self-promotion that they are. Not only are they assertions without evidence – a lethal form of unmemorable, unpersuasive communication – but they’re yellow-pack assertions every second job applicant makes.

It’s much better to quickly illustrate the communications requirements of  your last job and let the employer work out for decide you’re a good communicator. If Tiger Woods wants to prove he’s a gifted, he doesn’t write “I am an excellent golfer.” He writes that he won more Masters titles – faster – than anyone in history. Inference does the rest.

A number of simple steps are involved in writing the perfect CV: start with your most recent experience; through that experience, show how you demonstrated the skills required for the job; don’t make sweeping assertions about your talents, just give the evidence and let the employer judge. And most of all, tailor the CV (and the covering letter) to the specific job.

A generic CV is hugely disrespectful to the receiver; it’s like whipping out an engagement ring and telling your girlfriend “I’ve fired this at a few girls over the years, how about you wear it? Ah go on, I’m an excellent communicator…”

If your CV is evidence based, clear and focussed on the employer it’ll increase your chances of netting the job.

Experience gained

The context into which it goes has radically changed in an eighteen month period. CVs now simply have to contain elements that get the HR person saying “God, I wouldn’t mind talking to your man.” The requisite experience will have to be there and it’ll have to be expanded upon to show not just what you did but what you gained from it. Every piece of experience you cite should prove a skill, not an occurrence.

A vital aspect of a good CV is that it differentiates you from all other applicants. The reason for this is that other (well prepared) candidates are likely to have similar educational qualifications and experience. If they have cop-on, they will present themselves in print with clarity and professionalism.

Sport is arguably the most useful differentiator. The simple presence of a sporting pedigree can get you noticed.

The end result is that two good CVs land on the recruiter’s desk. Which means that, wherever possible, you need to insert differentiators. Anything that makes you different. Better. More interesting than the other contenders.

Sport is arguably the most useful differentiator. For example, the simple presence of a sporting pedigree can get you noticed; a Minor All-Ireland, a County Championship, a Club medal, climbing Everest, are all factors that separate you from the field. More importantly they’re all things that say “I can excel in my chosen field.”

The current wrong-headed fashion is to put a photograph on your CV. Why is this wrong-headed? Because a CV is designed to illustrate your ability to do the job and give a sense of what you can offer.

How you look is an irrelevancy – but one that gives less than competent managers an excuse to fire CVs in the bin. “He’s got the right experience and knows what we need, but look at the head on him.”

In case you are wondering, there are lots of managers who get landed with choosing a new employee who’ve never been trained in recruitment – what you have to do is make it simple for them to choose you. A picture can be a needless complication or impediment.

In fact, the entire obstacle course that you’ve just negotiated is there to help the guys who aren’t sure what they are at. You are making everything crystal clear and easy for them – here’s the right person presented in the right way – go get them in for an interview.

The really handy thing about the obstacle course is that it will get you through to the people who really do know what they are at too.

Eoghan McDermott is Head of The Careers Clinic in The Communications Clinic and is the author of The Career Doctor- How to Get and Keep the Job You Want.

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