Does your CV push the right buttons?

Frustrating. Soul-destroying. Depressing. Three words to describe the process of sending out hundreds of CVs in months of job hunting, but never getting an invitation to an interview.

Rejection is hard at the best of times. But when your efforts meet with nothing every single time, it’s difficult not to get demoralised. Something has to change if you’re sending out tons of CVs and not getting anywhere. So what can you do to start getting results?

1. Tailor your CV for every job you apply for.

The problem isn’t just that there are fewer jobs to apply for and more people applying, but that each job has specific requirements. To stand out from the crowd of competing applicants, you need to persuade the hiring manager that you have what it takes to do the job. Whether the job requires particular skills, experience or qualifications, you need to demonstrate within the time it takes to skim-read your CV that you are a potential fit. You’d have to be really lucky to do this in a one-size-fits-all CV, so make sure you customise your CV to tick the right boxes.

To do this, read the job ad closely to identify what it is the company most wants from a successful applicant. Then trawl back through your work history and find anything that matches these requirements. It could be special training, particular experience, skills that you’ve learnt along the way – but you need to be able to demonstrate you fit the requirements. Although you might think it looks too obvious, restate the key words of the job ad in your CV with your examples from your work history.

If the job ad is really general and vague, it’s going to be more difficult to tailor your CV and prove your “fit”. In these cases, call the company or recruitment agency and ask for more information. What sort of candidate are they really looking for? What would be their wishlist of attributes in an applicant? Get the name of the person you speak to and refer to them in your covering letter – it shows you have initiative and enthusiasm for the job.

2. Focus your job search

This is really an extension of the first point. If spending hours each day firing off CVs to recruitment companies / job boards etc is getting you down, then stop. It will save you time and effort in the long run if you think about what it is you want to do and what you are best equipped to do. Write a list of your skills, and think about what sort of environments you work best in. What kind of industries or sectors appeal to you? If you really understand what makes you tick, the enthusiasm that you will bring to your CV and application will come across.

3. Include a covering letter.

It takes time to customise your CV and then do the same thing with your covering letter. But your covering letter does two important things for you: it draws out the two or three main points from your CV that are the most crucial for the job; and it demonstrates your enthusiasm and desire for the job. Both are important in getting your application noticed.

Many job applicants neither tailor their CVs nor write a covering letter. By doing both (and by focussing your search) you’re already giving yourself a much greater chance of success.