CV or not CV

Personnel: Tom
Location: Office
Type of Recliner:  Sofa
Reason for Lounge: Bemusement
Relative Comfort Rating: 4/5

I had thought to write about this a while ago but then thought better of it at risk of hurting peoples feeling if they were to happen upon this and read it… but i’ve changed my mind. I now offer up this post as a public service.

Over the last year i have received a LOT of CVs for potential employees and interns. As i’m sure you can imagine those in the intern pile, in general, will offer much less in terms of relevant or for that matter valuable experience. Clearly a lot of effort goes into the production of such a document and there is a lot of information out there as to ‘what employers look for’ and i guess some of it is accurate. However, it sadly isn’t going to help if your experience includes ‘assisting with tea and coffee serving after church’ (I kid you not) or being the school ‘perfect’ (auto-correct strikes again!).

The other thing that seems to be a trend recently is a cover letter which is supposed to engage with me displaying literary skill and sparkling personality. This does not work when the letter is clearly a template where you have just filled in my company name. “[your company’s] values have intrigued my wisdom to learn more about this passion and how it falls into the sectors you provide.” - this just says to me that you’re trying (and succeeding) to be overly pretentious as well as sucking up to me. Now i like a bit of ass kissing like the next man… (…oh, you know what i mean), but I think you should give your potential employer a little credit when this is obviously something that you’re just copy pasting to 100 different people.

Finally, I received one CV recently entirely written in comic sans. As a designer I died a little inside. I did her the decency of reading it and sadly the applicant was horrifically under-qualified because the CV was so well written that i read it right to the end and seriously considered her for the intern position. So, I guess presentation and experience aren’t everything… but they certainly help!