My initial thought on becoming a Recruitment Consultant specialising in recruiting project professionals was “Surely it can’t be that difficult?” I will be dealing with people who know what their strengths are, professional people who know exactly what skills they have and how to showcase them in their CVs. I will be dealing with people who know what direction they want their career to take and how best to tailor their CVs to highlight the necessary skills and experience for the roles they are applying for. So, because these are the people I am dealing with it should be relatively easy to match candidates with the specific needs and expectations of the clients.
I am now a few months into my life as a Recruitment Consultant and I have to say that my initial impression of the role couldn’t have been much further from the truth!
To say I have been very surprised at the number CVs I see that undersell a candidate’s ability and experience is probably an understatement. It would appear that probably one of the best skills a recruiter can have is the ability to read between the lines. I am beginning to lose count of the number of times I have read a CV and thought that the candidate might have “something” and then spoken to them to find they actually have much more than just “something” – it was just really well hidden, or maybe omitted altogether!
From initial experiences it appears that many candidates are taking the “less is more” adage a little too far and omitting too much information from their CV. Often, they’re giving us minimal detail on the projects and seem happy to rely on maybe the number of years of experience they have, or possibly the kudos of some of the companies they have worked for to get them through to the next stage of the process. Certainly from a recruiter’s perspective, this is not going to be enough.
Most recruiters will make a decision within the first few seconds of opening your CV, so this is maybe your only opportunity to grab their attention and show them why you are the person they need to talk to next.
Your CV doesn’t need to be a work of art, but there is an art to getting the best out of your CV. The very best CVs give details about what you have done already, e.g.
- An basic outline of the projects you worked on and what they delivered
- What sort of budgets were you are used working with
- List some key achievements rather than a list of responsibilities (certain aspects of being a competent Project Manager are a “given” in order for you to be effective)
- Examples of how you can demonstrate you have a particular skill e.g. stakeholder management – rather than just say “I have excellent stakeholder management skills”.
I would also suggest that your CV is “tailored” for each application you make. It is all too easy to load up a generic CV and click “apply” for any roles you feel you could do, but you need to ensure your CV closely matches the advertised role in terms of skills and experience. There are some very simple guidelines to bear in mind when writing your CV and planning your next career move:
- Tell the truth! – It is very easy for recruiters and employers to check on the basic details of your CV.
- Give details of the projects you worked on – Details of the project deliverables, what was the size of the project team, what budgets you worked with, key achievements, etc.
- Tailor your CV to each application ensuring your skills & experience match the role requirements – transferable skills aren’t as transferable as they once were.
- Check and double check your CV for spelling and grammatical errors. Maybe even ask a friend to check it too – but don’t rely on spellchecker.
- Make sure it is well laid out and easy to read, but there is no need for a fancy template or any pictures – remember, don’t put form above substance.
- Be choosy about what you apply for and only apply for roles where you feel you meet 80% or more of the client requirements – you don’t want to get a reputation for being a “serial applier”.
Above all, put the necessary time and effort into writing your CV – it will be time well-spent. Remember your CV is your only tool to get you noticed (initially) and get you to the all important stage of being submitted to the client.
To find out more information about project management CV’s visit the website
