How it feels when your CV is ignored (and how to avoid it)

It was 2003. I was going through the journal ads, looking for my first job. I was still at university, with no work experience and no idea how to craft a CV.

As most of us seeking our first job, my self-esteem was extremely low. Why would any company feel attracted to me when there were so many professionals out there? After many hours and discarded announcements (they all required skills I missed), I found one that could be a match.

They only requested knowledge of C++, the language I had used the most in my studies.

Against all the odds, the first application I filled out gave me my first job. “Ok, I was lucky,” I thought.

One year later, a dream company was hiring. Again, without high expectations, I sent my CV.

Boom… They hired me.

Two CVs sent led to two positions.

That time, I was not as humble as the first one and misread the message. My thoughts were things like:

• “It seems I’m good.”
• “I choose the right career.”
• “There is a shortage of IT consultants.”

I didn’t realize how wrong I was.

The downward road

I was now gaining valuable experience in one of the biggest tech companies.

According to my experience, getting a new job should be easy now. However, that wasn’t the case. I applied to many job postings with no response before getting a proposal.

That same experience repeated for 10 years on every job change until my worst year (2014) when I was unemployed for 7 months.

Opposite to what happened some years earlier, I found plenty of opportunities for which I was a good match. But they just didn’t reply. My self-esteem fell apart again.

I was devastated. The blow was so hard that I questioned my skills and career:

• “Have I become obsolete?”
• “Should I get a certification or an MBA?”
• “Is the market saturated?”
• “Should I take another direction or a second career?”

Although painful, that nightmare was incredibly helpful in understanding the hiring process behind the scenes and how to outperform the competition.

What are the chances of your CV being considered?

After my first fast successful experiences, no other job search has come close to them.

I thought my excess of experience was an obstacle to getting the jobs. However, if you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. I wasn’t rejecting proposals for not meeting my expectations.

The companies were rejecting me to the point that they didn’t answer my applications.

I then understood that a company ignoring candidates is the norm.

With job dissatisfaction growing, the internet increasing the reach of postings, and social networks taking networking to another level, the competition got insane.

Today, any job post receives multiple candidates. Your CV competes with other 100 people who (even less qualified than you) may create more compelling/entertaining documents. HR representatives and hiring managers don’t “read” every resume. They only skim them and discard the vast majority.

If you don’t put the right effort into crafting your application, you will certainly be ignored.

In other words, you need to do something exceptional to be considered. And that takes us to the next question.

How to stand out

It may be unfair (at least I used to see it that way), but the attention doesn’t go to the best candidate but to the most interesting CV.

Believe it or not, most resumes don’t reflect 10% of what the candidate can do for the company. There is an exercise I like doing to self-assessing my CV. I look at it and ask myself some questions:

• Does it describe and differentiate me from my colleagues?
• Is it different from a CV of someone who has a similar degree and similar years of experience?
• Is it clear how I helped companies in situations similar to those of my potential employer?

If the answer to any of the above is “No,” I must work harder to make it specific to myself.

You may be asking why… Because every person creates dull, boring, copy-paste CVs, which the “readers” discard automatically.

You need to be creative to craft something unique and tailored to your personality. It will be different. It will attract attention.

Conclusion

As harsh as it may sound, ignoring CVs is the norm.

With the high competition, you need to be exceptional to prevail in the process.

Contrary to what we think, being an exceptional employee is not enough; we need to reflect this in our CVs.

The way to stand out is to create a resume that uniquely describes you and how you can contribute to the company.

If you achieve it, you will outperform the competition.