- Throw out your CV

Jobs are in short supply, under-used workers abound, and CVs slosh about the marketplace, the flotsam of a bashed up commercial era. CVs frequently wash up on my desk; and at various times I’m asked to appraise and tweak the CV handiwork of job aspirants.

However, despite the competition for employer attention, for some reason creativity goes out the window when job hunters construct their professional brands.

Through either laziness or suffocating conservatism, deviating from ‘accepted’ formats is unthinkable. So everyone looks and sounds the same, like widgets in a commodity market. Why would you expect your CV to rise to the top?

Same thing applies to business.

Years ago I worked in a junior marketing role in a large engineering company. A good company with many fine engineers, marketing was derided as the colouring-in department; an unnecessary overhead used only to take care of dirty jobs. Needless to say I didn’t last long.

Managers failed to grasp that doing great engineering work wasn’t enough, because their competitors did great work, too. They also used similar words and employed similar people with similar qualifications. The winning engineers arranged their capabilities and communicated them in terms best tuned to customer needs and emotions. The best marketing engineers won.

Back to CVs. In the early 90s, when unemployment was worse than it is today, I launched myself into the New Zealand job market. A recent graduate, I faced up to limited job opportunities and an abundance of applicants. I was told to do more study, like many job hunters are doing today. But I hated study and stuck to job hunting. While peers and competitors churned out form CVs, I did something completely different, presenting my credentials mocked up in a Time Magazine, using verve and unabashed self-promotion for which only a 20-year old can be forgiven. Despite unremarkable skills and qualifications I grabbed the unfair advantage, rising to the top of the heap. The calls came thick and fast, interviews followed and eventually a job.

Throw out your CV. And stop acting like (most) engineers.