Is your resume well done?
Most resumes could be better done, full of generalities and blabla that contribute little or nothing to getting a job.
On Linkedin, some people claim to be experts on the subject and who provide the service of building CVs; I do not want to be hard on some of them, but I think they are not experts; instead, they use some design techniques to make CVs.
In the USA, certified CV experts can charge more than ten thousand dollars to make a CV.
If you want to make a CV, you first must be empathetic to those who will read the CV.
What does it mean to be empathetic to the recruiter?
It means that you have to put yourself in their shoes; this is what a person reviewing between 100 and 400 CVs thinks and feels, which yours will be just one more. Yes, your CV is one more!
You were empathetic means realizing that you are not the center of the world and that your job problem, as hard as it may be, has no impact on the selection process.
Secondly, and it also has to do with empathy, not all recruiters are the same; there are those with experience in the selection or without experience and with different methodologies. For example, it is different if it will be read by a line executive, someone from HR, or a Headhunter; even between each of them, there can be many differences.
The third element that you have to consider is that the CV will circulate among people with different views. Still, the most relevant thing is who will first be interested in reading it more in-depth.
Fourthly, there are conceptual aspects of the CV that you must consider. These are career issues that the vast majority of professionals and executives are unaware of and should be aware of in this changing world. I refer to strengths, competencies, skills, knowledge, experience, and talent. These are entirely different things. Unfortunately, most of these “experts” or people who work in HR are unclear and talk about them as synonyms.
In another article, I will go deeper into this topic. Still, for now, it is essential to be clear that strengths are related to character and that they can be developed; much research has been done on them, and authors talk about 24 character strengths; creativity, humility, curiosity, or the ability to forgive are some of them.
Competencies are related to observable skills and behaviors, for example, negotiating, teamwork, or leadership. There are executive and professional competencies.
Skills have to do with issues such as management of specific techniques and methods, for example, advanced office management, SAP or USGAAP user.
Knowledge is related to theoretical learning acquired in university programs or courses. However, even if someone knows, they know how to apply it. When I taught Industrial Engineering at the University of Chile, they used to say that there are two types of engineers, those who build bridges and those who say how to do it and have never made one.
The experience is to have done the work that is being requested. Still, it must be considered that the experience must be similar to that required for a specific position. It is different from having experience as a commercial manager in mass consumption in a company of 20 million dollars in sales with one of 1,000 million dollars. Nor is it the same to have that experience two years ago as it is to have had it 15 years ago or more because market conditions have changed a lot.
Talent is what we do naturally well. Howard Gardner formulated it very well with his theory of multiple intelligences. We have all seen 5-year-olds giving a piano concert, artists, mathematicians, writers, etc., who have enormous natural talent and who have taken care to develop it.
Making a CV is a perfect moment to get to know ourselves. Going out to the market to look for a job without knowing ourselves well is a big mistake, and it happens pretty often. The most likely result is that you will not succeed, and you will have a huge frustration, which can lead you to get depressed.
I hope you can make this reflection, that in each of these concepts, you think well, and you can assess your reality; in recent years have developed several tools that allow you to measure some of these concepts, aspects such as experience that can be evaluated are the CV, interview, and references. Be very careful when assessing yourself, as we tend to consider ourselves badly; it is tough to look at ourselves; we believe we are different from who we are, and we assign ourselves a higher value than what we are worth; this was demonstrated with the Dunning-Kruger effect, which concludes that the less we know, the brighter we think we are.
Where is the emotional Intelligence in the CV, in each concept, and in making a CV? Refrain from trusting the experts and investing time and resources in developing yourself, as your professional career will most likely be your only capital.
José Fernández Vergara
Stratos Executive Search
