CV review

Feel very grown up and important as I have 35 CVs to review for the writing job I have advertised at the moment. I have a system to be very transparent and fair in my review and on this rainy afternoon I’m skimming them all in a huge lot to make my no, maybe and yes piles for further review and interview.

I’ve been involved in hiring before but havne’t been the point person and haven’t had such interest. And I must say it makes me want to review my own CV – I realise it’s quite wordy, which it has to be when demonstrating that you can write, but in my review so far my biggest objective is to try to get a feel for the person and their experience through the written word. Too brief and you can’t see it, too long and you can’t skim it. It’s tricky business. I know that for ultimate judgement I’ll need to meet these people but first up they have one chance to make their impression on paper. And I have to say the introductory statement by recruitment agencies does NOT help. I want to hear from the applicant, not their representative. And that introduction doesn’t constitute the cover letter I specified in the job ad, that’s a perfect way to show me their written self so omit that and it’s almost a no straight away.

Hopefully I’m not being too naiive or harsh, I guess I’ll know when I get to the end when I see how many maybes and yesses I’ve got!