Senior level CV writing

[GAVGOLF]

Hi all - I’ve had a report back from a cv writing company with feedback on it not being optimised for automated search systems etc and also saying that the keyword searches are coming up with experience that is misaligned with reality.
Does anyone have experience of these companies and or can recommend anyone to take a look and work with me to fix. I’m a bit suspicious / sceptical to just pay some money for it to be fixed without being better informed. Ps I’m director level with 20+ years experience and so need to make sure there is focus on the important bits!

[PixelpeepZ4]

i'm always sceptical of someone recommending i take a service they supply, and want to charge me for!

like a Traveller who suggests my roof tiles need replacing

how long you been looking for work? you had any nibbles?

[paddy1970]

You are correct to be suspicious.

There is an industry of "recruiters" saying that your CV is not fit for board-level / senior management submission followed by a recommendation to have it re-written by a third party.

[eliot]

I thought all senior level appointments are "head hunted" rather than auto-searched - these agencies need to make up their minds what value it is they add.

[GAVGOLF]

Tbh I’m just starting to look for next role and so am not unemployed. I dropped a note for a role I was interested in and the cv feedback came back automatically.
It just alarmed me a bit regarding the auto sort element but from what you guys are saying it is a semi- scam.

[fat80b]

At director level with experience, I think the format of a CV needs to be quite different to a list of roles and what you did. Rather than be a chronological buzzword bingo history of every project you have worked on, it really is an advert with the sole goal of getting you to that first interview stage.

I recently updated my CV to be much more outcome narrative based rather than the history and keywords approach and I think it was quite successful - My older style CV always did quite well but had creeped up to 4 pages to squeeze everything in; The newer style one (much shorter with hardly any keywords) got me an interview at nearly every role I applied for earlier this year.

If you /anyone wants to PM me, I'd be happy to take a look and provide feedback on a CV.

(My industry is Hi-Tech product development, with an Engineering Tech leadership / product management slant within that)

[rog007]

GAVGOLF said:

Hi all - I’ve had a report back from a cv writing company with feedback on it not being optimised for automated search systems etc and also saying that the keyword searches are coming up with experience that is misaligned with reality.
Does anyone have experience of these companies and or can recommend anyone to take a look and work with me to fix. I’m a bit suspicious / sceptical to just pay some money for it to be fixed without being better informed. Ps I’m director level with 20+ years experience and so need to make sure there is focus on the important bits!

As alluded to, Director level CVs can benefit from a more subtle approach to layout and style; the best I work with end up being no more than 3/4 of a side.

But as also alluded to, the approach to securing a new role at Director level and above should be beyond a recruiter doing a word search! I’d adjust my strategy to not include that approach.

I’d be delighted to look over your CV and provide some feedback if you thought that helpful.

PS. Time is usually considered not to be the best indicator of competence; one could have been poorly performing for all those years.

[lyonspride]

Google ATS (applicant tracking systems).

There's advice out there on how to write a CV which is compatible with these, also I just learned that some of the older versions of these systems cannot read PDF files, which would have been nice to know before sending PDF CVs to agencies.

[fat80b]

lyonspride said:

I just learned that some of the older versions of these systems cannot read PDF files, which would have been nice to know before sending PDF CVs to agencies.

I think most recruiters / agencies just convert a pdf back into a word doc anyway. They often like to butcher the formatting add their own headers and footers etc before sending them on.