Lessons from my CV makeover
#133 - wearing a suit and then watching a bear wearing a coat
Hi there,
What a weekend. A “very very very productive” Saturday of calls, interview prep (for ‘spring weeks’), shopping and clothes work and an enjoyable Sunday (more below). The week itself went well too, as I tick past halfway in Term 1 of Year 1 - I will resist the temptation to say “It’s flown by!” 🤭
Highlight of the week: my first London cinema experience! Five of my new friends and I went to the nearby Westfield, a huge shopping mall, and had a great watch of ‘Paddington in Peru’. Very clever writing, nice screenplay and an expect-able story mixed up well.
No, this is not turning into a CV clinic or a ‘how to be successful in your career’ post, not at all.
This week, I’ve been applying to lots of spring weeks after finally finishing editing my CV to a standard I’m happy with and have gotten a lot of feedback on. Here’s what the layout looks like, as a before and after. From this careful iterative process, I’ve had a few realisations which we can take for endeavours beyond job hunting.
Make it easy (to say yes)
The big difference is a change in layout, with the new version containing lines and clearly emboldened things. This is to match the typical (successful) CV style for graduates in the corporate world.
While one might argue that this makes you stand out less, you should think of it from the recruiter’s point of view - they are looking at 1000s of CVs like yours. If yours matches the format they’re expecting, they know exactly where to move their eyes to, in the limited time they skim over it.1
This extends into most things where you want someone to agree with you or accept your offer. Put it in stronger terms - sell the proposition so that it doesn’t make sense to say no. You should make a proposition so compelling and attractive that it comes across like it’s a bigger win for them (which it doesn’t always need to be).
This is, for example, the principle I had when launching new ideas through School Captain. I assured the staff member that I would take care of the logistics, the resources and the structure - they just need to be in the room; it’s hard for them to find a solid reason to then say no.
Take everyone’s views into account - and no one’s as gospel
This is off the back of the latest feedback over it on Thursday, where someone I respect said that I should fill out the white space at the bottom of my CV. This made me chuckle: I was told the opposite by another committee member of the Investment Society, who felt it was cramped and overwhelming.
This is what people mean when they close a piece of advice with “but take it with a pinch of salt because…” - you should be increasing the sample size of the opinions you get on a topic. Again, this reminds me of my school captain times when I’d say to Esther “Oh, this Year 9 said that their form times are too boring, let’s do something about it…but the sample size was only 1” and I would rightly either investigate more or stop there.
Of course, as with any life rule, there are caveats - if you hear from the HR manager of a company that they want a certain structure in their CV, then that IS gospel.
Consistency shows that you care.
One of the eagle-eyed helping hands on this typographical masterpiece noticed that the dashes weren’t all the same type (short and long). Being a keen eye for SPaG myself, I smiled and acknowledged, “Thank you”.
It seems pedantic, but if noticed, it shows that you have taken the time to make sure the work is top-notch and error-free.
There is also the other meaning of consistency to be considered here, the one of repeatedly showing up. In a CV context, this is perhaps having experiences or projects which align and build on each other. But in general life, consistency is key to achieving sustained progress (as I tell myself with the hope of finally making a 3-times-a-week gym week)
Limits on time force you to work out what actually needs doing.
Given the golden rule (for early careers) of keeping your CV to one page, there was a lot of trimming, clever rewording and “difficult decisions” of what stays and what leaves. It meant that what was left was all intentional and, inevitably, the filtered best.
This relates to another limited resource we have - time. I have written about Parkinson’s Law before, that work always expands to fill the time we set towards it. If we limit the time we have to work on something, we might actually create better outcomes.
In a TED talk, Adam Grant (a very clever person) refers to how MLK improvised or rather procrastinated.
The night before the biggest speech of his life, the March on Washington, he was up past 3am, rewriting it. He's sitting in the audience waiting for his turn, and he is still scribbling notes and crossing out lines. When he gets onstage, 11 minutes in, he leaves his prepared remarks to utter four words that changed the course of history: "I have a dream." That was not in the script. By delaying the task of finalizing the speech until the very last minute, he left himself open to the widest range of possible ideas.
I am not suggesting that you procrastinate and leave things to the last minute. I am asking you to think carefully about how much time you should spend on an activity, and whether it’s diminishing returns after a certain stage.
There we are; here’s hoping that my CV which is good enough to write a post about is good enough for the HR recruiters 😁
Podcast of the week🎙️
The Art of Manliness: #957: How Curiosity Conversations Can Supercharge Your Success
I’ve been trying to increase my ‘surface area of luck’ by having as many conversations with people I haven’t met before as I can. Brian Grazer here puts a bit more structure to the idea.
What I’m grateful for this week 🙏
The people who have been generous with their time and advice in reviewing my CV 😊
Quote of the week 💬
Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you - Mary Lou Retton
I’ve found myself referring to the blog posts positively in quite a few conversations recently, particularly about the 3 course meal. I hope you’ve found tonight’s scribbles useful to do - see you next time!
Adi
I’ve heard all sorts of numbers on this one, from 7 to 45s.