Have you dreamt of winning the lottery?  Thought about what you would spend a million on? Imagined what your reaction would be on checking the lottery numbers and finding out you have won the jackpot?  Daydreamed about that phone call to your boss?  Read on, and I’m going to reveal to you here and now a sure fire way of predicting the winning numbers so that you can fulfil all your dreams…

The Secret Revealed

OK, so having captured your attention I’m now going to state the obvious.  There is no way to predict the lottery numbers, in fact if there was and I knew it, I wouldn’t be sitting here sharing it with you, I would probably be on a yacht somewhere in the Caribbean.   The purpose of tricking you into reading this far is to demonstrate the point I want to make to all you job hunters out there, who have carefully crafted your CV and are sitting waiting for the phone call that will lead to your next job.

The Magic Unveiled

In the same way that I captured your attention and made sure that you read beyond the title and the first paragraph, you need to make sure that your Curriculum Vitae holds the same promise.  The hiring manager or recruiter reading your CV will probably have been working their way through dozens of other CVs, all with fairly similar skills and experience.  All this corporate recruiter or recruitment consultant really wants to do is to find the ideal person for their job, or at least draw up a short list of suitable candidates for interview.  Their attention is probably waning by the time they read your CV or Resume, and you need to grab their interest straight away with something that meets their immediate need.  (You could try the promise of a lottery win, but it may not have the same effect.)

Pulling the Rabbit out of the Hat

The method I used to capture and hold your attention was that I knew you would probably be fairly interested in winning the lottery, so I tempted you with promises of how to achieve this, I made sure you carried on reading this article, and remained receptive to what I had to say.  Think about this for a moment, and consider that in the same way the person who is reading your CV will be hoping that they will find the ideal person for their vacancy.   This is the only reason that they are taking the time to read your CV, they are trying to fill a job.   So consider how your Resume reads, cast a critical eye over it.  Will it immediately capture the attention of the reader, does it immediately hold promise that you are the answer to what they have been looking for.  I’m not talking about fancy fonts or background graphics here, I mean cold, hard facts, and information about your absolute suitability and match to the requirements of the job.

Reveal Yourself

In order to get yourself noticed, you must make sure that your CV contains clear information about your skills, experience and qualifications that match the job you are applying for.  Get this information in early, cut out the waffle and reduce the padding of generic skills that every man and his dog will also have.  Focus on what technical and specific skills this role requires and make sure that you reveal these to your reader.  Best of all get a brief summary of these relevant skills in the opening paragraph or personal statement on your CV and ensure that your reader gets excited enough to read further than the first few lines.