What if your Curriculum Vitae is not enough to change job?
A resumè could be not enough to change job At some point, you might realise that writing a CV is not the end of the story and that:
- Having ONE CV is not enough
- Having ONLY a CV is not enough
- ONE CV FORMAT is not enough
- A CV in ONE LANGUAGE only is not enough
- You’re not happy with your CV
So, what can you do?
Having ONE CV is not enough
It may be the case that having only one resumè is not enough. For example, you might realise that you’ve done a number of things in a variety of fields and in different markets, and that putting them all in a single CV makes it look generic and ineffective – like one of those colours that should go well with everything but in fact doesn’t go well with anything at all!
As the Italian author Luigi Pirandello put it, each of us is “One, No One and One Hundred Thousand”, … Accordingly, you should have one CV for each market and each position you’re aiming at.
Roberto, for instance, spent the first half of his career in the manufacturing sector and the second half working for an insurance company. As he wanted to find another job in the insurance market, possibly without lying and without completely distorting the story of his career, he gave more emphasis to his experience in the insurance market than to his other jobs. This is what you need to do if you have a specific target and you want to show how valuable you are to a specific market.
Francesco’s case is similar: he first worked as a consultant and then as an information systems director. If Francesco aims to be hired as an information system director or temporary manager, he should stress the relevant roles he’s covered in that sector; if, on the other hand, he wants to go back to consultancy, he should focus on his previous experience and prove that this is not a fallback for him.
Having only a CV is not enough
Both strictly and broadly speaking, having a resumè is not enough.
Strictly speaking, it’s not enough because you also need a covering letter, something that explicitly introduces you to your prospective employers.
Broadly speaking, it’s not enough because there’s a whole world out there that needs to know you.
First of all, being present on social networks is absolutely essential. Perhaps this doesn’t apply to all sectors, professional profiles or career levels; yet, it can’t be denied that networks like Linkedin have grown exponentially over the last few years, both in terms of individual and company profile, so you can’t avoid asking yourself: “Do I need a Linkedin profile? How do I create one? Who’s going to look at it?”; “In what way should it relate to my CV?”; “What’s key to a Linkedin profile?”.
Then there’s your Facebook profile, your Instagram or Twitter account, and the World Wide Web in itself: have you ever tried typing your name on Google?
My point is, the world knows you through the Internet.
Different social networks tell a different story about you and highlight different aspects of your life: so you need to make sure that the information you provide is at least consistent.
Your public image, however, doesn’t depend on your virtual network only: your real life connections are just as important, of course. So taking care of your real life social network is crucial, both to get to know companies from the inside and thus increase your opportunities, and to be visible to recruiters when a position becomes vacant within their company. Often the most important thing is not whom you know, but who knows you. This aspect of your public image needs to be built on a daily basis, by working hard and behaving fairly. You also need to put some care in to maintaining your relationships by sending the occasional card or email, or by making that genuinely friendly phone call.
Having ONE CV FORMAT is not enough
There are three main resumè formats:
The first one is the Europass CV, which should be sent off only upon request.
The second one is the classic format CV, which is appropriate for answering a job call or contacting a head hunter or a company.
The third one is the skills-based or functional CV, which can be used to establish a more personal connection with your recruiter or to introduce your professionalism, whether in full or partly, in terms of your specific skills. This kind of CV constitutes the first step towards presenting yourself as a consultant and therefore towards producing a brochure, website, blog and so on in place of a regular CV. It should therefore be written according to a different logic: namely, you should put emphasis on your achievements and abilities rather than on the roles you’ve held and the companies you’ve worked for.
Leaving behind a vision of yourself in a specific company role and seeing yourself as a consultant is not for everyone: you need to develop a strong self-confidence and fully accept and embrace this new role and self-image. I’d recommend you to stick with a classic format CV unless you’re entirely sure that you need a skills-based CV, and, especially, that you’re going to be able to live up to it.
Having a cv in ONE LANGUAGE is not enough
What’s the problem, when there’s Google translate, you may ask?
Well, let’s be serious. A different language means a different culture and different customs. Writing a resumè in English doesn’t mean simply translating it straight from your Italian one. It means verifying the standards in use in the UK, US or Australia and adjusting your CV’s language, style and contents accordingly.
The same applies to other languages and other countries, if you’re serious about moving abroad. Daniela, for instance, decided to move to Norway. Daniela is an ex colleague of mine; we worked together for an outplacement company in Milan at the start of the new millennium. After a few years, her partner was offered a tremendous opportunity in Norway, his country of origin, and Daniela decided to follow him. This is an example of emigration and job search at top levels, for which the principles expounded in this blog are entirely appropriate.
Adopting your interlocutor’s language is a matter of education; adopting the modes and behaviours of your country of choice is the only effective way to communicate how serious you are in your intentions.
Of course, the first step is having a good CV in Italian and a translation of it. The translation should be yours, or, in any case, you should be able to measure up to the language you’ve used in your CV and what you’ve claimed to know when it comes to the interview. It’s OK to have some native speaker check your translation; but as they’re not expert recruiters, they should limit themselves to commenting on the language and not on the content. All the rest is up to you: you can find anything you want on the Internet or at a bookshop; all you need to do is put your mind to it and work hard.
