CVs are critical to your job search as they are the first impression an employer will have of you. 

This is further complicated by the fact that time-poor hiring managers/recruiters spend an average of 7 seconds looking at your CV. 

You have a very short window to impress, and CVs are a tricky art to master. 

There is no one standardized format and different industries and regions have varying expectations.

It can be very easy to get caught in the middle and end up producing something which is a direct reflection of yourself, that falls short of market expectations.

Getting the basics right is super important to nailing your job search and achieving success, especially in such a competitive market as the UAE. 

Here’s my top 3 tips to getting your CV right. 

1. Keep it simple.

In my career I’ve probably read over 10,000 CVs. 

The closest format I can offer to an ideal template would be something like this: Name -> Contact Details -> Personal Statement -> Work History (summarized in bullet points) - > Education. 

A CV does not need to be overcomplicated with pictures, colour schemes and graphs (exception to this being those in the creative industries). 

Often the best CVs we receive are just plain text but sharp and to the point. A potential decision maker just wants to know who you are what you do. 

A complicated and lengthy CV can actually dilute your skillset and rank you lower than someone with less experience but a clearer profile.

An example of this is one of my pet hates – when people rate themselves out of X. 

If you’ve rated yourself ‘three out of five’ in one skill and a less humble candidate has ranked themselves ‘five out of five’ where does that leave you? A simpler, ‘proficient in X’ would put you in better stead.

2. Play to your strengths.

The job market in the MENA region is hyper-competitive. 

Most jobs we advertise receive over a thousand applicants from local and international talent. 

Trying to make a CV that is holistic across industries should be avoided at all costs. The ‘spray and pray’ approach does not work in the UAE. 

If you are a Marketing Manager you should not be applying for positions as an Art Director. 

For you to succeed and stand out from the crowd, your CV, and where you send it, needs to be very heavily tailored around where your skills and experience lies.

From the back-end perspective of a Hiring Manager or Recruiter, we can see how many times you’ve applied for roles. 

Someone that has applied for three hundred positions in the last six months looks far less exclusive than someone who is a first-time applier going for a position that directly matches their skillset.

The implication would be, if you’ve applied for hundreds of roles with ‘X’, then you’ve probably also done the same with ‘Y’. 

Think of your CV as a commodity. 

Gold is extremely valuable because it is rare. Your CV should carry the same value. The more of it is out there, the less valuable it is. 

Stick to what you know and double down on this in every way you can. 

3. Look it over.

We have a client who are notorious for rejecting candidates who have spelling mistakes on their CV. 

Their logic is, if someone takes a casual approach to something as important as their CV, then they would carry the same ethic into the job. 

Whether you agree or disagree with the approach it speaks to the mindset of prospective employers. 

Playing Devils Advocate, you might be able to see why… 

You would never upload a picture of yourself to Social Media that wasn’t a best reflection of yourself. 

Why would you not carry the same standards to your CV which contributes to something you’ll spend the most part of your year doing?  

There are so many resources available today that this shouldn’t be happening and yet you would be surprised how common an occurrence this is. 

Use your friends or family to run things over with fresh eyes and if you want to be extremely sure, you can ask Chat GPT to check a body of text for spelling or grammar mistakes.

This isn’t an exhaustive list but it’s a good starting point to nailing the basics on your CV to set you up for success. 

If you can implement a mixture of the above you’ll be better placed than before to hopefully go out and get more interviews which will hopefully lead to a job. 

Let me know what you want to hear about next week!

Art Director (Mid/Senior)

We have been briefed with a couple of vacancies looking for mid-senior Art Directors from an agency background to work with our clients who are both independent agencies and network agencies.

They’re looking for people who have experience working across sectors including Governmental and Financial bodies and have demonstratable work of this in their portfolio. 

For the Senior position there is also an expectation that they have previously managed a team and held the responsibilities that come with a Senior position. 

They are willing to look at candidates outside the region and offer relocation for the individual. 

Please reach out to me on LinkedIn and I will be happy to chat if your profile matches the requirements.What