During my business career, from start-ups to a global Fortune
500 company, I’ve read thousands of cover letters and resumes/CV’s, conducted
hundreds of interviews and hired more than one hundred people. Importantly,
this recruitment was done as the hiring manager, not as a recruitment agent. In
other words, these people worked with me in the business – that’s having real
skin in the recruitment process!
Over time it dawned on me that few people crafted their job
application documents to what I wanted to see. It’s like they got their old
resume and updated it with their latest job and that was it. Not surprising
really, I’ve done it before, we’ve all done it before, and it accounts for why
sifting through job applications can be a pain because most people are not
providing the right information. I have no doubt that some excellent candidates
never made it to interview because their cover letters and resumes/CV’s were so
poor.
It became clear that most people could do a much better job
of their job application documents. Here’s how:
Give the recruiter what they want!
That’s exactly how this book started – all based on that one
sentence. Have a look at the Blueprint and the contents, it all comes back to
that concept. If I could articulate it and make it easy for people to
understand, then a book could be a good resource to really help people progress
their careers. How cool is that?!
Everything is here to help you create resumes/CV’s and cover
letters that are not only tailored to job advertisement requirements, but also
gives the recruiter exactly what they want.
Use this book to pick up one or two useful ideas, or
completely re-write your resumes/CV’s and cover letters. Either way, here’s wishing
you successful job applications!
