The SHOCKING TRUTH About Your CV - Why More Than 90% Never Even Get Read!

AT LAST - What Every Serving Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine - From The Officers' Mess To The NAAFI - Needs To Know About Returning To 'Civvy Street'.

Huddersfield, England UK,

Dear Colleague

An open letter to all UK Armed Forces Personnel preparing to leave the Services.

I won't bore you with fluff or filler, or give you a load of waffle. I'll be direct and candid, straight to the point - that's my style, like it or lump it. I "tell it like it is". So before we get down to the 'nitty-gritty', here are a few facts for you:

Fact: Unless we can tell recruiters and employers what we do, in language they can understand, they will always give the interview (and the job) to 'Joe (or Jane) Civvy'. He or she is a known quantity and speaks their language. 'Simples!', as Aleksandr the Meerkat would say.

Fact: We are in the middle of the deepest, darkest recession and toughest economic climate in living memory!

Fact: If you want to get a Job Interview with ANY organisation today,  you need an incredibly strong, compelling, focused and dynamic CV.

Fact: The CV needs to be actually READ!

Fact: We, the Military, are 'flavour of the month' out there in 'Civvy-Street' at the moment, and have the best press since the Second World War. But:

Fact: The overwhelming majority of civilians don't know what we actually do. They only see what the media (TV) presents.

Fact: They don't understand our 'language' or jargon, or our way of life or culture.

Fact: It is very much 'us and them'. Soldiers are soldiers and the rest are 'normal' people (civilians). They will never admit it, because they really don't want it to be that way, and it's not deliberate. But it is unfortunately TRUE!

Enough 'facts' - what do they all mean?

Simply that the Serviceman, on returning to civilian life and applying for a civilian job, is at a significant disadvantage to any civilian competition.

Look at it the other way round. If a 'civvy' shooting club member applied for a sniper's job in Shahzad, how likely do you think it would be for him to be offered the position when all of the competition was from 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh? The core technical skill sets might be broadly similar, but he would not have the experience, know the ground, speak the language or 'fit' into the culture. And it is very likely his CV would reflect that!

The bottom line is this. It doesn't matter how good you are, how well qualified, or what your considerable skill sets may be.

If you can't get those attributes across to the potential employer, you're dead in the water. And remember that you aren't there to personally explain them. Before you get the opportunity to do that, your completely impersonal and anonymous CV has to open the door for you.

And it has to do that in about 8 - 12 seconds, max!

That's all the time your CV will get on first 'sift'. Think about it - most job advertisements attract literally hundreds of applications and CV's. Typically, there are between 350 and 500 applications for the majority of 'white collar', management or professional vacancies.

This mountain of CV's has to be reduced to a manageable number of 'possibles' quickly, often by the same overworked and underpaid person who placed the ad for the vacancy in the first place.

It's a heck of a job. I know, I've been there and done it - watched the video, got the T-Shirt! You just don't have the time to start evaluating them, you just pull those out that look right and have the specific skills or keywords you're looking for. If they don't jump out at you immediately, you just discard that one and move on to the next.

You know what 'Overstretch' is, and 'Mission Creep'. Civvy Street is no different. Managers and department heads in industry have exactly the same problems - not enough people, time or resources . . . goal-posts constantly being moved . . . and everybody wearing too many hats. So time and effort is at a significant premium!

Today's fiercely competitive marketplace separates the very good CV from the excellent, and only the best of the 'excellent' category gets past the initial sift for a second look. The final filter will narrow these excellent 4 or 5 CV's or Resumes down to the truly exceptional 2 or 3 that are subsequently called to interview.

Remember, none of the individuals depicted in the CV's or Resumes are known by the selectors at this stage. The ONLY filter or criterion applied is the strength of the CV/Resume and Covering Letter, and it is these crucial documents that secure the interview for you.

IMPORTANT DISTINCTION: It's not the best CANDIDATE who gets called to interview - it's the candidate with THE BEST CV!

 Many of our clients, when they have actually presented themselves for interview, have expressed surprise to discover that the number of competitors finally selected is so small. Very simply, this is because in every industry and sphere of employment nowadays, management time is at a premium. Gone are the days when 20 people would be called for the initial interview - the process is just too expensive in terms of time and resources.

For this reason it is now even more important than ever that your CV and Covering Letter are incredibly powerful and focused. We are biased, of course, but we would always leave the construction of such critical career tools to a professional <grin>. If you haven't already looked at it, I would commend to you the Common Questions page for further detail.

At Top Pro CV's (Armed Forces CV's parent company) we are in constant touch with employers and our clients, and have a mass of feedback and experience to draw on. The two biggest problems we see in military and ex-military CV's are as follows:

1. The extensive use of jargon and military terminology. Employers don't know what a Section Commander is, what a Sit Rep is or what it means to be 'On Stag'. They think an RV is a motor caravan! A recent (May 2010) Soldier magazine quote illustrates this perfectly: "We deployed on various operations, providing depth protection and disruption ops, keeping the insurgents away from lines of communication." I promise you, most civvies wouldn't have a clue what this chap was taking about!

2. An inability to properly explain military jobs, roles, ranks and appointments etc in civilian terms or their equivalents.

You see, we take our jargon for granted and use it naturally. The civilian recruiter or HR Professional doesn't, and has neither the time nor inclination to start trying to work it out.

When he or she reads terms like 'Regular' and 'Territorial' on a CV, for example, and 'operational readiness', they have to stop and think - firstly what those terms mean, and secondly how they translate and mesh into their own or their company's environment. It breaks the flow and slows down the process.

Human nature being what it is, most employers will, therefore, quite unconsciously, simply take the easy option and move on to the next CV. Chances are he or she can understand that candidate's background and skills or qualifications instantly, probably even at a subliminal level, and doesn't need to think about them at all. Your chance has gone - forever.

Very simply, your CV needs to be written in 'Civilianese' just to compete on a level playing field.

Then of course it has to actually do that competing.

Ignore for a moment the reality that writing a CV in the first place is not an everyday familiar task for most people. Many intelligent and articulate individuals, given a few hours, can use a word processor and can get skills and experience down on paper.

But that isn't the issue here.

What chance do you think a 'standard' Word document that looks just like all the other CV's in the pile has, given all the competition and factors we've discussed earlier?

Or worse, the gimmicky, often 'arty-farty' type of offering most SNCO's and Officers (sorry guys!) seem particularly adept at pumping out? Any recruiter or personnel/HR person, who sees them every day, will tell you that the one place where artistic design should NEVER surface is on the face of your CV!

There is just no room for these, and the 'look-alikes' fade into the background.

The fact is that CV Writing is both an art and a science. Are you good at both? More importantly, do you know what the current recruiters are looking for in a CV, or which ones they automatically drop? We do - we are doing this for 8 hours every day, 5 or 6 days a week.

Your CV needs to be your powerful advocate - accurate, committed and totally focused on the task at hand, and present you in plain, everyday (civilian) language. If you are to get an interview your resume MUST AT FIRST GLANCE stand out from the pack without gimmicks or fancy, quirky visual tricks.

Your CV should spring off the page in a clean, clear, credible and professional way that leaves no doubt in the mind of the selector that you are the very best candidate for interview. It should immediately cut any potential rivals for the position out of the equation.

Forget the 8 - 12 seconds mentioned earlier. It is said that unless your CV makes an impression within 8 seconds, you're dead, out of the race.

Your CV from Armed Forces CV's does exactly that. Together with your targeted, structured and individually-tailored Cover Letter it acts as your silent but incredibly powerful salesman, instantly propelling you, in leaps and bounds, well ahead of the competition.

That's it. Everything else, as they say, is just commentary.

If you want that Interview, you need The Armed Forces CV.

I know - I can almost hear you saying it: "He's bound to say that, he wants to sell me a CV!" And you're right, I do - it's my business!

But the reality is that there is just nobody else out there who knows the ground and the players like we do. And we have the unique strength (if I say so myself) of having on staff, as Managing Director, an ex-Army WO1 who has successfully made the transition and been a civilian for more than 16 years now, and who has helped hundreds of ex-Service people just like you to move swiftly and seamlessly into their new lives as civilians.

Steve has been 'hiring and firing' for most of that time, initially as a Financial Accountant in industry, then as Finance Director and Head of Personnel for a global manufacturing group. Latterly he has been self-employed as a management consultant and business restructuring specialist, and in 1997 set up and became Managing Director of Top Professional Resumes Limited (Top Pro CV's), our parent company. They are a highly-successful and leading UK provider of Career Coaching and CV's at all levels.

Hope to welcome you as a client soon. Until then, very best regards, and stay safe.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Thompson

Warrant Officer Class 1 (Retired)

Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals (FIRP)

Managing Director