Issue 5 - Marketing (Pt 4) - The Ideal CV Format

Welcome to the Road to Civvy Street - a weekly sharing of insights and data for people leaving the Armed Forces and finding their way in the Civilian Sector. I'm Carl Trigg - A Veteran with 14 years experience in the British Army (REME) and 12 years experience in the Private Sector. If you have any content you'd like featured please feel free to send me a DM

I left you in this position…

If you’ve been following along with my newsletters over the last 4 weeks then by this point you should be a in a place where you have:

1.       Defined ‘You’ and given yourself direction about where you are going.

2.       Analysed your LinkedIn network, identified gaps and began closing them.

3.       Started making in-roads to favourable companies and industries which align to your traits and needs.

4.       Started reaching out tactically and strategically to key people in order to make yourself ‘warm’ to them, and to hopefully use them to leverage a referral opportunity.

5.       And finally – squared that hoofing LinkedIn profile photo away and got your profile ship-shape and Bristol fashion and worthy of an All-Star status.

Nipped all that?

If not, hit back and go read the previous ones, if yes – let’s press on

Lets talk CVs

CVs are a hotly debated subject. They are a bit like Spaghetti Bolognese in some respects – everyone has their own opinion on the perfect recipe.

The truth is that everyone’s opinions on CVs are just that – opinions.

It’s all subjective.

Instead, in this article I’m going to only give you objective data. Not my own opinion. And I’m going to back up what I say with facts and data.

So sit back, and we’ll work through the data to come up with the perfect CV formula together.

Where does the CV fit into the whole marketing piece?

In business, and more specifically in Marketing, we use a thing called a ‘funnel’ to get people to do the thing we want them to do; this could be buy a product, use a service, or in our case here give us an interview and an offer of employment.

Here’s an example of one that a typical business might use:

The funnel setup works because it starts with catching people in the top of the funnel, then they try to move people down the funnel toward the neck where they aim to get them to do the thing they want them to do.

Every time you watch an advert on the TV you are entering a funnel. The first level of almost any marketing funnel is ‘Brand Awareness’ – so by seeing the advert, you now know about the brand. And the next time you need to buy that particular product then you’re more likely to consider that particular brand because you are aware of it.

The previous issues of this newsletter on marketing have all been about creating your own marketing ‘funnel’. And the CV is the next piece of that funnel.

So let’s look at your Service Leaver marketing funnel:

Let’s work down top to bottom:

• The very top bit (above the funnel) are your target market. But you didn’t know they were your target market until you knew what your ideal market was, and you didn’t know until you defined ‘you’ in the first newsletter.

• The next bit is brand awareness. We did this in the second issue when we stopped being the grey man and started engaging with your target community. You were starting to become visible.

• We sharpened your brand and your visibility when we did your LinkedIn profile in last weeks issue.

• And finally we started reaching out to some people who may hold sway to giving you what you want and started turning cold leads into warm ones.

So now the mist clears – all those things I talked about were for a reason. They are all VITAL elements of moving people down your marketing funnel toward being receptive to your CV.

Get it?

It’s a bit like that moment in Karate Kid when Daniel LaRusso realises all that wax-on wax-off and sanding stuff actually meant something.

This is why your CV isn’t just a piece of paper with your quals and past postings on. It’s a vital element of the overall marketing process to getting you to where you want to be.

Now let’s look at how to make one that delivers on the customer requirement and gets results.

What a perfect CV looks like

Like I said in the top bit, I’m not going to wax lyrical about how good the CVs I create for people are (they are btw 😉), I’m also not going to pour cold water on other peoples opinions on it either.

Instead we’re going to build the perfect CV from the customer’s perspective, and use objective data to justify why we are doing it the way we are doing it.

Understanding How Hiring Managers Read CVs

It may shock you, but research shows that hiring managers spend on average 6-7 seconds reviewing a CV. You can find this statistic here on LinkedIn, google it if you don’t believe me.

6-7 seconds. That’s mental isn’t it?

Why though?

It’s because when they are looking to hire to fill a vacancy, they allow CVs to build up until they have a clutch of them, then they go through each on quickly to do an initial sift.

I’ve done this myself many times. So I can vouch for this statistic from a personal perspective. When I’m doing it I want to sort the wheat from the chaff. When you’re dealing with hundreds of CVs in limited time you simply have to make the process as efficient as possible.

In those 6-7 seconds, the hiring manager is focusing on:

• First couple of sentences of the summary

• Most recent job titles

• Dates of Employment

• Keywords and skills/quals that match their job advert

And we know this because we know how the human brain works and how people read things.

F-Pattern and Z-Pattern reading

To build the perfect CV we need to know the science behind how people read and process information.

In 2017 a study was conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group that used eye tracking software to track how readers view a page. You can read the full study here

They found that there are primarily two ways that people read. These are the F Pattern and the Z Pattern.

You can see from the images below which areas of your CV get noticed more by looking at the heat map bits. Understanding this can help you ensure that key bits of information are strategically placed for maximum effect.

So what do we need to do to take advantage of this?

We can see from the study that the top section is always front and centre. Whether the reader tends to use a Z-Pattern or a F-Pattern, then the top section including the name and summary section this is always in eyesight.

• Key takeaway 1 – Spend time writing a short, but targeted summary section including eye-catching references to the position you are going for, backed up by measurable and quantifiable data to show you are what they are looking for.

Then on the F-Pattern the lefthand side gets a lot of attention. So this is where your previous position titles and companies (or postings in your case) need to go.

As time is of the essence we can’t afford to expect the reader to translate your position titles from Military speak to Civilian equivalents. You have to do this for them.

• Key takeaway 2 – Use pre-translated position titles that align as much as possible to the role you are going for. Make them stand out in bold.

For example if you were a Company Sergeant Major in your last position, and were going for an Operations Manager position then translate ‘Company Sergeant Major’ into the civilian equivalent which translates well into ‘Operations Manager’

You can use our custom built translator on our site - it's free don't worry!

Also with F Pattern because the left hand side gets attention we don’t want to be centre justifying our text. We need it to be left-aligned.

• Key takeaway 3 – Left align all your text so it reads from the left margin across the page.

On both F and Z patterns the middle section also gets attention. But time is also limited so we need to move away from having large paragraphs on the page as this takes time to read. Bullet points can break this down and make the extraction of key bits of data easier.

• Key takeaway 4 – Use bullet points for easy scanning to display your role details and responsibilities. Aim for between 3-6 to not swamp the reader and increase the chances they will actually read it.

You can see from the heat maps where the readers eyes are drawn to. So any keywords you draw from the job advert will do better if inserted into these areas. If they are at the end of the paragraph or to the right of the page then the chance they will be read is lower.

• Key takeaway 5 – Strategically position all keywords and make them prominent.

Having a comprehensive LinkedIn Profile and including a link to it on your CV

A recent study by ResumeGo highlighted that job seekers with a comprehensive LinkedIn profile had a 71% higher chance of getting an interview. Those with a bare-bones LinkedIn profile saw a 9% decrease in interview rates.

But there’s something else – a secondary study by Cultivatedculture.com analysed 125,000 CVs and found that only 48% of those analysed had a LinkedIn profile link on them. So by adding one you can instantly gain an edge on a significant amount of your co-applicants.

There’s loads to read in the report, but here’s the main findings in graphical format:

The data is clear – those with a comprehensive profile gain more interviews.

This is why it is VITAL that your profile is on the money.

But it also needs to be linked on your CV, to make it really easy for the reader to find you on LinkedIn and consider you further.

And remember the bit in the last newsletter where we talked about your LinkedIn URL? Well not only does that help your profile become All-Star, but a shortened URL in a link also looks neater, is more appealing to the eye, and doesn’t look messy. So get rid of the messy alpha-numericals on your LinkedIn URL and trim it down.

• Key takeaway 6 – Spend time optimising your LinkedIn profile, shorten your URL, and add it to the top section of your CV

Keywords

We all hear about keywords all the time. And we know they are important. But here’s why:

1. Certain platforms have the ability to parse for keywords and rank candidates. Whether you call this ‘ATS’, or whether it’s via a job listed here on LinkedIn, the fact of the matter is that this technology exists, and is becoming more commonplace.

I’m not going to get into the argument of whether Recruiters  and various companies use these, all I can say is that many DO have the ability to, so we have to assume that everyone IS using it. And bake in the keywords accordingly.

2. Hiring Managers DO look for certain words and phrases when scanning a CV. I can vouch for this myself. So including keywords from the job advert is not only wise, but essential.

To back up what I’m saying here, there’s data available from the previously mentioned Cultivatedculture.com study which shows that of the 125,000 CVs they analysed, on average candidates only included 51%of the available keywords in their CV.

Not we have to be careful here - Subjectively, my own view is that if a candidate had 100% of the keywords on their CV then I would smell a rat. However on the other side of the range we know objectively that most candidates only have 51% of the keywords. Therefore logically:

• Key takeaway 7 – aim to include between 70-90% of keywords from the job advert.

For those who need help extracting keywords from a job advert then you can use our free tool over at opcivilian.com, simply copy and paste in the entire job advert into the tool and it will give you the keywords to add in seconds.

**📢 I will be publicising a series of LinkedIn Live sessions on Wednesday nights from next week where I will go through live job adverts and extract keywords using out Opcivilian tool and show you how to build them into your CV -watch this space for an invite 📢**

Including measurable data and outputs in your bullet points using the X-Y-Z formula

I recently posted about this topic, and the post did pretty well, reaching 30k people across the community. So I know this is something that people are interested in getting right.

Here’s an easy way to do it.

A book written by the former Google Senior Vice President of Personnel, Laszlo Bock gave away what is generally considered to be the best format for writing bullet points.

His formula standardises the method and makes it incredibly repeatable and readable. Thisis the X-Y-Z formula.

• Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]

Using this let’s look at a military example as a novice would write it, then with the formula applied:

• Original – Maintained a fleet of combat aircraft ensuring readiness for operations.

Now that’s ok, but with the formula applied it becomes a lot more powerful.

• Formatted – Maintained a 90% equipment availability rate of all combat aircraft over a 6 month operational cycle by combining LEAN repair techniques, improved spares procurement and preventative maintenance.

How many CVs have this kind of measurable data on them?

Not many. Cultivatedculture’s 125,000 CVs showed only 26% of CVs included 5 or more measurable metrics. So by that reckoning if yours DOES include more than 5 then you are ahead of the competition.

• Key takeaway 8 – Include more than 5 measurable  metrics as part of your experience bullet points.

CV Length

 A US company called TalentWorks conducted a study a few years ago where they analysed 6000 CVs across 66 different industries. They were looking at the correlation between CV length (word count) and interview rates. They found that the ‘Sweet Spot’ for CV length was between 475-600 words.

This suggests a couple of things:

1. Employers and Recruiters favour CVs with less waffle, and value brevity.

2. For roles where there are many candidates, those with the ability to condense and summarise their experience and skills into a manageable format get their CVs read more than those who present a wall of words with their application.

I’m not buying or selling here. The data is up to you to interpret. But have a look at the jump in interview rates when the sweet spot is achieved. This graph is courtesy of cultivatedculture.com.

It’s quite clear what the data indicates.

• Key Takeaway 9 – Try to keep your word count to between 475-600 words.

Buzzwords and Cliches

It can be tempting when writing your CV to include words and phrases that you think people want to hear. But trust me, it gets boring for Recruiters and Hiring Managers to read the same things over and over again.

Imagine reading 100 CVs where everyone claims they are a ‘Team Player’ or that they are ‘Highly-Motivated’. YAWN.

This article by Tealhq outlines this topic, and gives some examples of the kind of words you should be avoiding. Things like:

😫 Creative Thinker

😫 Driven

😫 Loyal

😫 Passionate

😫 Team Player

😫 Hard Worker

😫 Good Communicator

Instead of these, try to use more ‘Action Verbs’ in your content. By this I mean the subject (you) should be performing the action in the sentence. For example

Passive Statement: “A 10% increase in vehicle availability through effective LEAN implementation and improved working shift patterns”

This doesn’t tie the achievement to you, it’s passive in it’s tone. Let’s make this Active instead:

“Led the team to implement LEAN methodology and improved working shift patterns, resulting in a 10% increase in vehicle availability within 3 months”

See how that sounds better with action verbs?

• Key Takeaway 10 – Use Action Verbs and Minimise Common Buzzwords

Constructing the Perfect CV

So now you know what makes up the perfect CV from an objective and statistical point of view. Backed up by data, and proven by scientific studies.

Recapping on the key takeaways - your CV should have:

• Key takeaway 1 – Spend time writing a short, but targeted summary section including eye-catching references to the position you are going for, backed up by measurable and quantifiable data to show you are what they are looking for.

• Key takeaway 2 – Use pre-translated position titles that align as much as possible to the role you are going for. Make them stand out in bold.

• Key takeaway 3 – Left align all your text so it reads from the left margin across the page.

• Key takeaway 4 – Use bullet points for easy scanning to display your role details and responsibilities. Aim for between 3-6 to not swamp the reader and increase the chances they will actually read it.

• Key takeaway 5 – Strategically position all keywords and make them prominent.

• Key takeaway 6 – Spend time optimising your LinkedIn profile, shorten your URL, and add it to the top section of your CV

• Key takeaway 7 – aim to include between 70-90% of keywords from the job advert.

• Key takeaway 8 – Include more than 5 measurable  metrics as part of your experience bullet points.

• Key Takeaway 9 – Try to keep your word count to between 475-600 words.

• Key Takeaway 10 – Use Action Verbs and Minimise Common Buzzwords

What does this look like in practice though?

Here’s an example of what this looks like in practice. It's essentially the 'perfect' CV format from a statistical point of view.

You can see that by making these changes, and incorporating all the science, data and findings we can achieve something that is not only easy to put together, but which is actually PROVEN to work.

Wrapping Up

When it comes to CVs, you have to do what we as Service People do best, and that’s work with objective data, and make decisions based on facts.

In this whole newsletter I’ve not given you my own opinion on how a CV should be, I’ve used objective data and facts from multiple independent studies to bring to you the key elements that I would be incorporating if I were in your position.

Should you stop listening to others on the subject? – No

Should you be open to advice from people inside your target market? – Yes

Should you take all these points into considerations? - Definitely!

This area is a constantly evolving landscape. Trends do occur. And there is of course difference between industries and roles so this need to be taken into account and baked into your end result.

The main thing to remember however is that your CV is only part of your overall marketing funnel. As a stand alone product it can only ever be partially effective.

Market yourself, get people into your funnel, optimise your CV, and then you will see more conversions and interviews.

Be well

Carl.

For those seeking further guidance and support. Opcivilian offers a custom-built, interactive and enjoyable handrail for the Military to Civilian transition.

You can sign up and access the 9 - Step process completely free below. 👇👇👇👇

There's options to upgrade and use your SLC to cover the costs as well if you need mine or Andrew McHardy CMRP, CMgr FCMI, IEng MIMechE 1:1 support in any of it.

To access the FREE FORVER 9-Steps - https://opcivilian.com/access-the-9-steps/