Communication with candidates is key! ARM’s IT Sales Division's 10 step guide to candidate satisfaction (Step 3)

This is part 3 in the series of ARM's IT Sales Division's guide to improving the candidate communication process. If you have missed the pervious article you can review part 2 prior to reading this article.

CV Consultancy

Here at ARM’s Sales Recruitment section, we regularly provide what some would refer to as “CV Consultancy” to help our candidates facilitate their career progression. Anyone out there who has ever wanted to find a new job will know that CV writing is a bit like plumbing or car maintenance: you take a CV - and the skill of writing one well - for granted, until it’s your turn to sort it out. Then suddenly you realise that, heck, this needs to be right or it’ll be a disaster. And besides, quite often (though by no means always), you will only get one shot at presenting your CV to a prospective employer.

In a candidate-heavy market a merely “good” CV will not always gain the attention of a Sales Manager or Sales Director hiring for an excellent opportunity. Even the strongest sales professionals must look as good on paper as they are in person, in order to get the chance to prove how good they are in person!

Although at ARM Sales we don’t adopt a CV-based approach to Sales Recruitment, our methodology to candidate introductions is only completely effective if your credentials on paper support the précis we communicate to clients.

A good CV should be written in the format of a Sales Document to captivate the attention of the reader so that they are able to ascertain your suitability for a role based on your background and your achievements. So far, so obvious.

What my experience suggests is less widely known is that currently, too many CVs cover roles and responsibilities and in essence are written in the format of a job description. Although elements of this are acceptable to a point, the Sales Managers/Directors that could potentially hire you are less interested in the description of your role and more interested in how well you've performed alongside specific key information.

Unfortunately recruiting managers won’t be receiving small quantities of CVs at present. Bear in mind that they will look at your CV alongside 5-10 others and ask yourself, “What will make me stand out on paper and what is the most effective way to format my CV?”

Don’t expect companies to make assumptions about your CV. What’s obvious to you isn’t to others. Stick to factual, sales-related information. Avoid death by paragraphing: acres of text are not attractive to someone who has a pile of CVs in front of them. Much as you might feel the situation ought really to be reversed, put yourself in their shoes, and think like them! Help them to discover quickly and easily how great you are: use bullet points to reduce text and highlight key information that sells you as a sales person.

Subtle changes to your CV can sometimes make a really positive impact to your application. If you’re a sales professional and you have any questions about this, you can contact me on paulf@arm.co.uk

Finally, please bear in mind that CVs need to be written for their intended audience. Not everything I’ve written here is true of CVs in other markets, though much of it certainly is.

Paul Fairclough

IT Sales Recruitment Senior Consultant

Add me on LinkedIn

paulf@arm.co.uk

ARM

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