What Happens When Your CV Looks Good But Says Nothing Real

There is a moment I see quite often in my line of work.

Someone walks in, they sit down, and slide their CV across the table with a quiet kind of confidence. They have worked on it tirelessly, and they have read it back several times. Maybe they have even had a friend look at it and confirmed that it looks good. They know it looks good.

Then I read it, and I have to find a way to tell them, gently but honestly, that looking good and doing its job are two very different things. That was Brian.

Five years in business development. He had brought in three of his company’s top ten clients. He had opened a new market segment that his director had been trying to crack for two years before Brian joined and figured it out in four months.

He knew his numbers, and He knew his worth. He had walked into my office with the energy of someone who simply wanted confirmation that everything was in order. That was not the case.

The Conversation That Changed Things

I read the CV slowly and was confused. I looked at him and wondered where all the parts that made his career journey amazing and unique were absent.

Brian had sat down with the latest AI tool, given it his job title and a rough outline of his responsibilities, and asked it to make him sound professional.

The AI had done exactly that. The tool gave his CV a new look, a very generic look that would not attract any recruiter.

It had taken everything Brian gave it and produced something smooth and inoffensive that could have described almost anyone in a business development role anywhere in the country

Brian had not thought to mention his achievements because, for some reason, he did not think they were the kind of thing you put in a CV.

But he was wrong, they were exactly the kind of thing you put in a CV.

 And so we started writing from scratch, going through every major achievement that made him stand out

Brian had been applying for four months before he came to see me. In those four months, he had received two first-round interviews and nothing beyond that.

In the three weeks after we finished his CV, he received four interview requests. He sent me a message the day he finally signed the offer letter.

Finally

You might think your CV is fine, but the most dangerous word while job hunting is fine. Fine might look nice, but it might just be the one thing costing you every application you send.

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