{"id":245,"date":"2013-01-27T00:05:45","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T00:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zulfikar.co.uk\/blog\/?p=245"},"modified":"2013-01-27T00:11:28","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T00:11:28","slug":"cvsite-marketing-ploy-did-they-really-just-review-your-cv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zulfikar.co.uk\/blog\/cvsite-marketing-ploy-did-they-really-just-review-your-cv\/","title":{"rendered":"‘CVsite’ Marketing ploy – did they really just review your CV?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever used online job boards? Tempted to have your CV\/Resume reviewed by experts to improve your chance of selection?<\/p>\n

Well, now someone somewhere is volunteering your CV for an initial review without even asking you. Yes, that’s right, with 0 permission.<\/p>\n

\"cv_e\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was conversing with a friend whose CV i just reviewed (one of many I get asked to look over), and he asked ‘Hey buddy, did you send my CV to some review site? Cos i sure as hell didn’t and I just got an initial review from them??’. I found it odd, asked him to forward me the message and took a look. The review seemed to contain common sense, nothing specific.<\/p>\n

Chance is a wonderful thing, when me and the friend mentioned above got together with a 3rd friend – it turned out his CV had also been reviewed by the same site. How wonderful. Comparing notes, they both received the exact same feedback and point scoring as each other. Brilliant, their CVs were equally bad! This is the scoring criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Area of CV
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		friend1<\/strong><\/td>\nfriend2<\/strong><\/td>\nStatement<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Opening Statement<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\u00a016\/25<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a016\/25<\/b><\/td>\nYour opening statement needs to be more concise, focused and to hold more punch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Layout<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\u00a015\/25<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a015\/25<\/b><\/td>\nSpace could be utilised more effectively to make your CV more user friendly, easier on the eye, and to highlight major achievements and skills<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Content<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\u00a015\/25<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a015\/25<\/b><\/td>\nYour experience and skills are impressive, however at the moment, an employer could miss out on key factors that could clinch you an interview, just because of how your content is written<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Language\/grammar<\/span><\/b><\/td>\n\u00a018\/25<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a018\/25<\/b><\/td>\nTo be truly effective your CV needs to be written in the first person, be grammatically correct, include no spelling mistakes and avoid common \u2018CV jargon\u2019. Even though you\u2019ve adhered to some of these attributes in your CV, there are areas for improvement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Your total CV Score <\/b><\/td>\n\u00a064\/100<\/b><\/td>\n\u00a064\/100<\/b><\/td>\nCongratulations! Your CV has achieved a Potential Success Rate score of 64%. But is this enough?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There is more detail in the review, each ‘section’ has a couple of paragraphs explaining how they can improve your CV. More useful to know is that after your overall 64% mark statement their follows all the marketing blurb and such to convince you to get a full (presumably chargeable) review. What does this mean? Why are they the same? In all likelihood your CV has NOT been reviewed by anyone at all, and has NOT been SEEN by anyone at this company. More likely they have harvested\/purchased just your email address<\/strong><\/span> from an online job board as someone who posted a recent CV.<\/p>\n

Who are these generous people I hear you ask, here’s the details<\/p>\n

The CV Site,
\nThe CVs & Career Team Ltd
\nwww.thecvsite.co.uk<\/a>\"cvsite\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh wonderful, prices start at \u00a349.95. How cheep. For my friends (& their friends) I do it for free. I’m not a professional and anyone with reasonable common and literary sense can create a good CV\/Resume, or review someone else’s. There is no perfect CV but a continous striving to perfect ones own CV in order to maximise chance for interview. Like any task, break it down into chunks and go through each section of your CV bit by bit on a regular basis. Rewrite\/redraft continuously, use Microsoft Words synonym checker, spell check, proof read – get your friends to proof read.<\/p>\n

You don’t need to spend \u00a349.95<\/p>\n

Having had responsibility for short listing\/interviewing for I.T roles, and having freelanced at an EMEA recruitment agency for a few years I have seen some very very bad CVs, but they are thankfully rare. Most are reasonable, but need that bit of shoe polish. A fair few are very good.<\/p>\n

CVsite – I urge you to stop your rubbish marketing ploy.<\/strong> Wherever you are harvesting peoples details from, please stop.<\/h3>\n

IF (big IF!) your entire CV was being passed on to these people without your prior permission then a whole can of Tuna worth of data protection issues come into play – hence why the ‘reviews’ they send you are generic. As Simon Gruber would say ‘Hook, Line & Zinker!”<\/p>\n

Next mission – find out which online job boards are passing details to these people<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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