Diamond in the Rough
As a recruiter I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, it enables me to engage with potential new clients, find top talent and keep abreast of who is hiring in events management and marketing.
Recently, it’s not been unusual for me to see up to 200 applications for just one position on LinkedIn alone. And that’s not forgetting the applicants in their pipeline or CV’s sent through their career pages. In China recently a whopping 10,000 candidates applied for just one role! Maybe remote working is allowing us to forget our geographical location, therefore widening the pool of jobs available to us or is it because there are so many exciting new roles out there? Either way, it doesn’t matter. What really matters is how you will stand out.
A large part of my role is not only to identify a suitable candidate but to advocate for them. Yes the CV may have the experience asked for but what about the soft skills, the alignment in values or those other things that take discussion, like affirming a candidates credibility, where you have a history working together. Without this introduction how do you become the diamond in the rough?
It really isn’t difficult to get this right but laziness will shine through and therefore likely result in little action from an employer. If you simply attach and send the same CV for every role without contemplation, even at this first hurdle it may appear you lack commitment to the role - at the very least!
Here are some top tips to get noticed in an application ‘crush’:
💎Use your network; if you can call upon someone you know to make a referral, this can very often benefit the referee too with plenty of handsome schemes around.
💎 Prioritise the information on your CV and tailor it according to the role requirements and mirror any specific terms referred to, so search tools will pick up on these. A lot of employers are using programmes to do some of the initial legwork and with hundreds of applications coming in, who would blame them!
💎 Keep the CV to a maximum of two pages. If your career has spanned beyond this simply include dates, organisations and job title as you can soon talk around these at interview, if need be.
💎 If you can determine who the hiring manager is, be subtle initially and send a connection request - they may remember your name later on. If they accept, enjoy the moment and fire a message back showing your enthusiasm for the role (but don’t get into detail without being prompted.)
💎 Depending on industry, there is somewhat of a creative licence and there are some amazing templates to be used to make your CV POP!
💎 Check out the values and mission statement of the organisation as this can give suggestions of other info to include in your CV which could go in your favour.
💎 Lastly, be honest and wherever possible ALWAYS utilise the request of a covering letter. This is your opportunity to engage the reader, add context and give the whole thing personality, which, let's be honest is 80% of the battle!
If you are looking for your next role in events management or marketing do get in touch. We have in house roles and client vacancies coming in all the time and we’d love to hear from you.
You can send your (two page 🙂) CV to talent@unitemarketingandevents.co.uk
