Interview with an IT Recruiter
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Sacha Cohen
Q: What can applicants do to make themselves more marketable?
A: They should make their CVs and cover letters easy to follow, but still as detailed as possible. Hiring managers, on average, spend as little as 30 seconds reviewing CVs, so it is important to provide enough information about yourself to be considered further. Cover letters must state a career objective, current job, job sought, past accomplishments and the value they bring to the company. Letters must be concise, well organised and shouldn't repeat what is stated on the CV.
CVs come in all shapes and sizes. For more creative positions, such as a graphics designer, CVs should have URL addresses and/or Web sites that will have samples of this person's work. For a software engineer, it is important to highlight job responsibilities, programming languages, development platforms and whether they work in a team environment. Often, hiring managers are not technical or familiar with the specifics of open positions (beyond what is written in a job description), so it is important to highlight the desired skills on a CV so time is not wasted.
In order to get to the top of the CV pool, candidates should target their CVs toward a specific job and outline the experience relevant to that position. For example, if an applicant is seeking a quality assurance engineering position that requires experience in a Windows environment, candidates must highlight where and how frequently they test in this type of platform environment. For people with more than five years of experience, a CV of more than one page is fine. Less-experienced candidates or career changers should focus on related course work and/or degree programs supplemented by practical work experience such as internships.
