November 15, 2016

Applying for a Job – Bringing Things to a New Level

“Every door can be unlocked.”

— Ellen Fondiler

Have you ever wondered how many CVs employers get every day? In total around 120 for each advertised job vacancy. Your future employer might miss your CV even if your skills are perfect for the position you are applying for. Get inspired by stories of people who changed the rules of the job-hunting game by their creative CVs.

FACT 1: The average number of people who apply for any given job is 120. Only 20% of those applicants will be invited for a job interview.

Jacquelyn Smith from Forbes claims that only around 20% of total number of applicants get an invitation to a job interview. The number isn’t that big, right? The competition is very high and the pressure is increasing every year because of economical, social and technological factors.

Nevertheless nowadays, you can find plenty of tips and templates for writing an ideal resume.

FACT 2: What skills do employers look for? About 36% look for multitasking skills; 31% look for initiative; 21% look for creative thinking; and 12% look for something else in the candidate.

As I said, it’s not a big problem to find a CV template and tips on the Internet, so I will not repeat them in this article. What I want to do is to point your attention to creating an outstanding CV that will impress the employers by its creativity and individual approach.

Every time I want to apply for a job, I revise my CV and think how to make it more remarkable and the only thing that comes to my mind about creativity and catchy details is font, layout and change of a few words. And I think that many of you ended up with the same ideas, right? But these guys completely broke the CV writing stereotype.

FACT 3: Around 80% of available jobs are never advertised.

A teacher from Australia, Renata Chunderbalsingh wanted to change her job and she knew that solely her education and work experience will not impress her future employers at the first sight. But what Renata knew was that almost everyone loves chocolate. She decided to print out her CV on a cover of a chocolate bar and wrote down all her skills, experience and background on the field where the ingredients should be written.

After she sent few chocolate bar CVs, one of the company’s HR department decided to share the picture of CV bar on their LinkedIn profile. The post said:

“Ingenious application surprised us in the post this morning.
Our first RESUME’ BAR!”

Chocolate Resume’. Image: Metro, 2016.

This post received around 9000 likes and comments. Moreover, Renata started to receiving many job offers not only from Australia, also from other continents.

The next example of ab exceptional CV was done by an ordinary young man Lukas Yla who came to USA to make his dreams come true. He knew that in the city where there are thousands of applicants sending their CVs every day, a chance to get the desired job was close to unrealistic. However, he didn’t get upset and found a way how to deliver his CV directly to top managers of companies where he would like to get a job. He designed a personal marketing campaign, based on this idea – he dressed as a courier and delivered a box of doughnuts directly to CEOs with the following message:

“He dressed as a courier and delivered a box of doughnuts directly to CEOs.” Image: Metro, 2016.

FACT 4: In 2012, more than half (56%) of all employers reported that a candidate rejected their job offer.

As you can see from these two examples, people weren’t afraid to change the layout of the “perfect” CV and get what they wanted. I am not encouraging you to stop using standard layout and start sending your CV as a chocolate bar or box of doughnuts; I want to share the passion and effort that those people put in creating their CV that won them their dream jobs.

Next time when you revise your resume, think a little bit outside of box and do what intuition tells you; at the end you might get the job that you’ve always dreamed about.

See the gallery of original resume’ ideas!