Imagine being on immigration control at Heathrow airport, especially post Brexit.
You will need to look at thousands of passports every day, quickly turn to the right page and work out who this person is in front of you. Do they look like their photo, where they have come from and are they eligible to enter the country?
A boring and repetitive job. But made much easier because most passports conform to an international standard. They can be scanned electronically and by a human quickly and easily.
Now imagine that the same person standing in front of your immigration desk had got creative. They had decided to add a few more photos and put all of their information in a different order. And made it difficult to be scanned by a machine. How quickly do you think they would get through?
Now think about your CV. In a world where there may be hundreds of applications for the same position, how quickly will your CV get through if it is in an unusual layout. Or if the information that recruiters need to find is difficult to pull out of it.
How quickly do you think you will get through their queues? How often do you think you will get rejected?
Instinctively I think you know the answer.
Which is why we get really boring with CV layouts. Make sure they are logical, clear and concise. And contain all of the information that recruiters expect to see. Because if they don’t, then very quickly you can find yourself being rejected for a job you have the perfect background for.
How frustrating is that?
