Having received a great deal of questions over the past couple of weeks from project management professionals regarding their CVs I felt it would be a good opportunity to share my responses. I aim to take the most asked questions and answer them over the coming weeks – if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch either through the website, twitter or our facebook page.

My CV is being put forward to employers on a regular occasion through recruiters but I am not receiving any feedback – I can see my CV is of interest but it seems to stop at the employers’ door and I am not sure why I then hear nothing? David, Programme Manager, London.

Hi David – many thanks for your question, one I hear on a regular basis from candidates coming to me for advice. First of all I will assume you have been applying for roles online through the job websites which the recruiters often use as a means to attract talent to new roles. I believe this is a good introduction to agencies however I also believe it is a sterile form of application – in that you are not striking up a relationship with the recruiter personally from the outset. It often then becomes difficult to move the relationship forward from this point as the recruiter will submit your CV along with a shortlist and move onto another role until they hear back from the employer. You could work on building relationships with the recruitment agencies from the outset by taking the time to identify agencies which work in your field and make contact. Often these agencies will have their own jobs board which you can apply direct to and if you already have that relationship with a consultant you can call them to discuss the role further before submitting a tailored application. This will give you greater “buy in” with the individual and as such you should be able to set a communication plan moving forward to be kept up to date with your application. You are more likely to then receive feedback about your application, such as why the employer will not be taking yours to interview etc and gain a great deal of knowledge in regards to future applications.

Of course there are other reasons why you are not hearing back, roles close without notice due to changes in the business and internal candidates being placed but you should also be receiving this feedback from the recruiter. Personal exposure to recriutment agencies has seen that some work on quantity not quality – so they may take a large list of roles and not necessarily take time to review CVs specifically for the role and so just submit a lot of CVs to the client. Working on this basis leaves little time or inclination to respond to candidates with feedback. Therefore I would suggest you pin point agencies which specialise in your field and only take on a set number of roles where they spend time and knowledge to identify CVs which closely align to the business needs and as such will only present a shortlist of less than 10 CVs to the client. These types of agencies tend to take time to nurture relationships with their clients and candidates to ensure successful outcomes.

As “Questions Answered” is to become a regular feature on this blog site – we welcome any questions you wish to submit. To make contact please use the above links or come direct through our website: www.thecvrighter.co.uk