Why Your CV Isn’t Getting You Interviews (and How to Fix It)

👀 Looking for a new job or eyeing that promotion? Then it’s time to update your CV—and this is a must-listen episode.

We’re joined by CV expert Victoria McLean, who’s reviewed over 250,000 CVs and knows exactly what it takes to stand out in today’s competitive job market.

She spills the tea on the top mistakes that get your CV rejected, how to beat the bots scanning your resume, and the best way to talk about career breaks.

🎧 Hit play if you’re ready to land your next role and get rich in the process!

Want our 1-hour CV course? You'll learn how to stand out in today's competitive job market with a killer CV/Resume that gets you the interview for the job of your dreams. Check it here. 

This episode is brought to you by InvestorKit, Australia’s #1 Buyers Agency for 2023 and 2024. They specialise in helping investors find high-growth properties utilising industry leading AI and data driven research process across Australia. 70%+ of the properties they purchase are off-market and they have consistently outperformed national average capital growth rates by over 49%. Whether you’re looking to build your property portfolio or secure your first investment. Check them out here.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro
01:15 - What Makes a CV Stand Out
03:28 - The 2 Mistakes That Get 97% of CVs Rejected
04:42 - Tailoring Your CV and Quantifying Achievements
05:22 - The Truth About CV Design
07:23 - Common Mistakes (Including AI!)
10:11 - Should You Contact the Hiring Manager?
12:05 - How Long Should Your CV Be?
13:27 - Understanding Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
15:57 - Changing Careers? Start Here
18:01 - The Magic CV Formula
20:00 - Addressing Career Breaks
22:03 - LinkedIn vs. Your CV
24:42 - Final Thoughts + What Makes Someone Interview-Worthy
26:03 - Services + How to Work With Victoria

CONNECT WITH VICTORIA MCLEAN

Website: https://citycv.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriamclean/

CONNECT WITH LADIES FINANCE CLUB

Join our free Facebook group - Ladies Finance Club Money Chat
Website: https://www.ladiesfinanceclub.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladiesfinanceclub/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ladies-finance-club/

TAKEAWAYS

• Tailor your CV to each job description for better results.
• Show your value to potential employers in your CV.
• Proofreading is essential to avoid typos and errors.
• Quantify your achievements to demonstrate impact.
• Avoid using tables and complex formatting for ATS compatibility.
• AI-generated CVs can make you less unique and compelling.
• Networking is crucial; 85% of jobs come through connections.
• Your CV should be a marketing document showcasing your skills.
• Align your LinkedIn profile with your CV for consistency.
• Be honest about career breaks and highlight relevant experiences.

SOUND BITES

"Proofreading is crucial for your CV."
"Don't ignore keywords in your CV."
"Keep your CV simple for ATS readability."
"85% of jobs come through your network."
"A CV is a marketing document."
"Your LinkedIn should complement your CV."

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Molly: Welcome to another episode of Get Rich, the podcast that helps you do just that. Get rich and stay rich. Now, today I'm joined by the incredible Victoria McLean, who is a CV expert who has reviewed over 250,000 resumes. Yeah. So if you've ever wondered why your CV isn't getting any love or how to actually.

[00:00:20] Stand out in today's really competitive job market, then you're gonna wanna stick around and listen to this because Victoria is spilling the tea when it comes to the biggest mistakes she sees on cvs, and why using AI might actually hurt your chances of being selected and how your cute CV template might actually be getting you ghosted.

[00:00:40] We're also gonna cover the proven CV formula that gets interviews and how to switch careers or return from a break without being overlooked. Plus the LinkedIn mistakes that could be costing you job opportunities. So let's make a quick agreement. Look, if you get something out of this episode, you'll go hit that subscribe button.

[00:00:57] All right, enjoy. Victoria, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Hi, Molly. Hi. All right, so you've been in this industry for a very long time. What makes a CV stand out in this kind of very competitive market?

[00:01:15] Victoria: So, for me, there are, well, there's three main things, but number one, you've got to tailor your CV to your job.

[00:01:22] Description. You know, one size does not fit all when it comes to cbs. And many people try to be all things to all people, and you just can't be all things to all people. So yes, you can have that perfect prototype cb, that perfect resume, but at the end of the day, you have to tweak it and tailor it for each role.

[00:01:39] And the other thing that you have to do is show your audience. Why they should hire you, why you are valuable. And I think when most people go wrong and say, write a CV and it's full of all their skills, but they forget if you strip everything away and you know, you know, Molly, I would say whether you're going for a role in the charity sector or the finance sector or.

[00:01:59] Marketing or whatever it is you might do, strip everything away. You are only being hired for one reason, and that is if they pay you money, you're going to deliver something in return. And a lot of people don't show that actually getting a job is a commercial transaction. You are being paid to go to work.

[00:02:16] They've got to know they're going to get a good return. On their investment. So for me, the second thing is showing that you are valuable. And the final thing that will really make you stand out is providing context. You don't, what I mean by that is so many CDs that I look at, they might include achievements, but I dunno how big the company was.

[00:02:34] I dunno how many people they're working with. I dunno what regions, what products, what types of clients. So again, think really carefully about providing. A background narrative for every role. So you're telling a story at the end of the day, your cv, it's telling a story about you, your career, the wonderful things you've done.

[00:02:51] If it's not doing that, it's not doing a good job.

[00:02:55] Molly: I love when you say that, and I remember we were on a session before for Ladies Finance Club and you said, yeah, you've gotta, you know, you are, think of yourself, you know, you're adding value to this business. How are you adding value? And I'd never really thought of myself as like, oh, well I just do marketing.

[00:03:09] Well, actually no, we're trying to create more revenue for this company. Like, so it actually made me really think about it in a very different way, like in, very much in the business sense of what they're looking for. In another session, once you said there are two mistakes that 97% of hires will reject your CVS for, what are those two mistakes?

[00:03:28] Victoria: Well, that would be two typos, actually. You know, the, we do not proofread our work. We do, obviously, we're a C writing firm, but individuals don't tend to proofread their work. It's really, really hard to proofread your own work. What happens is you get a word stuck in your. Short term memory, I don't know, delivered or achieved.

[00:03:49] And before you know it, you've written that word 50 times on your two pages or your for three pages. So, um, really thinking carefully, making sure that somebody who isn't you proofread your cv, really important. But there are a number of other mistakes that. People make, I mean, I have looked at, it's really scary.

[00:04:05] I've been working for over 25 years in this industry, so I've a bit of calculation. I've probably looked at about 250,000 cvs,

[00:04:13] Molly: 250,000 cvs,

[00:04:16] Victoria: quite a lot, isn't it? Quite a lot. So I know what, what really makes some work. We've talked a bit about tailoring, but one of the big mistakes is that people don't tailor it.

[00:04:25] You know, they, they're not thinking carefully enough about their audience. They're not quantifying their achievements. So yeah, they might tell, write a great bullet point about something that they have done, but it's not quantified, so it doesn't really mean anything. You know, you might say, for example.

[00:04:42] Refined process, but you haven't explained what the process was. You haven't said what the outcome of that was. Well, the outcome of refining that particular process might be increased efficiency, which saves X number of dollars or pounds. So it's always thinking, well, what did I do? What was the value of that?

[00:04:58] Again, we're going back to your comment, Molly, about, about value. The other thing that I think we're gonna be talking about later is keywords. Really big mistake is ignoring keywords. We'll chat about that a bit later on and making sure it looks good. You know, don't be afraid to. Make it look pretty. We want to be a bit of a showstopper, someone to open that attachment and for it to look good and smart and corporate and professional as well.

[00:05:22] Molly: Because I think that's a question that comes up a little bit around the design of the cv. Like should we be putting things in tables and making it pretty and putting in a picture of ourselves? What would you say on that?

[00:05:33] Victoria: The way that. Recruitment works now is using something called an applicant tracking system, which is the database that recruiters use to store cbs, but also to search for people and when they're advertising, any job you see online now will be built within an applicant tracking system, which is a technology they use to screen.

[00:05:53] If you put any content in a table or a text box, the a TS, the applicant tracking system can't read that content. So whilst it might feel, gosh, it will look great and really neat in a table. No. The other thing that you will have seen, I've seen so many of them now, there are a lot of templates you can download online that will have sort of like a thinner column here and then maybe two thirds of the page over here.

[00:06:17] The applicant tracking systems can't read that content. They get really confused by columns. So we, for example, used to use columns a lot when we would have a key skills section in a cv, you'd have three columns. The a TS gets really confused. It doesn't know. What should go where? So keep it really, really simple and probably photos can be great on a cv, but at the end of the day, if someone wants to know what you look like, they'll look at you on LinkedIn.

[00:06:43] The problem is if we put logos and photos on our cv, increases the file size. If the file size is too large, it doesn't work well in the applicant tracking system, so keep it simple. No photos, no logos, no tables, no text boxes. Super simple. No columns. Yeah,

[00:07:00] Molly: that's so interesting and that explains why a lot of my earlier cvs were not successful.

[00:07:06] 'cause I'd put them exactly that. I'd bought this really cute template of Etsy. It looked adorable, but never got any response on it. Probably because I. The system couldn't read it. Yeah, there you go. Are there any other really common mistakes we should be aware of as well? Like that? 'cause that, that's a huge one.

[00:07:23] Victoria: It's a huge one, isn't it? Yeah. I mean the big one for me is chat, GPT at the moment. I know we were chatting about that before, before the show working Molly, but I'm asked about that. These

[00:07:32] Molly: videos said to me on Instagram, they're like, update your CV in two minutes for chat EBT. And I'm like, is that a thing?

[00:07:39] Victoria: Lots of people are doing it, but if you think about the purpose of your cv, the only thing it's meant to do right is make you stand out, is show that you are the perfect candidate for a role. What any type of AI does is it's generic, so it's homogenizing, it's making everyone's cv. I. Same. It's taking data from other people's cvs, other people's resumes to create this sort of homogenous pool of cvs.

[00:08:02] So the first thing is that it makes you not unique. It's like the total opposite of what you're trying to achieve. They also tend to, I mean, all the ones that I've looked at, whether you use chat GPT or any of the others, say Overstuff, your CB with the keywords. Keywords are important, but. If you've got too many in there, it just appears really robotic.

[00:08:22] It doesn't feel reasonable, and it's very, very clear. But it wasn't written by you. You know, at the end of the day, a good CV has to be compelling. Yeah, it has to be written by a real human being to showcase your personality and your career aspirations, and I just don't think AI can replace that at all.

[00:08:40] But the other thing is a couple of other things. The big four firms now have banned any use of AI in any application. So, for example, PWC could spot and they've got, funnily enough, AI checking for ai. But they, but they, um, if they could spot any kind of AI being used in the application, you are immediately.

[00:09:03] And I think that's, we're gonna see much more of that. But also ethically chat. GPT does not have the same kind of rules around GDPR that we are all very used to. Your data is not protected, so anything that you upload to there is there for anybody else to, to find. And actually, you know, if you spend Asias crafting a bullet point, then you pop your CV in to check GPT for that, to check, for example.

[00:09:29] The whole world can potentially. Be using your content. So A, it's not protected and b, it's yours. I would, I wouldn't wanna share. Certainly wouldn't wanna share my cv, so I just think I would be really wary of it. It can be good In terms of maybe helping you build out a framework, or let's say you're going for, I know, role as a marketing director or head of finance or whatever it might be.

[00:09:50] Yeah. You might get some key say to chat GPT. What kind of keyword should I use? Yeah, but normally it will give you too many and then you still have to go through it manually, but can be quite nice to create a bit of a framework based on a job spec. But I would say don't upload your CV onto it and just be really wary.

[00:10:07] 'cause it doesn't sound like a human at all. It really doesn't. So.

[00:10:11] Molly: That's so interesting that they're being rejected for using ai. Yeah. By ai. Yeah. I've got this question, and it's actually, once you send off your cv, should you go and contact that same recruiter manager or maybe that head of HR or the person who's looking after that job, would you?

[00:10:29] Like advise to then find 'em on LinkedIn and be like, Hey, I applied for the role really keen, or is that not really appropriate? Yeah,

[00:10:37] Victoria: the latest figure is that around 85% of jobs come through your network, not through a traditional channel. So by traditional channel, I mean. A random application where you don't know anyone at the firm, it doesn't mean you won't get that job, but it's a lot harder to get that job.

[00:10:52] So what I recommend you do is if you're applying for Robin organization, have a look at who you might know there, or go through LinkedIn under second degree connections, and that will show you who you know that knows someone that works there. Yeah. And then I would try and make that connection or say to.

[00:11:08] Whoever your friend might be or that person that you know, can you make that introduction? So try and go through the back door. Definitely connect with recruiters. Follow up with recruiters. Yeah, absolutely. It's really hard just to apply for a job and Yeah, and get through It doesn't mean you won't, but if you can also I guess, leverage the people that you know.

[00:11:28] Yeah, you got a much better chance.

[00:11:30] Molly: Yeah, no, I love that. Although I did get a random message today on LinkedIn from someone who I'd never met and obviously she'd gone through her LinkedIn and been like, oh, hi, I am moving to this country. Is there anyone you know who can help me out? And I'm like, I don't know who you are.

[00:11:44] I don't know if you're good. I like, that's my reputation on the line. So that was really interesting as well. I guess make sure you have some kind of relationship with the people that you are bridging out with as well. So in regards to length of cv, 'cause I know sometimes depending on the type of industry or the type of country, is there like a standard length that a CV should be?

[00:12:05] Victoria: Yeah, that's a really good question. I, I know you, you know this already, Molly, 'cause we've known each other for a while, but I lived in Sydney for seven years, so I know the Australasian market really, really well. I now live in London and I've worked across the Middle East and I'm hpac. The US as well, and it is slightly different for the majority of the world, you are looking at a two page cv.

[00:12:25] Mm-hmm. A Australasia seems to be the slightly different, where it can be a bit longer. So regularly across New Zealand, Australia, sometimes a bit of, you know, Singapore type of region, you can go longer. Maybe three or four pages. I wouldn't go any longer than that. Uk, us, Europe, middle East, most places in the world.

[00:12:45] You're very unique in Australia. You'd go for two pages. Yeah. I mean, if you've got less than four years of experience, you might go for one, but even if you've got 50 years of experience, you would only go for two.

[00:12:56] Molly: Yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. I did not know that. So that is good too. So in regards, so we spoke about the A TS, which is that application tracking system.

[00:13:07] And I remember the first time you told me about this, I was like, I didn't even know that was a thing and that existed. Um, so we've got this application tracking system, so how can we optimize our CVS for that? And I guess maybe we can include like keywords and for people who don't really know what keywords are, could you maybe just go into a little bit of like Yeah.

[00:13:27] Explanation about that?

[00:13:29] Victoria: Sure. So the a TS is the database that. Every recruitment firm has at every level, by the way, for the most junior to most senior, and every advert you C nine, nearly all of them are built within an a TS. So what happens is when you apply for a role, depending on the volume of applications that they get.

[00:13:47] The A TSA computer might do that initial screen. If you take, you know, one of the big, I don't know, investment banks, or I don't know Mars or a huge company, they have hundreds of thousands of applications a year. You can't expect a human to be trolling through all of these. So the a s is really useful for more senior roles or whether they've had smaller number of applicants.

[00:14:05] A human will screen your cv, so don't panic too much, but keywords are important 'cause the a TS basically looks at the job spec and looks at your CV and it will look for a match of keywords. Within that or, or dates and and so on. But the other way you it's used is that recruiters, when they get a role, will go through their database and they will, or they pay to go to the back end of the job boards.

[00:14:27] They pay a lot of money to go in the back end of LinkedIn, which is the world's largest pplicant tracking system. They pay a lot of money to do that. And they will search using keywords on your CV or your LinkedIn profile. So ultimately, if you can't beat the A TF, you're really going to struggle. And I would say it's not the most important thing, Wally, but it's a really important part of your CV and it underpins it.

[00:14:51] The most important thing, going back to our, our very first question, showing your value and tailoring your cv, but the right keywords will help you get over the line. So let's say that a recruiter is seeking. Keep going to marketing, but we'll go for marketing again. You know, marketing manager, a marketing director who's got particular expertise in the pharmaceutical sector who's maybe got a really deep understanding of social media and has maybe worked across Asia Pacific or across Europe and maybe, um, has been very involved with acquisitions, so has worked for companies that have been swallowing up other companies and doing a lot of rebrands, if that's what they are looking for.

[00:15:27] They will have a number of keywords that they will. Having the job spec. And if your CB doesn't meet that, they're probably gonna pass you by. And that goes back to that whole point about tailoring. Make sure you've got the right keywords. So the keywords might be, I mean, digital media marketing manager, head of marketing, marketing director, m and a, branding, rebrands, any number of things.

[00:15:50] But you just need to make sure that you look at the job specs and, and do a bit of a cross reference of getting those keywords in there.

[00:15:57] Molly: Okay, nice. And just making sure that you don't go to all that effort and put it all in a table Anyway. I still can't get over that. Yeah, I did that. So what advice would you have for people who are transitioning into completely different careers?

[00:16:13] I know you guys work with people one-on-one to rebuild their cvs, but Yeah, I guess where's a good starting point for someone who's like completely changing industries?

[00:16:23] Victoria: So if we're talking specifically about the cv, you know, if you go back to all the things we've already talked about, you've got to prove that you'll be valuable and you've got to have the right keywords.

[00:16:32] So what you need to do is look up for all of this. Really, you need to be thinking, well, who's my target audience? So what do they need to see in my cv? And then review your former career and think, well, what's. Transferable, but it's less about, I mean, it's about your skills to a certain extent, but it's always about that value.

[00:16:47] They're paying you money because you're gonna deliver results. So how can you show those results? Think about keywords. What keywords can you include to get you over that line? And remember, keywords also are important for the human eye. It's not just for the computer. If you're scanning something that the recruiter will spend about four seconds doing a quick scan of your CV five, if you're lucky, and they'll think I'm gonna read it or I'm gonna reject it.

[00:17:11] If you've got the right keywords on the page, it's almost going to, they're going to leap out to the page to the recruiter. So if you don't think you've got the right keywords, let's go back to the marketing example. I want to move into marketing. Um, what could I be doing in my spare time? Maybe that would give me the keywords.

[00:17:27] So is there a local community? Group, can I do some volunteering? Can I get involved with a friend startup? What could I be doing on Instagram myself? Can I do some storytelling? To start building those keywords into your CV by doing them in your non-professional life can be a really good way. Is there any extra study you can do?

[00:17:49] Can you go to any networking events on LinkedIn for free or or so so you can start to build that experience and get it onto your CV to get you over the line. Awesome. No, I love that.

[00:18:01] Molly: And is there like ideal formula or structure like bullet point, like these work? Like is there like an ideal format or magic formula for a cv?

[00:18:11] Victoria: Uh, I can tell you my magic formula. I mean, I think, you know, I know that what we do works is really effective, our magic formula. As you know now starts with proving your value, right? That's the number one thing, but I would say at the top of your cv, your name, your contact details, your LinkedIn, URL, we should be nice and short.

[00:18:29] And then beneath that, I would normally have a job title, which is your target job title, and then straight into the profile exec summary. I've often seen CVS where that's the whole of page one. I would say keep it really short. No one's gonna read a whole page of your yarn. Really boring. Profile, they're not interested.

[00:18:47] So probably 20% of page one. 25% and then straight into your experience at that point, focusing on your value. You know, I keep saying it, but that's the most important thing. And then towards the end you might, if you want to have a key skills section, you know, Molly, you were talking about having a table that you used to have probably at the top.

[00:19:06] If you want to include key skills for keywords, I put them at the bottom. I think the reader wants to get straight into your experience quickly. So. Have that further up on page one, and then you might want to have towards the bottom, obviously your education only. Anything that's relevant, it doesn't need to take up too much room.

[00:19:23] Any extracurricular type personal interests that you do that reflect competencies that we know employers are looking for? Yeah. For example, you are a triathlete or you like marathon running. If you have that on your cv, anyone reading your CV will go, oh great. So Molly's clearly really committed high energy, got a lot of stamina.

[00:19:45] So by just writing about some of the things you do, it can really show some of the competencies you'll bring. To work. So have a think about anything else that you do. And then you also might want to talk about your career break. If you've had one, you might want to have a career break section towards bottom.

[00:20:00] Molly: Yeah, I was gonna ask about that. 'cause obviously we have a lot of women listening. A lot of those women are mothers have taken time off their career and that is the question we get asked, like how do they approach that on a cv?

[00:20:12] Victoria: The way that I would do it, to be really honest about it, I think that's the first thing you know, it's very easy to feel a bit embarrassed or, or try and hide it.

[00:20:19] I wouldn't try and hide it at all. So on your, firstly, if you were returning post career break, I think I'd put a bullet point in my profile at the top, following planned career break. You don't need to say maternity or. Whatever the reason might be. It could be any reason just following plan, um, career break now seeking to transition to blah or return to blah, and then in your professional experience.

[00:20:42] And we just have on the left planned career, same format as your jobs planned career break and the dates on the right, and then don't write anything underneath it. And then. Continue with your professional experience. Yeah. And then I might have a career break section towards the bottom. And in that I would include, I suppose if you've done anything that might be really interesting, if you've, if what you've been doing is at home looking after the kids or your family member who said that's totally fine, but you probably don't need to go into that.

[00:21:10] But if you've been helping friends with their startup, we've done some volunteering, particularly high level volunteering, I would include it. You know, at the end of the day you'll see these, a marketing document you've gotta show. How good you are. So that's really worth including if you've been studying, I'd include it.

[00:21:25] But you know, I've seen CDs where people say things like, chauffeur two, busy family of four personal chauffeur's, a busy family of four, you know, and or diary management of three busy children and, and husband. It's just really, and it's, you might think it's funny but it's not that funny 'cause we've all seen it a million times.

[00:21:42] So I wouldn't do it. Keep it really professional. Yeah. You might think it's been quite clever and funny, but. It's not,

[00:21:51] Molly: it's not here. Seen it before. And I love what you said about a CV as a marketing doc. 'cause I think that nails it. Like we forget that it is literally a piece of marketing and we've gotta market ourselves.

[00:22:03] Yeah. So we need to dedicate time to, this isn't something we can just white together in five minutes as well. It needs like good thought and mm-hmm. Yeah. And or professionals to do it for you. So I guess that was great 'cause we kind of talked about, you know, taking a professional or like taking planned gaps or a planned break As far as LinkedIn goes, like I've seen some really high level like execs and their LinkedIn is shocking.

[00:22:31] So how important is having a LinkedIn to match your cv? And can we copy and paste our CV onto LinkedIn?

[00:22:39] Victoria: So they are actually quite different. If you think about, you'll see these normally much more formal as a document. LinkedIn and the way that people use LinkedIn is much more informal. Say for example, my profile.

[00:22:51] By the way, everyone, please connect with me if you are listening to this and watching this. But I mean, you'll see how I've written mine. It's really, it's very much in the first person. It is quite chatty. It really gets my personality across. Whereas my CD. It's much more formal. There's no pronouns, there's no sort of my eye.

[00:23:06] We, it's very much more, yeah, clear and more formal. So the way we use LinkedIn, it's very different. So you can't copy and paste the two 'cause they are so different. But they need to compliment each other and, and basic level job titles and. Dates, of course, need to match. But more importantly is that they're really telling the same story and the key problem and where I think, you know, we write a lot of LinkedIn profiles, where it becomes trickier is that you only have one LinkedIn profile, but you have a number of CDs.

[00:23:36] So we will regularly write a portfolio of CDs for a client that's slightly different. And not massively different, but with your LinkedIn, you've only got one. So you've got, it's quite a tricky balance to think, well, who are all my target audiences? Yeah. In my case, I've got six different target audiences.

[00:23:53] Okay. So I'm appealing to individual clients that want to buy CVS and LinkedIn and coaching. I'm an executive coach. I'm. Writing for organizations that want to engage us for, to support their people. I'm a keynote speaker, that's three. I'm a leader within the Hanover business, who, who, who bought our business a few years ago.

[00:24:12] So I want to be, I'm seen as a good leader. I'm massive on DEI, particularly around gender. So I want to be seen in that gender space. Yeah. Um, and finally I'm a non-exec director and I want to further that career, so I've got that piece as well. So I've got six different audiences. My CD's much easier, you know.

[00:24:29] Yeah. It's just. One thing. So it's just thinking, who's reading this? How do I want my colleagues to perceive me? Clients, competitors, yeah. Recruiters. Uh, think really carefully about your audience.

[00:24:42] Molly: Yeah.

[00:24:43] Victoria: It's very, very different. Whereas your CV, you can just have, you have 20 if you want, you know, it's, it, it's totally fine.

[00:24:50] Molly: Love that. And final question. So as you mentioned before, you've looked over 250,000 cvs. So if you were reviewing a cv, what would make you immediately want to interview a candidate? I.

[00:25:03] Victoria: I think, you know what I'm going to say to this? It's about seeing how valuable they will be to the business. It's all about the value.

[00:25:10] You know, if you think about your cost to a company, yes, you've got your salary, your bonus, and the benefits. There's the cost of your death cost. You know, you cost money every day you go to work. In terms of the, the space and the. Tech and everything. There's the training they put into you. There's the fact that most people aren't productive for the first 90 days.

[00:25:29] There's the recruitment cost, the opportunity cost of not hiring Fred or whoever else it might have been, but you are much more expensive than just your salary. A lot of people don't realize that. So you've got two show. Valuable. And you know, I think, and I've talked a lot about value throughout the last half an hour, Molly, but for me, that's the most important thing for sure.

[00:25:49] Yeah.

[00:25:50] Molly: Oh, so many amazing takeaways there. So many golden nuggets. So thank you so much, Victoria, for sharing with us on the podcast. And if people wanna connect in with your service, can you just give a little bit of an overview of what you do? 'cause it's so good what you guys offer.

[00:26:03] Victoria: Oh, thank you. Yeah. So what we do is we are a writing and a coaching firm.

[00:26:08] So the full journey really is that individuals engage us to help them figure out what they want to do. I call that their career strategy. What you love, what you not love, what are you good at, where are your skills, and really helping individuals. Figure out a game plan for their career. So that's part one.

[00:26:24] Once you know what you want to do, straight into the writing, by the way, a lot of our clients just come for the writing. The way the writing works is you would have an hour and a half really in depth consultation on teams following, which we create. All your documents and you have them back within just over a week.

[00:26:39] So that will be all the content for your LinkedIn, your covering, lesser, your cvs, your bio, whatever you might need. Then straight back into more coaching, if that's what you want. How do I network if 85% of jobs come through my network, I need to get working on my network. How do I get recruiters on board and on site?

[00:26:58] So coaching around the job search and finally interview training. So that's the full journey through to offer.

[00:27:06] Molly: Awesome. And we'll pop all the links where you can connect with Victoria and her services in the show notes. But a big thank you again, Victoria.

[00:27:14] Victoria: Thanks Molly.

KEYWORDS

CV, job market, resume writing, career advice, job application, networking, applicant tracking system, AI in recruitment, career transition, LinkedIn