Jan 16, 2022
One Mistake Candidates Attempting to Break Into the Tech Industry Make on Their CV and How You Can Avoid It
Are you applying for jobs in tech with no experience and facing constant rejection? Perhaps you are making this one crucial mistake I made on my CV.
Is your CV even showing up?
Before applying for jobs as a developer, my latest work experience was a Service Desk job. Naturally, I covered my CV with technical words related to this industry. Even though I was applying for every Junior Developer role, I received few responses. And recruiters only ever called me for Service Desk jobs.
I was finding this frustrating. Was the world telling me to stop applying for Developer roles?
It was not until I ran my CV through a keyword search tool to see my top five keywords were all related to my previous work experience. While the work was valuable. The filtering software many companies use meant my CV was not reaching the hands of hiring managers.
After I formatted my CV and changed the keywords to my desired job description, I began getting interviews.
What I realised is that relevant keywords make your CV stand out.
How to make your CV stand out
To make sure your CV does not get filtered out, your keywords must apply to the job description.
Here are some tricks:
Put your CV through a keyword search. See what keywords come up and compare them to the job description.
There are many free CV scanning tools on the internet, which will scan your CV against a job description. This will help you see how relevant your CV is.
If keywords for your old industry appear, remove them. You want the most common keywords related to the job description you are applying for.
If you do not have any experience relevant to the tech industry. Chances are you do not have enough experience for the job role. Look into ways to make your CV relevant with certifications, freelance experience, or getting a job that has overlapping experience.
