The Job-Ad Resume Paradox
Why you should adjust the skills section of your CV to be successful with your next application and to meet the job ads demands
When I applied for my last job, I researched for ways to improve my application documents, as a lot of people do. I developed and shifted my skillset in the previous years and was wondering how to put a focus on my recently achieved skills in my resume. My discoveries surprised me: The CV skills section is the smallest section in a CV. Besides looking for CV tips, I was also scanning through interesting job-ads at tech companies. During this process I spotted that the candidate requirements in job ads are mainly about skills and how long they were applied. This leads to the following disbalance:
Job requirements are mainly about the skills, but in the structure of CVs they are only a small sub-section, almost an unwanted necessity.
On the one hand this is a disadvantage for skilled applicants as they cannot show their skillset in a sufficient manner. On the other hand this is a drawback for recruiters as they do not get the information they are asking for in job ads.
Key outcomes of this article:
- Requirements in job-ads are 80% about the candidates’ skills
- The classic CV allows only 20% of its space for skills
- CVs are more about where you worked and studied, not about what you have done
- Throw the spotlight on your skills
How do job-ad requirements look like
A classic job-ad starts with an introduction of the organisation accompanied with more information about the specific sub-unit or department the position belongs to, followed by a description of the specific role. Then comes the crucial part and that is the “your qualifications”, “preferred qualification” or “minimum qualifications” section. This is the most important paragraph, as employers obviously know all about their company and are also aware of the role they offer. What they do not know or rather, who they do not know, is you. What they want to hear about from you, they clearly define in their qualification section. I looked at hundreds of job-ads, and overall 60% to 90% of the bullet points in the qualifications section is about the candidate’s skills and mostly about their hard skills.
How do CVs look like
A classic CV offers sections with personal and contact information, an area where the work experience is listed, a section with the educational path and last and often least a skill section. Maybe the CV is accompanied with a descriptive about-me text and a paragraph about the objectives the applicant wants to meet. If you look at how much space each section makes up on average, the work history claims the biggest part and thus attracts most of the attention.
What is the paradox?
As we have seen, the most important area of a job-ad is the qualification section. In that area the relevant skills for the position are listed and it is described how many years of experiences are needed for the role.
CVs have various sections and candidates commonly focus on their job and university history. They put a spotlight on where they have been and what their job title or degree is about. The rest of a job-ad is asking for information about practical work experience and thus about the hard skills and how long the applicant has applied them. Harnessing common sense, the CV skills section should be the most relevant of a résumé. But way off the mark. Skills are only a small area in most CVs, often taking up only 10% to maximum 30% of the resume’s space. And the years of experience in a certain skill are often not even mentioned.
How to encounter this paradox?
In summary, current CV templates and common structures have to be challenged. Consider the following:
- The biggest share of the candidate’s requirements in job ads are about the candidates’ skills
- The current standard CV grants often only 20% of its space to the skill section
- the skill section mostly just names the skills without any further information around them in a dull list
I tried to regard these factors and to meet the job ad’s requirements by a) taking the weaknesses of current CVs and b) by disrupting accepted standards. The result of a new skill-focused representation of skills is a so-called cv-skillmap:
A skillmap presents your skills in a visual overview. By integrating it in your résumé, you are able to give your skills the space they really deserve. I created a page (www.cv-skillmap.com), where you can easily build your individual skillmap and find ways to integrate it in your CV. Feel free to use it and let me know what you think. You can find further information about cv-skillmaps here:
- Directly on https://www.cv-skillmap.com
- Follow my CV-Skillmap LinkedIn channel
- Check out my other Medium articles