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New Year, New Year’s resolutions and a new job?

Written by: David Thomas
Published on: 3 Jan 2017

DAVID THOMAS

New Year, New Year’s resolutions and a new job? By David Thomas - Procurement and Supply Chain specialist at Intapeople

Firstly, Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and I wish you all the best for 2017. In my post in December, I highlighted the reasons why being proactive and applying for jobs in the lead-up to the Christmas period was a good idea. In short, there is less competition as almost everyone is in ‘Christmas mode’ and, understandably, has tunnel vision until the New Year.

This week, the first working week back will be the busiest week for registrations, online applications and general online traffic for the Recruitment Industry, for the entire year. There are many theories as to the possible reasons why; a new job may be included within people's New Year’s resolutions for instance. I personally feel that it’s because everyone has been enjoying the last week or month or so filled with festive traditions and general revelry that they haven’t thought about anything but. “Happy New Year!” is followed by “Oh no, I have work on Tuesday. I don’t actually like my job as much as I thought I did, what other options are there?”

Whatever the reasons, your competition, compared to last month, has been exponentially increased, more so than any other time in the year. You can’t afford to just use the same old generic CV to apply for roles. What will your competition be doing? If they are good they’ll be going through the job specifications and tailoring their CV to suit each role precisely. If the role is being advertised directly by a company then they are probably doing their research on the company and tailoring a covering letter to accompany their CV. It is so easy to apply for a role these days, just a couple of taps on a smartphone. But nothing in the world worth having comes easy. Take your time, look at each role closely and modify your applications accordingly. These days, if your CV doesn’t closely match, is strangely formatted or just looks lazy, then you may as well not have applied. People don’t seem to place enough of an emphasis on the importance of their CV. If you were looking to start your own business you wouldn’t just knock up a Business Plan in 15 minutes, would you? Well, you may, but you wouldn’t get very far. First impressions are everything, your CV is your first impression with that particular company, make it count.

If you are reading this post then you may be thinking of applying for a new role. If you are, then I strongly recommend that you take your time to go through your CV thoroughly. Even if you’re “ just testing the waters” still update it. It wouldn’t be a fair test, to use a scientific analogy, if you just used an old generic CV. You wouldn’t be representing yourself as well as you could. If you’re “just seeing what’s out there” bear in mind that is usually a pre-requisite to actively looking on a daily basis. Fundamentally, be different, be thorough and do it well. Stand out from the crowd.