70. The 7 Second CV: What recruiters wish everyone knew | Libby White
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Welcome to All About Business with me, James Reid, the podcast that covers everything about business, management, and leadership. Every episode, I sit down with different guests who have bootstrapped companies, masterminded investment models, or built a business empire. They're leaders in their field, and they're here to give you top insights and actionable advice so that you can apply their ideas to your own career or business venture. Welcome to All About Business Shorts, where we share practical advice you will actually use. In this episode, we're doing things a little differently. Instead of a career journey, we're focusing on one thing that still trips up even very experienced professionals.
That's your CV. I'm joined by Libby White, one of our top re-consultants who reviews CVs every single day for mid-level and senior roles. We'll unpack what hiring managers really look for, how to distill years of experience without underselling yourself, and the small strategic changes that can make a very big difference. If you've ever wondered why your CV isn't getting the response you expect, this one's for you. So today in our spring short series, I'm really pleased to welcome Libby White. We're going to be talking about a subject close to my heart, the CV. The CV is a document that is just so important in recruitment and in career progression. And it's something that people have sort of said for years, you know, the CV's over, it's had it, but it seems to persist.
And Libby, I'm so pleased you can join me. You've got three years experience. Mm-hmm. as a specialist senior consultant in reed um you're based in southwest london you look particularly at marketing communications pr and design type roles so the cv is a is in a sense a marketing document yes i mean that's the function i think it serves but what what does a an employer look for in, as my title of the book suggests, the seven seconds they take to evaluate a CV? What is it they're looking for? Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, firstly, thank you for having me today. It's a pleasure to be here and obviously to be talking all things CVs. In terms of what I would say clients are looking for is somebody that's grown within a company, I would say is super important.
We like to call it sort of bunny hopping. If somebody has been there for six months, been there for nine months, compared to somebody that's grown through a company and maybe gone through promotions in different levels, it really does stand out to the client because it shows their dedication to work and achieve whatever it is that they might be doing. So when you say bunny hopping, they're looking to exclude people who bunny hop. Not necessarily, but I think the market has changed so much since the book came out in 2019. I think there's always a lot of questions around why people have bunny hopped and people have been in situations where they've been made redundant or they've had to do interim positions.
So there has been a lot more of that over the last couple of years. So if you're in that situation, you need to make clear why. Yeah, absolutely. Make clear why, but obviously that's why we're here as an agency to understand that. There's perfect reasons behind it, but it's just about them being aware of that will potentially come up as a question from a client. Right. So if you're not in that situation and you've been at the same place for five or ten years, you want your CV to show your progression in that employer. Yeah, absolutely. Really important. So what sort of things does it need to illustrate? Absolutely. So obviously, you can show the different sort of titles that you've had within the company.
So an example that I can give you is senior marketing executive. You know, if somebody's had quite an execution based role, and then in the next six months to a year, they've been promoted to assistant marketing manager. And then on from that.
Why is the CV still important in today's job market?
So I think a lot of people, if they've worked for the same company, they'll just keep their relevant information at the top.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:55
2
Why is the CV still important in today's job market?
3:55–8:16
3
What do recruiters look for in the first seven seconds of a CV?
8:16–14:07
4
How can you effectively showcase your career progression on your CV?
14:07–20:33
5
What are common mistakes to avoid when writing a CV?
20:33–27:23
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