Sep 22, 2026 · 29 min · 9 segments
Most people treat their CV like a legal document, when it should be treated like a billboard: you've got three seconds to make a recruiter stop scanning and take notice. After eight years working as…
If you are looking to land your dream job, I thought a great place to start would be unpacking and auditing your CV and cover letter and giving you as much information on how to make that step the best it can possibly be, given it's probably one of the most important, as that is typically your foot in the door, okay? So the first thing I want to say about CVs and cover letters, okay, is that, especially your CV, I think the biggest misconception is that everyone thinks that it's this legal document, okay? Okay.
And it needs to be like extremely factual and detailed and more is more and it can't have anything missing.
Do you know how many CVs over the years I have manipulated, changed, tweaked, removed things, added things? There is no way some of the candidates that I helped get a job would have got a job if I didn't fuck with their CV, okay? The CV needs to be tailored every single time to the job that you're applying for.
If you're just sending the same generic CV to every single job ad and wondering why you're not getting a call, that could be the first mistake that you're making.
Even if the roles are all exactly the same, you still could make some changes that would increase your chances.
This is the general layout, okay? So I want you to think about this document, firstly, as like a bit of a billboard.
If you were driving on the freeway and you look up at a billboard, you've probably got three seconds to know exactly what the ad's about, what the message is, what they're selling, because otherwise you're driving straight past, right? Same goes with your CV.
If there are 100 applicants, I can guarantee you that the person screening these CVs is literally doing this, one, two, three, four, five, skip, one, two, three.
Their eyes are scanning down the page from top to bottom, left to right, to look for the keywords that they want to see in order to create little, ding, light bulbs in their head.
Because if you can create ding one, scan, scan, scan, ding two, they keep scanning, looking for another one, and ding three, I guarantee you that you'll move to the shortlist pile.
So holistically, I want you to think about how many dings can I create for myself using my CV? And so to do that, you really need to get into the shoes of your employer, of their organization, and picture yourself being on their side of the fence.
What are they looking for? What keywords do they resonate with? I don't really give a fuck if you have the best, fanciest titles on your CV.
If they are not relevant or make sense to the person reading the CV, they mean nothing.
If you are looking to land your dream job, I thought a great place to start would be unpacking and auditing your CV and cover letter and giving you as much information on how to make that step the best it can possibly be, given it's probably one of the most important, as that is typically your foot in the door, okay? So the first thing I want to say about CVs and cover letters, okay, is that, especially your CV, I think the biggest misconception is that everyone thinks that it's this legal document, okay? Okay.
And it needs to be like extremely factual and detailed and more is more and it can't have anything missing.
Do you know how many CVs over the years I have manipulated, changed, tweaked, removed things, added things? There is no way some of the candidates that I helped get a job would have got a job if I didn't fuck with their CV, okay? The CV needs to be tailored every single time to the job that you're applying for.
If you're just sending the same generic CV to every single job ad and wondering why you're not getting a call, that could be the first mistake that you're making.
Even if the roles are all exactly the same, you still could make some changes that would increase your chances.
This is the general layout, okay? So I want you to think about this document, firstly, as like a bit of a billboard.
If you were driving on the freeway and you look up at a billboard, you've probably got three seconds to know exactly what the ad's about, what the message is, what they're selling, because otherwise you're driving straight past, right? Same goes with your CV.
If there are 100 applicants, I can guarantee you that the person screening these CVs is literally doing this, one, two, three, four, five, skip, one, two, three.
Their eyes are scanning down the page from top to bottom, left to right, to look for the keywords that they want to see in order to create little, ding, light bulbs in their head.
Because if you can create ding one, scan, scan, scan, ding two, they keep scanning, looking for another one, and ding three, I guarantee you that you'll move to the shortlist pile.
So holistically, I want you to think about how many dings can I create for myself using my CV? And so to do that, you really need to get into the shoes of your employer, of their organization, and picture yourself being on their side of the fence.
What are they looking for? What keywords do they resonate with? I don't really give a fuck if you have the best, fanciest titles on your CV.
If they are not relevant or make sense to the person reading the CV, they mean nothing.
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