Experienced professional who recently moved to the UK, getting 0 interviews?

13 comments

1. What is your actual status and through what means do you have right to work. I would make that more specific. Are you UK national? Have indefinite leave to remain? I’d make it explicit.

   Also anecdotally this industry is extremely saturated and your CV tells me you’re competent but nothing to make you stand out against the 100 other candidates.

2. Try ukjobs subreddit

3. Former HR Director here.

   Whilst I appreciate you want to mask your data, with the level that you’ve masked it I’m not sure you can get meaningful feedback. The template format you’ve sent is fine. The content requires an experienced data analyst to assess.

   Unfortunately though it shouldn’t be the case, HR managers will often prejudice applications based on many details, such as the country you appear to have come from, the university you went to and your nationality.

   Not suggesting you post further details, but might advise you speak to citizens advice? They can be helpful.

4. One thing I will say, as someone who’s done recruitment in IT in the past, and who currently advises students in their final year on CVs, that this looks exactly the same as a gazillion other CVs I’ve received. The same presentation style, the same degree/MSc combination, a few relevant jobs. But there’s nothing “you” here (and I don’t think that’s just because of your anonymisation). There’s nothing to make you stand out from the background noise.

   Put yourself in my place. I have a position that needs filling that attracts 200 CVs. I’m going to look at the first 30 in the pile seriously, and in depth. Maybe the first CV I pick out for interview looks like yours. Maybe the second too. But after that I’m looking for something different. Something beyond experience and education. Something to make the person stand out, because you can guarantee there will be dozens of other very similar candidates otherwise.

   Don’t use an off-the-shelf template. Use off-the-shelf templates to inform a layout and design of your own, so you don’t go too crazy, but try to do something a little different so you don’t (aesthetically) look like yet another one of the multitude. Try to add (relevant) aspects of your life in that go beyond past jobs and education. Maybe you’ve volunteered somewhere? Maybe you’ve played sport at a high standard? Something – anything – to add a flavour of YOU in there. Maybe the person doing CV sifting plays or watches the same sport. Maybe they support the cause you volunteered for. But keep this to relevant stuff from the perspective of soft skills. Volunteering shows you’re good with people, for example.

   Specifically, in terms of your CV, I’d liberate some space by compressing the Certifications section. “Mastering Power BI and Excel” is somewhat meh – that could be relegated to a single line/bulletpoint under “Skills” (and maybe “Skills” becomes “Certifications and Skills”). In contrast, the Google Bootcamp could be bolstered into one of those “you” things – perhaps try to emphasise a little more how it was invitational and exclusive (ie you were invited, the 199 other CVs weren’t).

   Partly drawing on past industrial experience, partly on when I advise students on CVs. Hope it’s helpful – others might think it’s cobblers! 😁

5. It’s incredibly bland and generic. The CV looks like it was knocked up in about 10 minutes.

   Also it’s way to short.

   Oh, and the “Right to Work : Yes” needs either needs expanding or dropping.

6. There is nothing about you.

   “I am an experienced blah, having worked in several companies, using my blah expertise to improve xyz. I have managed a team successfully through an asteroid strike.”

7. Get your CV professionally redone on [Fiverr](https://go.procv.site). It’s worth it, especially in this market.

8. Your cv lacks results from how I read it.

   You analysed trends and optimised… anyone can do that, what’s your best example of a success? Did you take something from 200 to top 50, or something to say top 5.

9. You have 10 years experience and you have condensed this into half a page, whilst I accept long CV’s are not the way to go, you have gone too far the other way. Please give the reviewer something to get their teeth into. Are you including a covering letter? This would give you a place to expand upon why you are the right fit for the role. Are you applying for the right level roles considering you experience. If you are applying to low or high expect a rejection

10. Why don’t you have an intro paragraph about you and why you want the job? Otherwise you look like hundreds of others.

11. By far the biggest problem is that it reads as if you’re in India.

    If that’s the case, you are very unlikely to get a job in an oversubscribed field unless your CV stands out in some way – which yours doesn’t. If you’re in the UK, put your address on there or otherwise indicate your place of residence. As an employer, the need to relocate is a negative unless the candidate is outstanding in some way.

    Btw everyone has a right to work. If you mean that you have the right to work in the UK, there is no harm in stating your date of birth and share code in your CV – that’s the whole point of share codes.

12. What’s special about you? That CV doesn’t stand out to me.

13. I’d recommend adding a personal profile section before your experience to describe yourself, your motivations, approach to work and to identify what you think your key skills and achievements are. This should help make your CV a bit more ‘you’, rather than being rather anonymous.

    In terms of describing your experience and achievements in your various roles, first, don’t be afraid to start your bulletin points with things like ‘I managed’, ‘I produced’ & ‘I was responsible for’, this is your CV representing your skills and experience, remind the reader of that! Also, I’d think about adding more of the ‘how’ to your bullet points to highlight the tools and techniques you’ve used to achieve the outcome. E.g. “I was responsible for producing consolidated reports and dashboards for senior management using [technique x] and [product y]”.

    You might want to think about expanding the skills sections to include the keywords of products / analysis and problem solving techniques that you apply, this could help with some of the automated filtering and sifting that recruiters often perform and increase the chances of the CV being read by a real person but it comes at the risk of potentially annoying the reviewer.

    Hope this helps and good luck with your job search, don’t lose hope, I’m sure your time will come soon.