The danger of over-using key words on your CV
In this competitive jobs market, ensuring that your CV is loaded with the key words both direct employers and recruitment consultants are looking for is integral. However, there's a danger that overuse of these could, eventually, count against you.
If you send your CV directly to a large financial services company in Scotland through their website, the chances are that it will go through some sort of matching engine – or clever little algorithms designed to rank CVs against the job spec.
Recruitment consultants rely more on human judgement when sifting through CVs, but with a large number of applications in a relatively tight job market currently, the more you can demonstrate your capabilities by the use of key words related to the role you're applying to, the better chance it have to will stand out.
Two types of roles surviving the downturn in Scottish financial services currently are risk management and change management.
Therefore, when applying to the latter, key words that will get you noticed include (obviously) 'change management', 'business transformation', 'process re-engineering' or – even better – some of the regulation driving change, such as Basel III or Solvency II.
In risk, throwing in terms like 'credit modelling', 'liquidity management' and 'Basel credit scoring techniques' will make sure that your CV is top of the pile.
The problem, though, is ensuring that you can back it up with specific experience and expertise once your CV is given further scrutiny.
"Understandably, in the current climate, candidates want to ensure that their CV turns up in a key word search, but when clients are being more exacting in their demands, people need more than this," says Mike Leeman, manager finance at Bright Purple recruiters in Edinburgh. "CVs need to demonstrate your expertise and your experience, and very often this means expanding beyond just using buzzwords."
In risk, for example, he says that more banks are demanding both credit risk experience, knowledge of new regulation and a demonstrable record of candidates applying their skills with a commercial focus. Examples of how you were able to increase profitability in an organisation are unlikely to turn up on any key word search, he says.
At recruiters Hudson in Edinburgh, a Google-based search engine is used when looking for potential candidates, which obviously looks for certain key words. Again, though, these are not always obvious.
"We would obviously look for certain things like professional qualifications, industry experience and then expand the search out – potentially to fields related to the role," says Mark Wilson, managing consultant, financial services at Hudson. "Once we find a suitable CV, we look at very qualitative factors including evidence of some softer skills"
Any CVs littered with buzzwords will also arouse suspicions that you're attempting to exaggerate your skills and experience. What's more, depending on the sector you're applying to, sometimes it can be the company you've worked for which makes or breaks your application.
If you're applying for a change management role, for example, having Tesco Bank, RBS or Lloyds on your CV can be very beneficial, as local recruiters working in this space know that candidates will have been exposed to some large-scale and complex projects.
