A resume of CVs
I try not to get involved when it appointing personnel – except for senior posts within the company. This might seem a strange policy at first glance – after all, with about 70 staff overall, the companies are not a huge and it wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) be too much to ask the Director to take an interest. It is not a case that I am not interested – I am always “on call” to answer questions and give advice – but there are several reasons why I have chosen to delegate this role to others.
One is that we have three quite distinct, self contained, units – the tour operation, a guesthouse in Nary and a hotel in Central Bishkek. They are all geographically separate divisions. For example, Naryn is some 350km from where I sit, in my office, in Bishkek, and I, physically, cannot deal with most of the day to day matters. I am too far away. The Silk Road Lodge and Tour operations may be based in Bishkek – and, geographically, close together – but even they are run from separate locations.
Each unit within the two companies operate as small teams – and teamwork is important. I think that it is important that those who are going to work with their new colleagues should be involved in the process of selecting new staff … and I try to encourage this. One person has to take the final decision, but this should be after listening to and considering the advice and opinions of others. Even if I was the person with the final vote, I would still want to, (need to), involve the people I employ as managers.
Another reason is that I have managers appointed to run each operation on a day to day basis. They carry the responsibility for running that particular part of the business, and so they need to have the necessary delegated powers to act effectively. How can I hold someone responsible for doing their job if I am constantly interfering and attempting to micromanage everything within the company?
It is sometimes difficult to explain to local people that I will not “instruct” one of my managers that they “must” take on a certain person as an employee. How many times have I heard the phrases: “But you are the Director … if you say give this person a job, it will happen.” Yes, technically, that may be true … and it may be how many businesses work … but it is not the way we work.
Anyway, despite this policy, in the last year I must have reviewed about 200 CVs. As it happens, they are not from applicants looking for work in our companies, but from people seeking jobs in one of the Associations of which we are members. Executive Directors, Accountants, Journal Editors and so forth, for the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators, the Destination Marketing Association or the International Business Council.
Place an advert in the press – with a deadline for receipt of applications – and they start to flood in. By the time the deadline passes, you can be fairly sure that you have received only half of the applications. Some cases have been dealt with very quickly – within a week – and with such a brief period perhaps this is not surprising … but in others the selection process has been planned to take over a month, and plenty of time allocated for each stage. Even so, the number of potential candidates who submit a late application is considerable.
Application Forms are not very common here, so an application usually involves a CV or resume. Sometimes there is a covering letter, copies of certificates and diplomas, copies of “open” letters of recommendation (“Testimonials”), and sometimes contact details of people prepared to give confidential letters of recommendation (“References”).
One of the things that has surprised me in each and every case where I have been involved in the selection process is that few people seem to understand how to write – or how to read – these documents. I don’t want to claim that my documents are perfect – but I hope that they are better suited to the task than most of the ones I have seen over the last twelve months!
One of the problems seems to be that there is something here called an autobiography. Everyone is taught how to write one at school. Essentially it is just a list of basic data: Name, address, gender, date and place of birth, schools attended, qualifications obtained, places worked. It may serve as a basic Curriculum Vitae, but it won’t necessarily help you get selected for a job interview. I suppose it might not matter if the basis for appointment is “blat”, (which roughly translates as “pull” … or personal connections), which often seems to be considered an (if not the most) important selection criteria that is likely to be applied.
There are many surprising features that appear in come CVs. For example, I have no idea why some candidates insist on including their height or hair and eye colour! As I understand it – they are NOT part of the traditional autobiography, so the candidate has either it was an important point – or they want to flesh out the document – adding a couple of lines to make it look longer. (“Never mind the quality … feel the width”).
Some people attempt to turn this basic CV into a resume … especially where it is thought that a foreigner might read the document – and/or when someone has been shown some “Western” examples. Most, however, have simply picked up on one or two individual items and simply included them, without thinking them through. Sometimes there is no evidence of any logic having been applied.
The word “resume” means summary. If many resumes resemble basic CVs, others try to be comprehensive (multi page) accounts of everything that someone has ever done – whether it is relevant or not to the application in hand. Sometimes it is not clear that the candidate knows what job they are applying for.
On some occasions I see an attempt to add detail to the Employment Record section of the resume. A sentence explaining the job title entails can be helpful. However, a half-page long list of responsibilities, including minute details such as “making tea and coffee” (!) doesn’t seem too helpful. Although examples of what has been done are helpful, I prefer to see the list limited with a phase such as “My responsibilities included: …” and two or three examples … preferably with something concrete about an actual achievement – which might be relevant to the post being sought.
There is one point that worries me that no-one else here seems to be concerned about. I usually count the number of jobs the person has had, and look at how long they have stayed in each one. The trend here seems to be for people to change jobs every year. I know that people move on … they need career progression, that is no problem … (For example: as a teacher I worked in just two schools – one for three and the other for seventeen, although my job within the second school, my roles and responsibilities, changed roughly every three years). To be fair, for many jobs, in many cases, it may not matter. However, I ask myself, if someone changes their job every nine or ten months – then what chance have they had to achieve anything? At first they have to settle into their new organization and role, and to learn the job, and then when they are able to contribute something to the development of the organization … they get itchy feet and move on and the employer has to start the whole process all over again. What is more, if the post being advertised is for someone to take a strategic managerial role, then I would hope and expect that person to be in place for some time and for the successful candidate to see a task through to completion. Even if someone is on the “career ladder”, seeking promotion, career progression, then I want to see something to help convince me that the applicant is not simply “filling time”. For example: some candidates include notes as to why they left each post … such as: “the contract ended, because the international funding for the aid project come to an end”, “the firm closed”, “to start a family”, or simply “to take up a new, better, position in a different firm”.
In my opinion, a good CV or Resume, should provide enough information to make the selection panel interested in the candidate. It needs to attract to attention. I remember the CV I saw for someone applying for the post of security guard – who had trained as a circus clown … now – provided the rest of his qualifications and experience are appropriate for the job description – that’s an applicant I want to interview. Not because I want him to make me laugh, but because this experience may mean he can bring other aspects to the job. (By the way, he didn’t get the job – someone else was considered more appropriate – but he was worth considering and the CV did it’s job … it got him noticed). Another example was the person who trained to parachute – not in the Army but as a hobby.
The Resume should also provide a basis for questions in the interview – but one of those questions shouldn’t be: “What happened between 2002 and 2004?”. Unfortunately, in my experience, this is not an uncommon situation. A gap in the employment record should be explained somehow … they were ill, having a child, made redundant, or were they sitting in prison?
To be fair each CV is different. Although there are some general “rules” which can be applied – every person is different and every job has its own requirements. One of the worst features of most of the CVs I have written is that they seem to have been throw together very quickly and lack any form of logic. Above all they bear little resemblance to the job which is being applied for.
For example, there is often a heading on a “western style” resume: “Purpose:” However, the number of times I have seen phrases like “… to improve my English …”. In a job application the candidate is supposed to be offering their skills and expertise. There is nothing wrong with seeking to improve their skills and knowledge, but if this is the stated purpose of the application, then what is the candidate going to bring to the organization? I think it belongs, for example, in the covering letter to show that the person is interested in their own self-development and not seeking a safe haven into which they can stagnate.
Bishkek