😪 96% CVs for grad school admissions for Engineering get rejected without even being read. And if you have applied for a few MS and PhD positions, you know it.
🕵️♀️ What Makes Professors Read a CV?
Most of the times professors are not sorting through the CVs themselves. They are too busy for that. So there is always someone, a Ph.D. student, a post-doc, a secretary who does the first pass and narrows down the 100+ applications down to 5-10.
So the real question is, what makes a Ph.D. student, a post-doc, a secretary read a CV? The answer is the same for pretty much any recruiter, any hiring manager, anyone who is ever hiring someone.
🌠 The Outlook
🐟 The average attention spans of humans used to be about 12 seconds so the expression “having the attention span of a goldfish” made sense because a goldfish’s got a 9 second attention span. But guess what? The joke’s on us because since the early 2000’s the average attention span of humans have decreased down to 8 seconds so having the attention span of a goldfish actually makes you more attentive than most humans.
⏳ The point is, a CV has got about 8 or less seconds to grab the attention of a reader before the person will move on to the next. And a great achievement buried down on the second page is probably not something the reader can find in the first 8 seconds. So, what can you give the reader in the first few seconds that will make them read the rest of your CV? Of course it’s the outlook. If your CV is looking very crammed up, with little to no headings, bullets, and has very long sentences/passages of text alone, it will make the reader overwhelmed and bored at the same time. It makes the reader feel like “Oh not again I will have to read SO MUCH to find anything useful”. The immediate reaction? They will move on to the next that looks like less work.
🪝The Hook
Getting the initial attention of the reader is not enough, you’ve got to make them hooked to keep reading it through and making it to the end. What can you give the reader to immediately make them feel “Oh this might be it, I might have found the right candidate”? It won’t be your GPA because GPA is not a standardized measure of performance. Is it the name of your university? Well apart from world famous universities, nobody else has that advantage. But if you add your university’s ranking (best in the country, top 10 in Asia), suddenly it becomes “different” from everybody else’s CV. Make an attention grabbing hook that will give an instant win to the reader by making them feel “Yesss I found the right candidate”.
💪 Highlight Muscle, Hide Fat
You have to play to your strengths and you have to make them stand out as opposed to just passively listing them. But even highlighting your strength and muscle is not going to be effective if you are equally showing and even highlighting the fat. You have to trim the fat as much as possible, and then you need to hide what’s left of it. When you’re applying for a tech internship, the size of your tech projects section vs your volunteer achievements section should be adjusted appropriately. And when you’re applying for a humanitarian/political/management position, the sizes and highlight level of the relevant sections need to be adjusted accordingly.
⚠️ But Wait There’s MORE
Whatever you just learnt will completely lose its value if you’re not speaking the right language and not using the right words to fill out each section. There is a certain art to listing your education, experience, projects, and skills. And that’s why I’ve put together a very short course to take you through the process of creating an amazing CV that will beat the 96% rejection rate.
For reference, I’ve used the same lessons to build my own CV and that one has never been rejected for a job, got me fully funded MS and Ph.D. positions, and got me 11 different scholarships and awards. The best part, you get access to my course AND my CV template for absolutely FREE. Skillshare is very kindly also offering a FREE one month of skillshare for students of this class. So what are you waiting for? Check it out!
❤My Favourite Things
🎬YouTube Video:
I went deep dive into the history of veritasium and found that the third video on the channel was the first time Derek actually showed his face in the video. Here’s the video.
📕Book:
If there is one book that has the potential to change your life, its Atomic Habits. And I got you a 60% discount for paperback, and hardcover versions of it because I think everybody needs to read it. Oh and I also got you the audiobook version for free.
🎶Music:
This week I checked an item off of my bucket list. I attended an Imagine Dragons concert. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. I can’t explain it but it “transformed” me. I always loved music but I have a newfound love and respect for it. So I’ve been listening to their mercury tour live songs on youtube on repeat.
🔍I’m Learning:
I see that you’ve made it to the end. If you liked this blogpost, check out the other stuff I talk about on my YouTube Channel. Don’t forget to subscribe!😉
