Does your CV keep getting rejected?

After a little prayer, you click apply. Congratulations! Your application has been sent into the clouds of hundreds of job-seeking hopeful like yourself, hoping for an email or call back. But days and maybe even weeks go by, and you haven’t heard anything.  We wanted to share a few reasons why your CV might have not made the cut and ended up on the rejected CV pile.

1. Irrelevant Experience

If your skillset doesn’t match the skills required in the job description, then it’s more than likely that your application was put in the “no” pile. The competition is fierce, and although there is no such thing as the “perfect” candidate, your experience needs to align with what the company is looking for to avoid being rejected.

How to fix it? Choose wisely the experience and skills that you send. Your CV shouldn’t be one CV that you send to as many recruiters as possible. You should customize its content to match the skills, education and experience according to what you read in the job description (without lying of course).

     2. Your Languages don’t match

As an agency that recruits multilingual professionals, we can vouch for this one. Let’s say you only speak German, and the language required for the role is Italian… well… I guess this one speaks for itself.

How to fix it? It is more difficult to overcome this obstacle. However, if you are studying Dutch and are looking for an English role in the Netherlands, always mention that you are learning Dutch and your level (even if it is A1). It really shows that you’re trying to get integrated into the culture and that you are planning to stay here.

     3. You’re off the map

Whether you’re living a three-hour commute away from the role, or the company isn’t considering candidates who are still living abroad, your application has probably been rejected especially if the position is to be filled urgently. It is important to be realistic with your commute time. Would you be ready to travel 3 hours per day? Probably not!

How to fix it? If moving is not a problem for you, give a disclaimer or heading on your CV that you already have set plans to move, or are willing to relocate. But always remember that finding accommodation in the Netherlands is difficult and recruiters know that.

     4. Too much (or too little) information

You scoff now, but imagine having to read through a CV that looks like a medical thesis in 5.5 font. We can see how much time and energy you have put into this “summary” of your experience, but avoid the newspaper format and take the word count down a notch. Less is always more unless the paper is scarce from information, but even a CV with just titles will be more likely to get a response than the first one.

How to fix it? First, follow rule 1 and filter the information you want to show on your CV to match the job description.
Second, summarize, summarize, summarize! Recruiters don’t need to know the name of each project you worked on in the past (except if it is 1000% relevant). They want to know your previous job titles, the companies you worked for, how long you stayed in each role and your key responsibilities.

Abroad Experience International Recruitment wishes you the best of luck in your job search!

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