Alternatives to the Traditional CV - by Ruadhri McGarry, www.mynewcv.ie

Online, February 24, 2010 (Newswire.com) - It's also equally safe to say that if you're a jobseeker, you're in the same situation as a large number of similarly qualified and experienced candidates, who have similar MS Word based CVs.
A question to ask yourself is how are you standing out?
If the answer is that you're not standing out, then perhaps you may want to think about it from the perspective of a hiring manager with a job to fill. This manager will have a large amount of CVs to sift through, all of them in MS Word or variants.
However, here are some simple steps to help your application stand out from the rest.
1: The World Wide Web
There are a number of ways of hosting your CV on the internet, and rather than just emailing your CV to the hiring company, why not consider emailing a link to your online CV or Resume as well? My favourite site in this area is www.visualcv.com. They allow you to host your CV for free, creating a custom url or web address based on your name, e.g. www.visualcv.com/ruadhri where you can view an example that Vie created. Also bearing in mind that more and more people are using mobile devices to view their email, why not create a version of your CV that can be easily used and designed for mobile devices? Here at mynewcv.ie we are pioneering this method, feel free to get in touch to learn more about this service.
Don't forget about sites like www.linkedin.com and www.xing.com, not only are they great networking tools, but they are also places to get recruited!
2: Portable Document File
Also known as PDF, Adobes product is an excellent way of creating a static, read only version of MS Word documents. They print better, look better and cannot be manipulated, plus as they are effectively an image rather than a standard file, they hold any and all formatting, irrespective of the software being used on the hiring manager's technology. The only caveat Id mention about PDFs is that if you're sending the document to a recruiter or to a large company to be held on file, most recruitment searching technology is geared towards MS Word, rather than PDFs. That's not to say that they're not searchable, but only that it's easier not to.
3: Consider the Resume
Especially in Western Europe, the mindset has been to use the CV as the main sales document, however, feedback from hiring companies, bearing in mind how quickly they must decide on candidates for specific roles, a one page resume can get you to the top of the pile.
If your communication skills are such that you can condense your career into one page, then what are you waiting for? It will guarantee that you stand out from the other applicants, and if well written, will leave the reader wanting to know more. Plus it's an excellent interview tool, just one page, with space for notes by the interviewer of course can be very useful. If you require more information on converting your CV to a Resume, feel free to contact us.
Ruadhri McGarry is Managing Director of www.mynewcv.ie, well help you get the interview, you get the job. For more information, please email Ruadhri [email protected].