Agents wanting a synopsis? WTF!?

[BolshieBastard]

Had one or two agents recently wanting a 'synopsis' of my skills to send to clients with my cv. WTF for!? My cv is concise as it is with contact details, profile, skills and achievements on the first page in bullet form. My last 3 roles are on page 2 in bullet form. Older jobs get a one liner on page 3.

Course, they could create a 'synopsis' to send to the client but they are too half arsed to be bothered. And WTF do clients need a 'synopsis' of someone's cv? How about they actually read the cv's they get sent and do their job properly!?

[Gentile]

Agents tend to think in terms of paragraph-sized summaries of skills. Hiring managers are typically looking for far more depth to make their decisions. In order to cater for both, my approach is to have this on the front page of my CV:



And then to have lots more detail to back those claims up in the rest of my CV and in my blog, that they can research at their leisure. I find that approach works for me.


PS: I believe that mock-up replete with blurry edges above is a fairly-accurate impression of the way that Agents actually see my CV.

[BolshieBastard]

Agents tend to think in terms of paragraph-sized summaries of skills. Hiring managers are typically looking for far more depth to make their decisions. In order to cater for both, my approach is to have this on the front page of my CV:



And then to have lots more detail to back those claims up in the rest of my CV and in my blog, that they can research at their leisure. I find that approach works for me.


PS: I believe that mock-up replete with blurry edges above is a fairly-accurate impression of the way that Agents actually see my CV.

Nah. They wanted me to proved an explanation where my skills and previous experience matched and fitted the client's job spec.

[norrahe]

Nah. They wanted me to proved an explanation where my skills and previous experience matched and fitted the client's job spec.

They always want that as they are too lazy to work it out for themselves.

[Gentile]

Nah. They wanted me to proved an explanation where my skills and previous experience matched and fitted the client's job spec.

You can either waste time getting happily cross about it (which isn't all that lucrative, but that feeling of righteous indignation: boy, it's a zinger). Or you can try explaining to the agent why you think your CV will be attractive as is, and move on without looking back if they don't listen.

I find that most agents do listen when you explain things calmly and civilly to them. The one I occasionally get is "can you shorten your CV down a bit?" (which is of course what makes their job of initial sifting easier). When I explain that the reason it's so long is because my approach has been so successful, and tell them that meaningful detail is what hiring managers are actually looking for to make their decision once the CV has passed the initial sift, and offer to try it their way next time if I prove to be wrong, they're usually prepared to give my suggested approach a go.

It's up to you, though: you can choose to be aggro about it instead, and be the most undisputedly-correct guy in the job centre if you want to.

[Justin Control]

They always want that as they are too lazy to work it out for themselves.

You are shooting the messenger because you don't like the message!

Agents only do this because that's what their clients want them to do.

Most contractors simply don't want to accept that from the client's perpective they are simply a bucket of buzzwords to be bought at the lowest price.

[Gentile]

You are shooting the messenger because you don't like the message!

Agents only do this because that's what their clients want them to do.

Most contractors simply don't want to accept that from the agent's perpective they are simply a bucket of buzzwords to be bought at the lowest price.

FTFY. ClientCos by contrast usually want us to actually get things done.

[Antman]

Agents tend to think in terms of paragraph-sized summaries of skills. Hiring managers are typically looking for far more depth to make their decisions. In order to cater for both, my approach is to have this on the front page of my CV:



And then to have lots more detail to back those claims up in the rest of my CV and in my blog, that they can research at their leisure. I find that approach works for me.


PS: I believe that mock-up replete with blurry edges above is a fairly-accurate impression of the way that Agents actually see my CV.

That was funny, trying to picture their Patrick Bateman way of viewing the world!

[Justin Control]

FTFY. ClientCos by contrast usually want us to actually get things done.

............. at the lowest possible price.

Which is why they appoint agents in the first place.

[Gentile]

That was funny, trying to picture their Patrick Bateman way of viewing the world!

And I'm not even joking. The number of agents I've had sending me an e-mail saying "can you send me your telephone number?", and then actually having the cheek to advise me that I should really include it on my CV is staggering. My telephone number is located prominently on the first page, on the line immediately below that skills summary that they can't drag their attention away from.