Career Change & Executive Coaching

On average, people spend a total of 15 to 20 seconds on every CV and cover letter that they see. If they're staring at a stack of 300 of CVs and cover letters, it's likely to be even less. Their primary goal at that point is to eliminate as many as possible as quickly as possible.

That means you've got very, very little time in which to avoid the wastepaper bin. The best way to do it, is to have a clean, two-page, chronologically organized CV with plenty of white space and a short, to-the-point cover letter. You should include "scope data" - important quantifiable data and discrete facts that tell the person doing the recruiting how you can make his company better. But don't go on too long:

Too much clutter is exhausting for someone who's halfway through the stack. The biggest mistake job seekers make is writing a too-long cover letter. The goal of a cover letter is for potential employers to put your CV/ resume into Pile B.