There are numerous gimmicks in the CV sector. ATS is one to some degree and long consultations and statistics aren’t quite what customers are led to believe either.
But what about job interview guarantees? Some firms go as far as to not only guarantee interviews for your target job, but even within a short timescale such as three weeks.
We’ll discuss the validity of this claim below, and you can make up your own mind.
Some CV firms will have you believe that it's possible, but we are honest, and the honest truth is that it can't. Yes, it’s certainly true that a great CV can boost your odds considerably, but boosting odds considerably is a completely different kettle of fish to actually guaranteeing jobs/interviews.
We’ll explain just why below.
Ultimately employers are the decision-makers when it comes to who gets the job or not. Notably, they make the decision, not on the basis of a bit of paper (a CV), but usually on (A) whether or not the candidate meets the requirements they are looking for, and (B) if they impress over and above all the other candidates.
Usually there is just one winner in the competition that is job applications. And no one has the divine right to any job.
If you get rejected for a job, you can’t wave the piece of paper in your hand and shout to the employer. “Hey, you can’t do that. I have this piece of paper!”
Job applications don’t work like that.
You know this.
Everyone knows this.
Even the firms that ‘guarantee’ interviews know this.
That’s great, and it contributes to boosting your odds. That said, meeting requirements alone does not guarantee interviews or jobs.
Well, we come back to the fundamental truth that the employer is the decision maker, and they make decisions not just on one thing, but usually on numerous factors. Notably, these factors do not pertain to a piece of paper, on the contrary, these fundamental facts pertain to you personally, and what you personally have done, achieved, or bring to the table compared to your competitors.
Common factors that play a part in employers’ decisions include qualifications, location, gender, age, experience and how many ‘desirables’ and ‘essentials’ you meet on the particular job specification.
Significantly your CV is not a work of fiction, but it is based on real actualities pertaining to you. So, for example, you can’t say you were the CEO of BP if you weren’t, and you can’t suddenly invent an MBA from Harvard and add it to your CV. Similarly, if the employer is looking for a female CFO in her early 40s, living in Edinburgh, then you can’t gloss over the fact that you are a 50s male accountant in Sweden.
You get the gist.
Even so, the “essentials” and “desirables” on job specifications are not fixed in stone. Yes, the more of these boxes you tick the better. As long as you meet most of them (and especially the essentials), then you are still usually in with a shot. And especially if you can state your case over and above your competitors (we will come onto this in due course).
But say, for example, that you meet every single essential and desirable requirement on the job specification, and to all intents and purposes you fit the bill in every respect. Well, even then, you still aren’t guaranteed to get an interview.
Well, again we come back to the fundamental truth that it is the employer who will make the decision, and they can make it however they like, and on whatever basis they like. As such, even if on paper, you are a great candidate, this doesn’t mean to say that there won’t be another candidate that the employer prefers. And your competition is the biggest X factor when it comes to job applications. You never know quite who you are competing against, or just what your competitors’ credentials are. You also don’t know what contacts your competitors have (because sometimes decisions can boil down to who you know). Even things like photographs can influence decisions. And while employers are not supposed to discriminate on thing like age, gender, disability and ethnicity, some still do (both positively and negatively).
As part of his research for his CV book, our head writer, Paul, spoke to numerous employers and HR executives around this subject. Some of the conversations were very revealing. For example, one HR executive said that while they never advertised this fact, they only accepted candidates with at least a 2:1 degree from what they considered top universities. Another (public sector) HR executive said that some of their jobs were ‘done deals,’ but they had to go through the motions of advertising, as that was the organisation’s policy. As another example, one investment banking sector senior decision maker said she always binned all applications from particular recruiters unread – not because they were all unsuitable, but because historically those recruiters tended to send a mix of decent and poor candidates, rather than cherry-pick and selectively send just candidates who fitted the bill. As a busy executive, she just considered the CVs from those recruiters who did the cherry-picking for her.
Again, you get the gist.
You could have a great CV and tick all of the boxes, and do this better than all the other candidates, and still potentially not get the job.
The executive job market is fiercely competitive. If you are applying for coveted, well-paid executive, director or CxO jobs then it is almost inevitable that you’ll be up against other high-calibre candidates.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t outshine them, but it does mean that you need all the help you can get to stand out. And not just any old help, but the right help.
It’s also worth pointing out that many executives (including your competitors) don’t maximise the potential of their CV and applications. Indeed, most come nowhere near to doing that.
So it’s not all negative, there is lots of scope to boost your odds, over and above the competition.
As established, it is not possible to guarantee interviews, and for all the logical and common-sense reasons presented above.
Logic and common-sense dictates that they must do.
At the same time, gimmicks like this can be profitable for those firms who resort to such tactics.
You’d have to check the small print on those firms’ websites. If you do you’ll likely find that it’s more a case of just tweaking things if your promised interview does not materialise.
We regularly fix the CVs of other firms, including self-styled ‘top firms’. When it comes to fixing the CVs of firm who ‘guarantee’ interviews, in our experience there are always issues (usually both major and minor) and tweaks are nowhere near enough. As such, by necessity, we rip things up and start again properly from scratch.
Yes, we’ve been doing this successfully for years. While we don’t resort to gimmicks or false statistics, one statistic that we will give you is that we have a 100% record of improving every professional CV that we’ve ever received in nigh on a quarter of a century. This includes CVs from self-styled top firms.
Yes, and it’s a real money back guarantee. Please click for details.
As mentioned, we’ve never once received a CV that we couldn’t improve (usually dramatically and on numerous fronts).
While we are honest and don’t resort to gimmicks or false promises, what we regularly do for clients is to boost their odds in the competitive executive job market.
As established, while a CV on its own can’t guarantee you an interview, what a genuine top-quality CV can do is to better state your case to the employer. This is done, not by fiction, but by maximising your raw material and presenting it in the way employers prefer – concisely, pertinently and powerfully. This in itself, sounds quite simple on the surface, but there is far more to this than meets the eye, and it also involves creativity, marketing expertise, strategy, optimisation, meticulous attention to detail and much more.
Make no mistake, while no CV can guarantee interviews, a genuine top-quality CV can go an awful long way to help you tick the right boxes and stand out further and more powerfully than you ever did before.
We’ve helped your competitors over the years. If you would like our help, then we would be happy to help you too.
What makes for a good CV → CV Sector Exposed → Put Us to the Test →