Most people spend a lot of time polishing their CV’s, particularly whe they are on the lookout for an alternative role. However, how relevent is the paper CV in the age of the cyber-presence?
The first thing a prospective employer will do is google you, and hopefully the photos from “that” party 5 years ago have disappeared. The second thing they will do, if it is a position of some importance, will be to find someone who knows you, or has interacted with you, perhaps using Linked-in, or one of the other many networks that exist. Alternatively, if there is no record of you, anywhere, that is just as damming for a senior role carrying the responsability to articulate a position for your employer, or a point of view.
Your CV these days is a an ongoing project, something you have to work on continuously, not a once every 3 or 4 years “polish” to the written record of your activities.
By the time a prospective employer considers the paper CV seriously, the fix is in, “articulated” by your presence in the cyber mediums now available. Of course, fewer and fewer positions are now filled at senior levels by an ad, followed by a resume submission process. Now the head-hunters do the research and give you a call towards the end of the process, to determine your level of interest in a role you had not heard about.
