Let’s say it’s a Wednesday afternoon. You think “Urgh, is it only Wednesday today”.
You get a notification “New email”.
As you read it, you’re actually interested in the job opportunity that has been sent to you.
You decide, “Right, let’s give this a try!”
One problem though, you’ve been at your job since you were a graduate and your CV hasn’t been updated in years!
You dig up your graduate CV of 1 or 2 pages. You have a look and add a few lines and you sigh. “OK, it’s ready.”
You send your CV to the recruiter and they say “OK, I’ll represent you for the role.”
Now, do you actually know what your odds are of getting this job?
If you’re in an actuarial role, your role isn’t performed in the same way by every professional in the field and keeping it short could be underselling what you’ve experienced and what you can do as an actuary.
Let me show you the perspective of the employer.
When a prospective employer first receives your application with your CV, they would see a short/in-depth covering statement from a recruiter, depending on the effort a recruiter put into getting to know you.
The statement would show your actuarial experience in a snapshot and highlight which parts of your experience are relevant to the role.
At this stage, your CV is the only way you can make an impression on both the recruiter and the potential new employer.
When a CV is long, the person looking at applications has an option to look into the relevant details or glaze over the CV. Actuarial is a technical field and each individual in an actuarial team has unique experiences.
Imagine if you were a hiring manager: you haven’t met the applicants yet and you have documents that are initial representations of them.
Some of the applicants have longer CVs which help form an image of what they’ve been up to while some of the CVs leave room for doubt.
Who would you pick to interview first?
Would you like to know the details of the accomplishments of a candidate before putting the time to interview them? Or would you rather have a very short CV (e.g. one page) that doesn’t show the brilliant work they’ve been doing?
Would you be convinced to interview someone with very little detail on their CV, while another person has clearly expressed what their actuarial career includes?
Let me know your thoughts.
If you are an experienced Life Actuarial professional in the UK market and would like to see how to improve your CV, get in touch:
Abiramy Logeswaran (She/Her)
abiramy.logeswaran@goodmanmasson.com
Share this blog