I recently listened to a podcast entitled 'Making it in marketing, sales, advertising and PR' and although there was plenty of great advice given overall, one section really stuck out for me, and that was when Nicolas Roope, founder and creative director of Hulger/Poke, talked briefly about how much he values personal interests when he's looking at CVs.
It's often said that if you're looking to go into the creative industry, what you do in your spare time and whether or not you're generally quite an interesting person, which is often decided based upon what you put down in your personal interests section of your CV, carries a lot more weight than if you were applying to other industries. For Nicolas Roope this is doubly so as contrary to adopting a top-bottom approach when looking at CV's, in the podcast, he states that he does things in reverse, analysing your interests first and deciding from there whether or not he's going to look at your CV in more detail. So it seems that it's not just about your work experience and extracurricular activities, although these are of course very important, for some what you do in your spare time is an equally important method of assessment. In line with his method, Nicolas states that he particularly looks out for links to online content such as websites, blogs and videos, or anything that you might have done to demonstrate interest in the sector you're applying for.
Although this may not be a method of analysing CV's that is adopted by many professionals within the creative sector, it certainly does give some food for thought. If you are truly passionate about the creative industry, then you should most certainly be able to show it and if you find that you have never written any articles, don't have a blog, don't have your own website, or haven't done something or other that can easily show your passion for the sector, then it stands to reason that anyone looking at your CV will find it difficult to be impressed by your overall application.
Another advantage of including online content in your CV is that it gives you the opportunity to express yourself. To an extent, a CV gives little insight into the type of person you are and although you could invest time in creating a creative CV it's not certain that all recruiters will respond favorably to this approach. But if a recruiter decides to click on a link say to your blog, or a website, as this is completely separate from your CV, there are no limitations on what you can do and you can let your creativity run wild. Moreover, it's a great opportunity to complement your CV with an insight into your personality.
So perhaps you should re-evaluate what you've got written down in your personal interests section of your CV. It could be the difference between having a good CV and someone inviting you for an interview.
Charles, GRB Journalist
