My Favorite CV of All Time

My favorite “CV” of all time was created by a chief marketing officer who was very focused on a particular industry and had identified 25 companies that would be suitable employers in that industry. She knew that getting a meeting with all 25 would be difficult and creating a CV which would look like every other CV in the market would definitely not be an effective approach.

Instead,      she  dropped   the traditional  CV   concept all together  and  went  out  and ordered 25 kunafa cakes. A kunafa cake is an Arabic dessert which has a  special  dough,  is covered  in syrup, and topped with cheese. It is often also served with nuts or clotted cream in some cases. To make things even more quirky, she took a big bite out of each one before sending it!

On the top of the box she wrote: “Is somebody nibbling at your piece of the cake? Call Mariam at +971 555 5555 to find out how you can get it back.” She then proceeded to send the fresh kunafa and made sure to take a piece out of each one.

The kunafa was delivered to their respective CEOs, and unlike a traditional CV which would have been sent to HR and filed away into the dark abyss called a “candidate database,” the fresh kunafa was immediately taken into the CEO’s office. Curious, the CEO would open the box, and, confused as to why some of kunafa is missing, would read the inscription on the top flap. The response was tremendous! Every single CEO called her for a meeting, and she got three job offers in less than 60 days.

The moral of this story is that your CV is not a mandatory weapon in your job search arsenal. You don’t necessarily need to send one to get a meeting with someone who can give you a job. You can be more creative and definitely more effective if you use other approaches other than the typical CV.

Most CVs are never read, many are deleted, and most get ushered into the darkest corners of human resources never to be seen again.  To beat the herd get creative and try something different.