Putting together a well-written resume can be a huge challenge. Resumes provide you with the single opportunity to make a good impression and secure an interview for the job you want, but they are often littered with problems that lead them to be placed in the “no” pile.
In a bid to help fix that, skincare brand Clere for Men, Retroviral and boutique design agency Wonderland Collective collaborated to launch a new CV builder to at least give job applicants a better chance at getting a foot in the door.
According to Mike Sharman, owner of Retroviral, the idea was inspired by the deluge of unsolicited, badly-constructed CVs that come through his inbox on a daily basis.
“I receive unsolicited mails – weekly – from graduates, matriculants, and experienced industry individuals, vying for a potential role at Retroviral; anything. The mails are terrible. I’ve seen more attractive, Comic Sans, conference, communication spam. The urge to delete is strong.”
The site isn’t just about CVs though. Aimed particularly at men, it also provides grooming and styling tips as it looks to help job candidates improve their whole package.
“If you start off smelling good,” Sharman writes, “it’s a shorter leap to then feel good, and once you feel good, you’re on your way to looking good (with a few pointers on the style front required). These are the key factors for enhancing your confidence”.
“Clereformen.co.za has been designed to give you grooming advice, style guidance, while the CV Maker is the third side of the triangle to give you a one up on your future and help you realise your personal vision.”
“Everything in life is about confidence,” he adds. “This brings us full circle to actually stepping foot into the interview situation to land the job you are after. Your paperwork has to be in order, your CV needs to look slick, but the piece of paper isn’t going to win you the job. You – the person – are!”
Unemployment has massively increased in South Africa over the past 20 years, the joblessness affecting 8.3-million South Africans is a catastrophe that threatens the very foundation of our society. The aim of the new Clere website is to try assist jobseekers & hopefully create some sort of difference in the employment sector.
“1 in 4 South Africans is unemployed. Here’s how we reduce those numbers!”
“If we could enable 1 million people to become employed or aid them starting businesses and they hire 4 people as a result, that’s 5 million new jobs that have been created – or 10% of our population.”
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