CV Wars What's the Best Format to Display Your Media CV?

By: John George | Jan 3 2012 | 457 words | 2908 hits

The lowly CV has progressed leaps and bounds over the last few years. What was once a straightforward sheet of A4 “ a few if you were feeling flash - has now mutated into a dizzying range of media formats. If you're applying to media jobs, it stands to reason that you may want to present your CV using a format that is in keeping with the industry you want to enter into. So, if you're aiming for a digital media job, you might wish to show your CV digitally via an online hosting website. Similarly, if you're applying for a job in TV or film, you could create a video resumé. After all, showing what a natural you are in front of the camera won't do your employment prospects any harm. Even if you do have the gravitas of a news reader and the public speaking skill of a president, that's not to say you should just record your CV straight away. It needs to be carefully thought out.

When applying for jobs - in particular in new media - the temptation is to display just how at ease you are with technology. There's nothing incorrect with that, but don't let the point get lost in the medium: if you're truly the wonderful applicant, with the most appropriate skills and experience, you could probably scribble your CV on the back of a matchbox and still get hired. On the other hand, even the most polished digital CV will not survive examination if there's nothing on it worth examining.

Another ground-breaking take on the traditional curriculum vitae is The Social CV. This web portal aggregates data from your various social media accounts into a single webpage, enabling potential employers to collect a measure of you at a glance. The difficulty with this, of course, is that people are used to to blurting out the sort of status updates and tweets that they would never dare mention in work. The Social CV is a new innovative concept, but one that may come back to bite you.

While video CVs, digital CVs and social media aggregators can get you so far, it's what you say - not how you say it - that will eventually decide if you are successful and obtain that special media job. In spite of technological innovations, the CV, in paper form, is still going strong and is quite popular. If in doubt as to the value of a new format to display your CV, you could just take the safe option and stick with what you know.

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