Can't seem to land an interview no matter how many job offers you apply for? Mister Bilingue is here to explain how a specialist coach could help add a little sparkle to your French CV!
Despite your best efforts to write and send off dozens of CVs and cover letters, at a certain point it's time to start considering the fact that your profile may not be right for the recruiters you've been contacting.
What if your CV is the problem? On average, recruiters spend less than 30 seconds reading a CV, which greatly limits your chances of being selected for an interview if your CV is poorly laid out or difficult to read.
There are professional coaches out there who can help you to solve this problem. It's their mission to help you to improve your CV, and even your cover letter, with a view to making your application more attractive to recruiters!
How much value will this type of service add to your application and where should you start selecting the right person? Mister Bilingue is here to explain everything you need to know when it comes to these editing and recruitment whizzes!
Ready to add some sparkle to your CV? Let's go!
If you're having trouble writing your CV or your cover letter, luckily this is exactly what a CV coach is trained to help with! Skilled in writing and answering questions related to recruitment, these career management professionals offer editorial and advisory support to their clients with the objective of helping them to secure a job interview.
If all you're looking for is to polish up your CV a bit, you can opt for a simple CV analysis service, which provides detailed information on the strengths and weaknesses of your CV. This helps you better understand what could make your document more attractive. If you're looking to apply for jobs in foreign companies, it's also possible to use a coach for translating your CV. Finally, it's also possible to totally rework your professional profile from top to bottom with a coach who will reimagine your CV from A to Z following a one-on-one interview.
These different types of service can range in price. For a detailed analysis of your CV, you could be looking at a rate between €40 and €60, whereas an interview and an overhaul of your CV could come in at several hundred euros. Prices can fluctuate from coach to coach and depending on the type of service being provided, so be sure to enquire about what they offer and at what cost, to help decided who might be the most useful for your situation.
If you're still at the beginning stages of your job search, we recommend that your first port of call should be asking for help on your CV and cover letter from your personal network.
If you do eventually decide to seek out the services of a specialist coach, it may well be because you've received a lot of rejections to your applications, or because you didn't receive any feedback at all... If this is the case, using a specialist coach can be a great way of revitalizing your job search.
So what exactly are the benefits of this type of service?
The Mister Bilingue team has listed the four main positives of using the services of a recruitment professional:
Opting for a detailed analysis of your CV is a sure-fire way of gaining valuable feedback on your career path. What is your position in the field in relation to the job in question? Which of your professional experiences are most valuable to recruiters? What skills could set you apart from other candidates? If you go for a personalized interview, your coach will be able to give you a more concrete idea of your most valuable skills and qualities and how best to showcase them on your CV and in your motivation letter.
With the help of a specialist coach, you can finally figure out exactly how best to highlight your most relevant skills to secure the job of your dreams. A CV coach has the expertise to draw out the main strengths in your profile and enhance their value to your CV, ensuring that recruiters go straight to the qualities that best suit you for the position in question. If you've been captain of your local football team for five years, for example, a CV coach will know the right way to use this experience as a way of highlighting your leadership skills, your team spirit and your loyalty. Positive points like these can have a real impact on your application!
Say goodbye to the idea of landscape format CV with three different fonts and colors on a gradient... with the help of a specialist coach, you're guaranteed to end up with a more attractive CV.
We all know that substance is the most important thing when it comes to applying for a job, but aesthetics can play an essential role with recruiters as well! If you want a CV that stands out on the pile, you'll need a clean, professional document that highlights both your personality and your sense of detail. With the help of their expertise and professional CV templates, your coach is sure to know how to make your document more attractive to recruiters.
Companies often ask applicants to send a cover letter in addition to a CV, and some recruiters even look at candidates' LinkedIn profiles to check for possible inconsistencies between their CV and what appears on their online profile. For this reason, most specialist coaches offer their expertise across the board, from writing motivation letters to setting up your professional LinkedIn account. By taking a wider look at your profile as a candidate, your coach will be able to create cohesion between your different documents. In addition to reassuring recruiters, this type of consistency on paper and online will allow you to paint a fuller picture of your whole professional career. What better way to improve your strategy for the job search!
Seeing as the CV has become so essential to opening the door to an interview or to securing a job in France, the specialist CV coaching profession has greatly developed in recent years. With rates ranging from €70 to €150 per interview on average, the CV business has also generated its share of sites to be avoided.
To be sure that you don't run into this kind of problem, it's essential to choose your specialist with care. That means choosing someone who can offer a quality CV, with the guarantee of maximizing positive returns from your job search.
But how can you tell the difference between a certified coach and a phony?
Mister Bilingue has four top tips for assessing different coaches online:
If you want to go a step further in this direction, you can also find out whether the coach in question is a member of a professional coaching association. These associations often have ethical charters designed to reassure customers that the work will be done well and in accordance with professional standards.
How long has the coach been working in the field? Who are their clients? What type of training did they undergo? The answers to these questions will help you to know more about the coach's skills and background. If it's a real professional you're dealing with, they will certainly have a LinkedIn profile that you can consult for further information on their career and past experience as a coach.
It's very easy for a company to only highlight positive reviews on their own site, or even to create fake comments. A quick internet search should allow you to find reviews of the company you're looking at, giving you a more precise idea of their authenticity as a company.
Certain unscrupulous companies make their money by taking advantage of terms in the conditions of sale, which have been put there to protect the company from dissatisfied customers or litigation, wrapped up in conditions that customers can never realistically meet. So, make sure that you understand the conditions of your agreement before signing a contract with your future coach (and let's be clear, this applies to any contract!).
So, should you call on a specialist coach to write your CV? Well, you now have all the knowledge you need to make that decision!
If you think you're up to the task by yourself, then check out some of our tips for writing a perfect French CV and a cover letter in France!
Already got an interview for your future job? We're here to give you a helping hand to answer the 10 questions most frequently asked by recruiters!
We hope you found these tips useful and wish you all the best in your job search. If you are interested getting the best tips from Lea, our French specialised career coach, get in touch with her right now!
You can also attend our webinar on "How to find a job in France" to know the principals of a job search in France!
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