Get more job interviews – customise your Dynamics CV in 5 quick steps

As a Dynamics consultant, finding good job opportunities to which you can apply is a fairly easy endeavour.

Most of the time, those opportunities find you.

The next steps, however, present a bit more of a challenge.

Have you ever applied to a great job for which you know you are a perfect fit, only to have your application rejected by the employer before you even made it to the first interview?

There is an easy solution to avoid these situations: to customise your Dynamics CV for each role you apply to.

Why should you do this?

Because while finding a new Dynamics role might be easy for you, you don’t want just any role. You want the job which will bring you the right career opportunities, salary and work/life balance.

The best Dynamics jobs will also be the ones which attract the highest amounts of skilled consultants.

By taking a few minutes to customise your Dynamics CV for the roles you really want, you will help the employer to see that you are a great fit and increase your chances of landing an interview.

How to build a Dynamics CV

When we say you should customise your Dynamics CV for job applications, it doesn’t mean that you have to rewrite it entirely each time.

If you’ve built a strong CV in the first place, you will only need to make a few small adjustments for each application.

The first thing you need to do, if you haven’t done so already, is to write a CV which will serve as the basis for all of your applications.

It’s a good idea to make this ‘base CV’ very thorough: this way, you will only need to remove or reorganise some of the information for each application.

If you’d like advice on how to do this, refer to our guide: Create a powerful Dynamics resume in 7 steps. 

How to customise your Dynamics CV

You should always customise your Dynamics CV before sending it to an employer, regardless of the role you apply to, and even if you think your CV includes all the required information.

Here’s why:

• Your CV will often, in the first instance, be read by a HR professional rather than a Dynamics specialist. Even if this HR person knows a bit about Dynamics, they might miss some of your relevant experience if it is worded differently on your CV and on their job spec.

• As you build your Dynamics experience and career, you gain a high amount of skills, experiences and qualifications. It means your CV is unlikely to show everything you’re able to do, and even when it does, the relevant points can be lost in the amount of information displayed.

• Employers spend very little time reading CVs. By making sure they can see the most relevant information immediately, you increase your chances of getting their attention.

• The more relevant your CV is to the role, the easier it will be to negotiate the salary you want if you get an offer.

Doing this might also save you (and everyone involved) a lot of time.

Your goal, in customising your CV, is to clearly show which requirements you fit, and which ones you might not.

Whether you succeed in getting an interview or not, you will know that the outcome is based on the way your profile truly compares to the role, rather than on a misunderstanding about what you can and cannot do.

This also prevents lengthy exchanges of emails during which the employer asks you to provide clarifications about your experience.

So how do you effectively customise your Dynamics CV without spending hours on it each time? 

1. Read the job spec carefully

The job spec is the document to which your CV will be compared. You need to read not only the requirements, but also the responsibilities for the role.

Highlight all the requirements which you meet, and all the responsibilities which you have already handled in the past.

If you see that there are a few requirements which you don’t meet, make a note of these too: there may be ways for you to show how you might be able to compensate for these. 

2. Add all the relevant information

Make sure that every requirement you meet (whether ‘necessary’ or ‘desirable’) and every relevant task you have performed in the past are clearly displayed on your CV. 

3. Match your wording to the ad’s

It helps to get past the CV screening stage if the relevant requirements and tasks on your CV are described in a similar way to how they are showing on the job ad.

This prevents misunderstandings due to certain Dynamics-related tasks (or even roles) being described in different ways from company to company.

Adjusting the wording of your CV means that even if your application is initially screened by someone who isn’t a Dynamics specialist (or someone who doesn’t have time to read it in details, or even a computerised screening system), your suitability will be noticed.

4. Highlight your relevant experience

The requirements from the job spec which you meet should be displayed first.

Reorganise your summary, skills list and lists of responsibilities for each role so that what is most relevant to the position at hand appears at the top.

5. Remove the least relevant information

This is especially recommended if your CV is very long. Removing what is least relevant to the job at hand will make it easier for the employer to understand how you fit their particular job opening.

For instance, if you are a techno-functional consultant applying for a functional position, detailing all of your technical experience might give the impression that you are too technical for the role, even if you have performed functional tasks extensively.

In such a situation, it is beneficial to reduce the amount of technical responsibilities listed and insist on your functional expertise instead.

Looking for Dynamics jobs or career resources?

If you’re:

• Looking for your next Dynamics job, contract or career opportunity;

• In need of access to free Dynamics training, career development or professional tools;

• – Or simply wanting to keep an eye on what Dynamics career resources are available;

Register with 365 Talent Portal. It’s free for consultants.

365 Talent Portal is the Microsoft Dynamics platform that “has developed the right model to meet today’s demands with openness, transparency, and a focus on adding value.”

Thousands of Consultants have joined us for free Dynamics online training and great jobs. For your Dynamics staffing needs visit 365talentportal.com

Email [email protected]. Call us on +1 415 800 4263 (USA) or +44 2071 931 455 (UK)