‘Ghost’ CV’s leading to missed opportunities

polkadotfrog, is urging for action as many out-of-date CV’s are sitting online, leading to countless numbers of missed opportunities for candidates in the current buoyant market.

polkadotfrog recruitment specialists, with offices in Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich, see hundreds of CV’s posted online which haven’t been updated in months, with some even more than 3 years out of date.

Many people upload their CV to job sites, such as Reed or Monster and forget they are there, so when recruitment firms search to find a candidate for a specific role, more people ‘appear’ to be available, than there are in reality. This is what’s known in the industry as the ‘ghost cv’.

Emma Cotton, Director at polkadotfrog believes that thousands of candidates could be missing out on a dream job which will pay them better and provide a step up the career ladder.

She said: “What some people might not realise is that our recruitment team don’t just respond to people who submit their CV’s to us for a particular role. Every day, we are proactively researching and sifting through CV’s on internet recruitment portals to find the right match for a particular role.

Keeping your CV up to date with details of any new experience, qualifications and job changesis extremely important. The same applies to your CV and job details on other portals such as LinkedIn which are increasingly used by businesses and agencies as recruitment channels. In order for us to place the skilled candidates in to the increasing number of vacancies arising, we are urging the ‘passive workforce’ to ensure their CV is kept up to date and not just left online as a ‘ghost CV’.”

Many economists and commentators are now saying the UK is officially out of recession. In the three months to the end of November unemployment fell by 58,000 to 1.91 million and the jobless rate was 5.8 per cent*. With forecasters predicting further falls in the coming months, it’s a great time to look for a new job. Emma says that the buoyancy of the jobs market reflects the statistics.

She continues: “It certainly feels as if the green shoots of recovery are rapidly maturing! There are plenty of jobs out there with businesses having the confidence and requirement to bolster their teams and take on new staff. It’s never been a better time to have an updated CV online. The tables have turned since the recession and it’s a candidate’s market, particularly if you’re skilled in IT/Computing, Accountancy/Finance or Secretarial/Clerical work where we’re seeing a shortage of people. So if you’ve got experience and/or qualifications in these areas and you want to move up, it’s vital to make sure you’re being seen online and that all your information is correct.”