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12 Winning CV Tips from a Canva Recruiter _ Pro Tips Ep.03
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Jan 14, 2024
In this video, a Canva recruiter shares 12 winning tips for crafting an effective CV. Likely part of the "Pro Tips" series, the content provides valuable insights and advice from a recruitment perspective, aiming to help viewers improve their resumes for better success in job applications.
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map out the job descriptions, spend a lot of time on that job description
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find out what the company is looking for. So it is ultimately it's the information that's most important
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How you show that is crucial. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Pro Tips
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As always, you are about to receive a ton of practical tips
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And today's topic is finding your dream job. Sadly, a lot of people have lost their jobs recently
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and you might very well be looking for a job right now
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Well, I have the perfect guest for you. Today, I'm going to be chatting with Michael Rubio
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Mike is a recruiter at Canva, and he has reviewed thousands of CVs
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conducted hundreds of interviews and hired a bunch of high profile people
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So this is your chance to tap into Mike's huge experience on how to find a job
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Recently, Mike and I joined forces to create a Udemy course that blends
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his experience as a recruiter for a big tech company with my expertise
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in using Canva to craft visuals that will get you noticed. And with this episode of Pro Tips, we are officially launching this course on Udemy
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And of course, because we like you guys, we have a discounted coupon just for you
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More on how to access that coupon at the end of the video
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All right, let's jump into it. Let's hear Mike's pro tips on how to craft a resume that will get you hired
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What are the top three qualities you usually look for in a candidate
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when you're reviewing their CVs? The first thing I'm looking for is how much of a fit is this candidate
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for the job brief that I've got. So I've taken a job brief from a hiring manager
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They've usually given me a really detailed rundown of everything that they want, the top skills, the top experiences
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the top kind of companies that they work for. What I'll usually do at the end of that hiring manager brief
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I'll usually ask for a boiled down summary and say, look, what are the top three critical things that this candidate must have to do well in this job
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So as I'm kind of scanning through CVs, often that'll be forefront in my mind. I'll be thinking, what are these top three things
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And those are the things I'm scanning for in the CV. Hiring managers are usually the ones who write their job descriptions in big
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companies, or at least the people who do so with a list of criteria of the things
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they are looking for. So it is very important that you map out, that you decode the job description in order to figure out what are these top
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three things the company is looking for. If I don't see any of those top three things that I pretty much know straight
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away, it's not going to be a fit. They could be skills, they could be job titles
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they could be industry experience, could be quite a wide variety of things
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potentially. So that's the first thing, is how good a fit it is. The next thing that really helps CVs stand out when I'm reviewing them is how
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easy it is to scan them. Some CVs have quite complicated CVs where small text
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it's bunched together with huge big blocks of text and it's quite hard to kind
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of scan through and find out the relevant info that I need. So I love looking at a CV that's easy to scan
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And the other thing I think is, you know, really attention to detail, seeing mistakes or typos in CVs
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So those are some of the key, easy, quick wins in terms of what we're looking for
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The other thing, sorry, I didn't mention, I should have mentioned was quantifiable data. So having metrics, facts and figures data to back up every dot point
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that's a golden point. So you can't leave that out of the top three. You've heard it from Mike, using data to demonstrate the impact you've had in
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previous job experiences is gold in a CV. Recruiters will absolutely pay attention to that
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In the course Mike and I created for Udemy, we teach you how to turn regular
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dot points into XYZ impact statements backed with data. What are the most common mistakes you see candidates make on their resume
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One of the worst mistakes I see in CVs is having the most recent work experience
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buried. So I see a lot of CVs and usually that's the first thing that I'll be
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looking for is what's your current job title? What's the current company that you're working for and how long have you worked
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there? And then do you match the kind of years, experiences? That's the minimum that I'm looking for
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So I see a lot of CVs where their full first page is full of stuff
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It can be massive, big objective statements. It can be a skill section
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But what they're missing is they're missing their immediate work experience. A lot of times academic experience is the most prominent thing that's not usually
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relevant unless you're looking for a graduate role at the first point. So that's the first thing is people bury that experience or they have a poorly
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formatted CV with, you know, it's hard to tell where your eyes should go
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So again, it's hard to see that kind of linear progression of your career because
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that's what I want to see. What are you doing right now? What were you doing previously
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How long are you doing it for? How relevant is to what I'm looking for? So that's a key mistake
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Use reverse chronological order when you list your different job experiences. That means start with the most recent one, as this is usually what is most relevant
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to recruiters. Also use a simple format to list all of your previous jobs so that
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recruiters can easily follow your career path. The other big mistake I see, and I think this maybe is a bit preferential
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but there's some misconceptions out there that I've heard a lot of different career
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advice given that says you have to have a plain tech CV, has to have no colors
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no graphs, no pictures, no formatting, Times New Roman font, basically as boring as possible, because if you use any of that other stuff
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your ATS is going to auto reject it or it's not going to be passed or won't be
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scannable. There's a bunch of misconceptions. This is pretty dated advice and maybe 10 years it was true
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but it's just not the reality anymore. So what I'm hearing here is that it is okay to make your CV look good or more
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pleasant to read. So feel free to use Canva and some of the Canva templates
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to give your CV that special oomph and simply make it enjoyable to read
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Pretty much every single applicant tracking system right now will display the PDF CV
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in the format that you uploaded it. It's not doing any kind of crazy stuff
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of sucking out all the info and only giving a select amount of info. That's just not the way that applicant tracking systems and recruiting teams work
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Definitely having your text searchable is crucial. But if you're using Canva or Google Docs or Microsoft Word and you're saving it
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as a PDF, you're not going to have any issues there. I also thought, OK, maybe I should not go too crazy with my designs and the templates
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I use in Canva. And you also give students in the course a tip
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like a very cool tip about where to find the best resume templates in Canva
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There is a secret keyword to type in. We're not going to reveal it. We will let people discover it in the course
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But these are CVs that are formatted in such a way in the Canva templates
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that will be a little bit more efficient with the applicant tracking system
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because it has been designed with that purpose. So more of that in the course
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Mike, in the course, you explain the differences between a generic CV and a tailored CV
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Could you elaborate a little bit more on that? What should be in an applicant's toolkit to come up with a really good targeted CV
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when they apply for a job? What should be in the toolkit? I think it can be a bit tricky because a tailored CV is definitely 100% agree
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The best way to stand out to a recruiter when they're scanning through potentially
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hundreds of CVs. In terms of the toolkit, it is pretty time consuming
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if you're going to every single job apply for, you tailor a brand new CV for that
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So we talk about this in the course, but creating a super CV, a document that includes all of your experience, every software, every dot point
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everything you've ever done, your whole work history. And then you use that and then you take pull pieces out of that to roles that are relevant
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And you can like when you're creating a tailored CV, often you can create groups of tailored CVs
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So it doesn't necessarily have to be every single job that you do a completely new CV
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You might have a couple of different titles. For instance, if you're a UX, UI designer, you might have one that's more focused
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towards the user research side, or you might have a CV that's focused more towards
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the user interface design side, if you're multi-talented and multi-skilled and happy to go both ways
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How important is the design of a resume? And what role does it play in catching the recruiter's attention
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The content in your CV is the most important thing. So, you know, what impact you've had at a company, what your work experience has been
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That definitely is more important than how pretty your CV is. But if you're thinking about applying for a high demand job
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where a recruiter is reviewing hundreds of CVs, there definitely is a crucial element of how you present the data you're trying to portray
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The way that you communicate any information is obviously extremely important, whether that's verbal communication, video communication, or written communication
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Your CV is a formal written document. And I would argue that it is in some senses a marketing document
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because you're marketing yourself, your experience, you're trying to showcase what you've done
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So it is ultimately, it's the information that's most important. How you show that is crucial
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Your CV is a marketing document. You are selling yourself to the recruiter
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and you're selling yourself to the company you are applying for. So make good use of design to present the information on your CV in the best
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the most attractive way possible. Mike, tell us, on average, how fast do you form a first impression about a CV you are reviewing
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Are we talking seconds? Are we talking minutes? Yeah, look, totally honest, it does change a lot
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But there's been plenty of times where I'm looking at a CV and within 5 to 10 seconds, I'm clicking yes
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Like I'm just progressing them into the next stage and organizing an interview straight away
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Like, that's all I need to realize this person is a really great candidate. I can see the achievements they've had, I can see the impact, I can see the roles they've had
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And sometimes it's the same. Yeah, it's 10 seconds and I realize they're not the right candidate at all for this job
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So, you know, I think it is an industry stat that it's around that averages 10 seconds
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So sometimes it's much longer, sometimes it's much shorter. So you have 10 seconds to convince the recruiter that this is the job is for you
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And I think we do a good job at explaining in the course how to make a first impression
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And there is actually a lecture called the 10 second rule. I think that's the last lecture of the first section
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How to format your CV to catch the attention right away. How can candidates tailor their resume for a specific job or company
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Tailoring your CV to the job is crucial. How you can do that, we go in a lot more detail into the course, but really quick high level overview
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It's crucial to map out the job descriptions, spend a lot of time on that job description
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find out what the company is looking for, really dive into the language that they're speaking
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the key requirements, the skills, the software, and make sure as much of that as possible is reflected in your CV
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So it's almost like the recruiters reading back their own job description with all of what you've done in your experience
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I call it decoding the job description. You call it mapping out the job description, but it's the same thing
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It's really reading and understanding this job description and seeing, OK, what are those things they are looking for
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Because at the end of the day, they have an agenda. They have the profile of the ideal candidate for this job already in their mind
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So we need to be as close to this ideal profile as possible to convince them
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Could you discuss the importance of keywords and key sentences in a resume
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Every single company, every single role, every single industry has their own kind of niche terminology and jargon
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So keywords are really important. Maybe if I was recruiting for a marketing role and HubSpot was crucial for the role
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like it was the main driver of all of the company's marketing experience
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that'd be a really good one to filter for. I type in the search bar within my applicant tracking system for HubSpot
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And anyone that doesn't have experience with HubSpot or doesn't have that keyword in their CV
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I would immediately dismiss because they're not going to have the right experience for this role
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So having the right keyword, the right phrases is really crucial. And what you want to do is when you're mapping out or decoding the job description
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figure out how companies talk about stuff, because there's often processes, systems, methodologies
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ways of working that are really relevant or to what they're looking for
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And you might have something exactly the same in your CV, but just worded differently
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If you do it the same way, word your terminology the same way as what they say, it makes you feel more trustworthy and more credible
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When you read the job description, it's really important to identify the keywords
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that seem important for that company, for that specific job. And then make sure you somehow use these keywords on your resume
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This will avoid you being filtered out by the recruiters if they're searching for these specific keywords
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for these specific skills on a CV. So what would be the most important tip you can give our viewers on how to improve their resumes
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I think what you want to do is you want to put your best foot forward by really putting yourself in the mind of the hiring team
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What are they looking for? What do they want to see? And like you said, who is the ideal candidate
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They have in their mind who that ideal candidate is, and they've given you that job description so that you can understand who that is
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And that's what you want to present to them. You want to put yourself in that light. Let yourself be seen through that lens, I guess, if that makes sense
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So definitely, you want to create a great CV that addresses what they're looking for
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in a compelling way with data to back it up. Talk about the impact you've had in those areas, not just your responsibilities
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And yeah, tune into the course to get that kind of deep dive into really how to do that
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We'll tease it out and pull it out more. So really looking forward to that. So let us tell you guys a little bit more about this course
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So first, I contacted Mike, hey, let's do an interview about, you know, your job at Canva and recruiter perspective on how to improve your CV
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And then you told me, oh, I'm working on this course, and I really would like to launch this on Udemy
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This is my first course. And so I proposed you to team up, kind of like create the course together
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And now the course is about two and a half hours of really theory on how to tailor your CV
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And we show you how to do it. We use tools like the LinkedIn resume builder to create our super CV
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And then we bring it to Canva, find the right template. We explain like how to select the right template or something, because there's so many templates
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I remember I was doing my search. I had more than 12,000 templates to choose from
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So how do you find the right one that matches the vibe of the job you're applying for
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So we explain about that. And then we end up creating a tailored resume with Canva
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So the course is now officially launched on Udemy. With this video, we'll have a link in the description of the video where you can find a coupon, which is going to be valid for five days at this price
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The link is still going to work, but you will not benefit from the lowest price possible on Udemy because these coupons are only valid for five days
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So if you want to grab the course at its best price ever on Udemy, click the link in the description and you should be good to go
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It should be around 10 US dollars, maybe 10 to 15. It's not something we can set. It's Udemy that sets the price, but it is the lowest price possible on the platform
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So, yeah, check it out. Let us know what you think. Also, in the comment section, if you like this interview with Mike, check out Mike's TikTok also and follow him there because he shares a lot of cool stuff
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And yeah, that's all we have for you guys today. Thank you so much, Mike, for spending the time sharing about your experience
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Thanks so much, Ronny. I really appreciate you having me on
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