Before You Touch Your CV Again, Find the Leak

When a job search is quiet, the first instinct is usually to rewrite the CV. Sometimes that is exactly right. Sometimes it wastes a week because the CV was not the point that was failing.

ERJ uses four points because they force a sequence: Supply, Representation, Aim, Conversion. You fix the earliest broken point first. Everything after it is unreliable until you do.

1. Supply: are suitable roles reaching you?

If you cannot consistently find legitimate roles that are actually open to your location, you do not yet have an application problem. You have a sourcing problem. A perfect CV cannot win a vacancy you never saw, and it cannot change a role that is legally restricted to another country.

For one week, count only roles you would genuinely accept and are eligible for. If that list is almost empty, stop editing the CV and repair your sources, search terms and company list.

2. Representation: can a stranger read your value?

If you are finding relevant roles and applying, but almost nothing comes back, this is where the CV, LinkedIn profile and proof of work matter. The question is not whether the document looks attractive. It is whether a stranger can see the target function, evidence, tools and outcomes in seconds.

Run the CV against a rubric. Look for one-column readability, a clear headline, quantified evidence and language that matches the work you actually want. Do not insert skills you do not possess just because the advert contains them.

3. Aim: are you applying where you can actually win?

A readable CV sent to the wrong employers still produces rejection. Aim is the difference between 'remote' as a keyword and a company that can hire, contract and pay someone where you live.

Look at your last twenty applications. Are they one coherent role family? Are the companies genuinely distributed? Are you meeting the core requirements? If the answers keep changing, the search is too broad to teach you anything.

4. Conversion: what happens after the interview starts?

If interviews are already happening, do not punish the CV for doing its job. At that point the work moves to evidence, interview structure, remote-work logistics, salary handling and closing.

This is why 'I am not getting hired' is too large a diagnosis. The useful sentence is: 'My search is reaching this point and breaking here.'

Your action today

Write down four numbers from the last thirty days: suitable roles found, applications sent, interviews received, offers received. Those four numbers will not tell you everything, but they will stop you from changing everything at once.

Do not choose an ERJ product from this article. Find the leak first. If the free diagnosis says you do not need a paid ERJ service, that is a valid outcome.