job hunting in the recession

Last year I was inundated with interviews and job offers. I took up one of the offers but after 10 months I was made redundant.

This time job hunting I have applied for 40 jobs so far with no interviews.

What would you do if you were me?

If you have sent out 40 applications and haven't had a single interview, it sounds like:

1) you are applying for jobs for which you are not qualified, or

2) your CV needs work

In this marketplace, employers can be a lot more choosy than a year ago. If you don't take the time to tailor your CV to each opportunity, you probably won't get invited to interview -- because in the same pile, there will be plenty of CVs where people made the effort.

Your choices are:

1) Give up, go travelling, come back when the economy's recovered

2) Keep applying as before

3) Review application strategy

I favour option 3 - as the previous poster mentioned, employers are being a lot more picky right now. Applications emphasising your transferrable skills and your enthusiasm for getting stuck into something new are less popular than than those emphasising how you have done the same job successfully before, and are looking forward to doing it well and consistently in the future.

Any recruiters who can tell us the current ratio of CVs received to interviews?

enormous response for all jobs, Project management roles are receiving well over 100 applications.

You need to tailor your CV to the job spec. If you have the skills which the advert says are required you need to highlight them at the front of the CV. Write your CV using the job spec as a template. If they are looking for a Business Process Analyst start off your profile with 'A professional Business Process Analyst...' Then list your skills to match identically what the job skills needed are.

The first page of a CV will sell it, match it to the advert.