You search for relevant jobs, work hard on customizing your CV and cover letter before applying with the hope of an elusive interview that never comes. All you get, after a few weeks or even months of anxious waiting, is an impersonal email, often a system-generated one that 'regrets to inform' that you were 'not selected this time' as there were 'other more suitable candidates' for the job position. 

 

All your energy and time goes down the drain, and as this starts to becomes a regular occurrence, you begin questioning if there’s something wrong with you because no one seems to find you good enough to be employed. 

 

Does all of this sound familiar? Well, you are not alone. 

 

Anyone looking for work in this difficult job market knows how frustrating the exercise can be. Fresh graduates, very senior people, young professionals or those currently unemployed all face the same challenge: How to find meaningful employment without losing your mojo? 

 

With Denmark being such a difficult job market for everyone – especially young graduates, foreigners and highly-qualified green card holders – there is a big need to help this sidelined potential workforce.

 

That's why The Local Denmark has decided to start a new column for job seekers by Franco Soldera (left), an IT consultant and co-founder of NemCV, a startup with a social cause that has helped more than a thousand job seekers voluntarily. In our new series, Soldera will answer all your employment-related queries and doubts.

 

An Italian living in Denmark for the last ten years, Soldera co-founded NemCV three years ago with his colleague Zubair Quraishi after they realized how difficult it is to find a job in Denmark. Both of them saw a lot of good candidates struggling to find jobs and felt pity for both the dejected jobseekers and the companies that are missing out on them. Each week, the duo help customize CVs for free to help people get those elusive interview calls.

 

According to Soldera, writing CVs is difficult and a time-consuming process, but having the right structure is necessary. 

 

"Your facts make for a personalized CV. People confuse the personalization part with changing fonts, layouts, etc. However, it’s the content that matters. So does the way you present it. Even HR specialists may have a hard time writing their own resumes. A CV should not only talk about you but also what value you will add to the company,” he said. 

 

The CV template used by NemCV was developed after a lot of legwork and meetings with several HR as well as hiring managers and makes the content and design very HR-friendly. There are almost 10,000 users in the NemCV database. So far, Soldera and Quraishi have pitched in their own resources for running this social initiative. However, they need funding in order to continue helping the job seekers' community and companies.

 

"It has been tough for us to carry on with this social service on a weekly basis while also working our full-time jobs. We would like to devote ourselves completely to this initiative and help not only job seekers but also companies that find it difficult to fill up positions. That looks difficult without funding. We don't make job seekers pay to use our service; it's the companies that should pay and use it as a ready database,” he said. 

 

“Companies having a hard time filling vacancies should use NemCV to find their best candidates," Soldera told The Local.

 

So, dear reader, what do YOU want to know about finding a job in Denmark? Send us your questions and Franco Soldera will provide the answers. We look forward to hearing from you and good luck!