Gain unparalleled insights from my extensive recruitment experience with top firms like Morgan Stanley and the World Bank Group. Discover what really happens during CV reviews and what employers discuss when evaluating your application.
About this newsletter:
TL;DR: Keep, Ding, Ghost unlocks the CV-related feedback employers often withhold from job applicants.
Remember that company that rejected your job application despite your great CV? Remember how you didn’t get feedback on why you were rejected or why the person whose CV made it through was selected? This newsletter will show you what probably happened.
It's no secret that employers are often reluctant to give job applicants feedback. That's why I’ve created the Keep, Ding, Ghost newsletter to fill in the gap—and I am all about telling it like it is: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The feedback you’ll get access to via Keep, Ding, Ghost will concentrate on the application round that tends to result in the most rejections: the CV screening round. More specifically, it will focus on the CV screening round for graduate jobs (i.e., insight programs, internships, and full-time graduate roles). Why? Since graduate jobs are notoriously challenging to secure, they are an excellent benchmark; if your CV can meet the standards required to successfully pass the CV screening round for graduate jobs, it will likely be strong enough to successfully pass the CV screening round for any job. Think of Frank Sinatra's "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" (or Jay Z's "I'm the new Sinatra, and since I made it here I can make it anywhere"), but with 'there/here' referring to the CV screening round for graduate jobs instead of New York.
⚡️While your school or university’s career service can help you craft a solid CV, this newsletter takes it a step further by providing candid CV comparisons and nuanced feedback from a recruiter’s perspective.
The newsletter's flagship feature, the “University CV League”, demonstrates the competitive CV screening process conducted by top graduate employers. This process pits CVs received from subscribers against each other in head-to-head simulations, resulting in one CV advancing to the next round (i.e., keep), one receiving a soft rejection (i.e., ding), and one receiving a hard rejection (i.e., ghost)—hence the name ‘Keep, Ding, Ghost’.
⚡️⚡️Whether it’s your CV or the CVs of other subscribers that are being reviewed, the head-to-head simulations provide you with a unique opportunity to be a ‘fly on the wall’ and witness the behind-the-scenes process that can lead to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ decisions on your job applications.
This rare insight into the factors that come into play when CVs are reviewed will help you understand why even an excellent CV might miss out on graduate job opportunities and what you could do to become a more strategic and, thus, more competitive applicant to improve your chances of successfully passing the CV screening round.
About me, the Founder/Author:
Hey, I’m L. C. Serrão (Virgo, spa enthusiast, always looking for an excuse to create a spreadsheet). The lack of feedback I received when applying for my first round of graduate roles as an undergrad at Imperial College led to 25 job rejections and forced me to decipher the lessons from those rejections on my own.
While I navigated these challenges independently, ultimately securing offers from top investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, I am confident that access to feedback would have expedited my success and spared me some anxiety and confusion.
Since then, while continuing my career in banking, I have also amassed over ten years of extensive recruitment experience, working with highly selective employers in the UK and the US, including Morgan Stanley and the World Bank Group. My role involved securing a seat at the table that assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate’s CV and made decisions on which ones to reject and which ones to advance to the next round of the application process.
The Keep, Ding, Ghost newsletter builds on my extensive recruitment experience but shifts the focus to directly supporting candidates. It demystifies the CV screening process and provides the feedback that job applicants often lack.
What do paid subscribers get?
Free subscribers enjoy four monthly posts, while paid subscribers have access to every post, with an average of eight monthly posts. This includes unrestricted access to detailed feedback on all the CVs that participate in the “University CV League”, where CVs submitted by subscribers compete against each other in head-to-head simulations. Paid subscribers also gain access to additional exclusive benefits, including priority for FREE CV review requests, the comments section, and all episodes of the upcoming Keep, Ding, Ghost Office Hours podcast at no extra cost. While the newsletter zeroes in on CVs, the podcast expands my support to cover letters, mock interviews, Q&A sessions, and interactive application demos, where we’ll work together to complete online applications for insight programs, internships, and full-time graduate roles.
Discounts & complimentary access:
You can upgrade to a monthly paid subscription or take advantage of discounts by getting an annual or group subscription if you have friends who also want to sign up.
Alternatively, you can get complimentary access to all the paid-subscribers-only posts and benefits by inviting your friends to sign up for a (free or paid) subscription to Keep, Ding, Ghost (click here for the referral link), or if you’re a current student or staff member at one of my old schools or universities (click here to access the form to check your eligibility).
To those who decide to subscribe—whether as a free or paid subscriber—thank you!
This newsletter will officially launch on May 23rd, and I look forward to going on this adventure with you!
For more information about my professional background, click here to view my LinkedIn profile (only accessible if you're already signed in to the LinkedIn platform). You can also click here to check out my Substack profile.
Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic day! If you know anyone who might find this newsletter helpful, please share it with them!
