Our son just landed his dream job competing against a lot of other candidates.
He says he did thee things at CV stage:
1 Use his network to find someone in the organisation who would meet for an informal chat about the culture.
2 From the person spec. and job description make a list of everything that the employer wants.
3 Write his CV to demonstrate, from his experience, each of the things the employer wants.
The process took him hours, but he got the interview and the job. Much better than showering employers with standard CVs that don't fit.
Very similar to the recent experience of my daughter.
A one page CV targeted at the detailed job role advertised was submitted for her 'dream job'.
Written in a less formal style than my dinosaur brain was used to back in the day, it secured a telephone interview which narrowed the pack down to 55 applicants. A further telephone screen narrowed it down to 11 for face to face interviews.
She got the job (she deserved it tbh) - her feedback was that she was 'on point' with her CV, had carried out terrific research on the employing company, that she understood the global context of the business, and had also produced a killer business plan for the job role.
It all took a lot of effort and time but was worth it - secured a significant increase in salary and other benefits for her.
The 'onboarding' process (as mentioned in a previous post) as it is now called, has changed significantly since I were a lad.
Employers not only expect relevant qualifications and experience for the role applied for, but also want evidence of a deep understanding of the company, company culture and the job role all within the context of the 'new' social mores that dominate today's world of employment specifically internal/external customer engagement, collaborative non-hierachial team working and with an emphasis on the deeper cultural shifts re major global issues.
That's my 'take' after a long dad/daughter 'debrief'. I guess the depth of probing will depend on the actual role applied for but some of the questioning seemed very left-field to me. But, as I said, I am now a dinosaur!
To anyone applying for a job I suggest joining LinkedIn and becoming acquainted with the (new to me) employment landscape.
Hope this helps.