In a sea of tremendous CVs, from mediocre-to-great, for us recruiters; it is essential to be able to recognize great CVs quickly. Receiving great CVs compels us to call the candidates immediately, or at the very least, leave us in no doubt that we should be putting them in the “yes” pile.
Since average recruiters can spend as little as 30 seconds pre-screening a potential CV, therefore it’s important for us to be able to make preliminary decisions quickly. Below are five practical tips from us recruiters, upon enabling you on creating a great CV and making sure that it is not to be chuck away to the mediocre bin.
Unless that you are working in creative industries, therefore, even before looking at the content; the first thing about a great CV that grabs us recruiters’ attention is how clear, concise and well-formatted it is. A clear and concisely formatted CV simply wins here.
There shouldn’t be dense blocks of text that obfuscate key details nor unnecessary use of overwhelming colors. Also, make sure that the employment history should be in reverse chronological order.
The font should be professional and easy on the eye (Calibri is a wise choice). And without much of further scrolling down to check your content; your CV should reflect of your profile and how good it represents of your credentials.
If the second/third-most recent roles aren’t relevant to the specific role we are recruiting for, then there could be no point in reading further as the time & the length of your work experiences for the specified roles may not be long enough. Also, don’t forget to slip on a very brief description of your past companies that you’ve worked for as well as your current, as it will ease the recruiters to eye-on your profile quickly.
Moreover, the most recent roles on a great CV should be the richest in content, going into the most detail about your responsibilities (and more importantly, achievements); hence recruiters could quickly match with the role suitability. So a quick scan through these will usually be enough to decide whether your CV is going into the “interview” or “reject” pile.
A good rule of thumb in recruitment is that gaps of over 1 year or less (consecutively) in your employment are often a warning sign. Great CVs won’t have any appreciable career gaps (and ones that do will note the reason). Again, great CVs will show a good average length of tenure.
Great CVs will clearly show their educational background including college or university, qualification and year. If the education section is missing, recruiters usually infer that either there isn’t much to list, or the candidate didn’t have the awareness to include it – neither of which bodes well for a strong contender.
Many roles require a minimum level of education and also certifications (for technical roles).
To be honest, good recruiters rarely need to read the entire document to recognize a good CV. A quick scan to the trained eye will turn up multiple spelling mistakes and poor sentence construction in only a paragraph or two.
In conclusion, while it’s nearly impossible to really tell what a candidate is like from a short and formal document, however, there are multiple clues that point to a great CV, and thus a great candidate. And good recruiters do have the experience, the assessment and the trained – eye to scan through in less than a minute. Therefore, fortify your CV with these simple tips.
