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I previously posted some advice and guidance on writing a CV, and writing a Cover Letter for job seekers. In my 14+ years in recruitment I have spent a lot of time working with future applicants on improving their CV and applications.
Sadly, many incredibly experienced and brilliant people fall at the first hurdle and have CV’s that don’t fully ‘sell’ themselves or accurately demonstrate the value they could bring to an organisation. This post has been written to help Recruitment and Talent professionals (or Hiring Managers) find those amazing candidates who deserve an opportunity to interview.
You’d be well within your rights to tell me to get off my high horse. I bet you’ve seen loads of CV’s, and hired some brilliant people too. This is exclusively my own opinion, and below are habits I’ve developed to select, interview, and hire great people during incredibly difficult hiring times and for incredibly difficult roles.
TL;DR This is about looking beyond the text, making appropriate matches, and finding evidence to interview someone, not finding a reason not to.
First and foremost - know the role you’re hiring for.
Potentially obvious, but I hear time and time again from TA and Recruitment folk that the job changes, or what a Hiring Manager (HM) is looking for isn’t in the Job Description (JD). This topic leans right into the quality of the relationship between you and your HM.
Before reading a CV, ask yourself:
What are the responsibilities of this role?
What will this person be doing, and achieving, day to day?
Why are we hiring for this role?
If you know these things, you will know what you’re looking for in a CV.
(side note, does the JD reflect these things? It’s probably for another post but the JD really must match the role and HM expectations incredibly clearly to ensure you’re attracting the right people).
The essentials vs. nice to haves
You need to know exactly what experience is required for this role. When I say exactly, I really do mean it.
Here’s an example of a conversation I’ve had with a HM in a previous role:
(HM) “I need someone with 5+ years of experience in .NET development”
(Me) “OK, what if they have 3 years?”
(HM) “Yeah I’d consider that if it was great experience”
(Me) “In that case, don’t put 5+ years of experience on the JD”
You need to be interrogating the requirements, challenging them with the aim of making them as short as possible. The shorter the list, the more suitable applicants there will be (which is a great thing).
The tendency is to lean towards a longer list so it’s easier to exclude candidates. I’m encouraging you to do the opposite.
A shorter list of essentials means you’re potentially progressing more candidates, and getting a wider relevant talent pool to choose from.
You can change this:
5+ years experience in .NET development
3+ years experience working with a B2B SaaS Application
Retail industry experience
Agile methodology experience
Strong Front-End development
To this:
Experience in a Front-End Development role working with .NET
Experience building a SaaS Application
Everything else could be easily cross-trained (e.g. industry experience), and a developer / software engineer has likely worked in some agile-type framework in some capacity. If a HM is insisting on, say, industry experience, could you challenge that? Why is it important? What will this bring that someone without that experience won't bring?
This is just an example to demonstrate my point. The headline here is that you need to whittle down to the basic levels of ‘what can we not do without’ and take it from there. Everything else, with respect, likely doesn’t matter.
On a CV
How does their working environment compare to ours?
A lot of CV’s will list their employer, dates of employment, and a job title. It can be frustrating when you haven’t heard of that company. What do they do? What industry are they in? How big are they?
You need to be comfortable doing this research. Check the website, and look at what they do, who are their customers. Check them out on LinkedIn, how many people do they employ? How big is the team they’re part of? Places like theorg are also good resources for this information.
It’s not always an exact science and your research won’t be 100% accurate. But if, for example, you’re a start-up hiring for an early-stage or first-of-its-kind role, you might be looking for someone who’s walked that path before. If they have been at Global-Corp for 10 years then it might be safe to assume they’re not suitable.
Look for evidence of success
CV’s are written in a variety of ways, highlighting responsibilities, achievements, and areas of specialisms. Some use data and stats to tell a story, while others prefer storytelling through descriptive writing.
As with interviewing, it’s about finding evidence through relevant examples. If you’re hiring for a salesperson and someone says they hit 100% of targets in their first year that sounds great. How do you know the rest of the sales team didn't hit 200% targets though? Equally, if they underperformed against their sales targets, how do you know they weren't in an environment that didn't set them up for success, and they'd be an amazing salesperson at your company?
My point is that you don’t have this context, so you need to find other evidence to suggest they were successful.
How long were they there for? It could indicate success
Have they had progression (promotions) during their time there?
Does the career have a trajectory of success, or have they held the same job across multiple companies?
Are there other threads from their career history that aligns them more closely to the JD?
What skills / experiences do they have that could be transferrable? e.g. They've sold into your industry, but a different product. They've sold the right product but the wrong industry. They're both perfectly good reasons to interview someone and explore the suitability.
These are just examples. If you truly know the role you’re hiring for and what the success metrics will be, you can look for those things in a CV. Don’t use non-essential facts to influence your decision. This brings me to my next point
Actively avoid opportunities for bias
This happens far too often. There are many applicants that tend to overshare and this leads to inappropriate judgment. Equally, HM’s or TA / Recruiters tend to use irrelevant information to assess suitability. For example:
They’ve listed their favourite sports team and I support their rivals. They wouldn’t work out here (what?)
They live 100 miles away (how do you know they’re not looking to relocate?)
They’re too old / young (says who?)
I know that company from 5 years ago and the culture isn’t right (how do you know that now?)
There is also FAANG bias as well, just because someone has worked at Apple, Facebook, Amazon etc. means they must be good. How do you know that?
Are you researching a candidate outside of their CV? If you’re making a decision based on their Facebook / X / Instagram profile, or have come across their Etsy page, then you’re letting bias influence your judgment. In previous roles, I’ve even seen people rejected because they don’t have a social media presence. Unless it’s required for the job, and you’ve asked for that information, then you should not be using it as part of your selection criteria.
Final thought on this topic. Do not reject candidates on the basis of protected characteristics. Enough has been said about this before, but a diverse team is a more profitable team.
Gaps in CV’s are OK
It’s very easy to say “This person has been out of work for a year, they’re not right” but you don’t know the circumstances. I’ve come across many applicants who have had the unfortunate luck of being let go in difficult economies, but have studied or kept up to date with their industry. These resourceful and dedicated applicants can be an absolute asset to your business.
If they have gaps, are they explained? Could you ask about them in an interview?
Job titles don’t really matter
Back in my recruitment agency days I nearly had someone turn down a job offer because it said ‘Team Lead’ instead of ‘Manager’. I promise that, for example, your version of Senior is not the same as someone else.
Focus on the responsibilities and achievements. Focus on what the applicant is doing, not what you perceive them to be doing.
Length of a CV
My general advice to people is to keep a CV to two pages. Sure, I’ve seen C-suite CV's with one-pagers, and I’ve seen people with one commercial role take over five pages.
Some people are just not as concise or as much an expert on the written text as you might expect them to be. Take neurodiverse applicants for example. I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to have their application fully read and digested. It’s easy to do, but I would recommend avoiding casting applicants aside because of the length of their CV. Is there something great in there that deserves more understanding or attention?
Badly formatted
I would lean on the side of 'the benefit of the doubt'. Of course, there are some circumstances where a well laid out CV is important - design roles for example, or perhaps content roles where you are specifically assessing someone on their ability to be creative, or produce high quality written work. I'm happy to excuse a couple of typos and questionable formatting. How do you know it's not the first CV someone has ever written?
Job hoppers
“This person has had three jobs in three years, they have not been successful in any of them and are only going to leave us after 12 months”
There are normally circumstances around this, and it’s your job to understand what they are before making a decision. As mentioned earlier, it’s a really difficult market right now where we are seeing an increased number of layoffs and fewer lives roles in the market. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that someone might’ve been let go and struggled to find a new role. Focus on the impact they've had during their employment, is there evidence there to suggest they're a good fit?
Contract to Perm. Perm to Contract
There is a natural hesitancy about the move between these types of employment, but without the context it would be unreasonable to judge. I know contractors who have started a family and wanted more security, and equally people with permanent backgrounds who have the freedom to move into contracting.
It’s OK to ask before making a decision
You don’t have all the answers. They might have experience with X, they could have knowledge of Y, or they might’ve been in Z situation. It’s unfair to guess. A candidate has applied to the job because they want to work there, and I guarantee they would be happy to elaborate on their experience to help you make an informed decision. Don’t be hesitant to send an email along the lines of:
Hi (name)
Thank you for your application to our Technical Support role. We’re currently reviewing applications and have a question regarding your experience. It wasn’t clear whether you have specifically supported B2B SaaS businesses during your career. Is this something you could confirm before we make a final decision?
Closing thoughts
In my opinion, this is about the right mindset. You should be on the side of ruling candidates in as opposed to ruling them out, and a lot of my thoughts above are based on getting more context, giving the benefit of the doubt, and asking before judging.
Reviewing CV’s is hard, especially when we’re receiving so many these days. If you’re clear on the criteria you’re looking for and you’re checking your own bias, you’ll be more likely to screen more candidates, increasing the likelihood of finding that perfect hire.
If you're curious about the advice I give to candidates, please check out How to write a CV and How to write a Cover Letter.
Do you have any other tips you want to share? I'd love to hear them and I'll add them to the list above!
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