How To Help Candidates Make The Most Of Their CVs

According to recent research, 42% of students now think that the traditional CV is outdated, preferring to shun it in preference for exciting new ways to showcase their skills- such as video, social media, and digital CVs. Recruiters are also beginning to change their techniques, with an emerging reliance on professional networking sites like LinkedIn and online job applications.

However, as a recruiter, you know very well that traditional CVs are still the crucial, primary gateway to employment for these young graduates- even if they’re supplemented with these dynamic new techniques. So how do you ensure your candidates are making them most of their CVs, and how can you help them to polish them to impress employers?

1. Firstly, remind the candidates how important the traditional CV still is. After all, while Millennials may not feel the traditional CV allows them to show off their personality and aptitudes enough, the hiring managers will often be of a generation who puts a lot of stock in traditional recruitment techniques, and may find the new ‘personality-focussed’ techniques like personal video or Twitter accounts distracting, off-putting, or requiring too much effort and research. Particularly for the first round of interviews, a straight CV listing skills and experience is an effective way for recruiters to narrow down the field. In short, candidates ignore their CVs at their peril.

2. Ask them to fill the gaps. Some candidates don’t like the linear, list style of CVs…often because they are a little scared of the gaps it can reveal. Where a video or online profile is edited to play to a candidate’s positive achievements, a chronological CV might reveal a patchy work history, an unusual job shift, or periods without employment – often leading the hiring manager to ask difficult questions. As a recruiter trying to place these candidates, you need to prepare your candidates for tough questions in the interview, and get them to write their CV in a way that explains these gaps in a confident and open fashion.

3. Provide candidates with the current do’s and don’ts of CV writing. You’re up to date with all of this, but are they?  For example:

a. You’re aware of it, but do they know that many hiring managers use Control F all day trying to find keywords in piles of CVs? Get them to include keywords in their CVs where possible.

b. If the candidate is including a personal interest section on their CV, ask them to make it interesting! ‘I like mountain-climbing, am writing a book in my spare time, and have a guilty pleasure for mindless reality shows.’ A bit of humour doesn’t hurt, but overly personal information generally will. Dullness, meanwhile, is unlikely to create a memorable impression.

c. Microsoft Word CV templates instantly date CVs, and look old-fashioned. Ask candidates to use PDF where possible. When it comes to presentation, hiring managers certainly won’t appreciate a CV on pale pink paper with flowers and a loopy cursive script, but clear and attractive formatting might help them stand out. However, ensure that the candidate knows that content always wins out over presentation, and make sure they check that the document still looks good when stripped of formatting.

d. Does your candidate know to write their CV in the third person, but their cover letter in first person? Or that if they don’t have a great cover letter that stands out, that there’s not really any point sending one at all because it won’t get read?

e. Finally, does the candidate know to put their recent job at the top- even if it isn’t quite as relevant? Candidates often mess up the chronology of their CVs to make their most relevant job stick at the top, but that’s just confusing to the reader. Make sure the jobseeker writes their CV in a way that is chronological, but also makes their recent job as relevant as possible to the job description.

Fashions in CV-writing have changed over the years, and will no doubt continue to change. It’s inevitable (and exciting) that new, dynamic ways of recruitment are opening up, but the traditional CV is still the primary way for jobseekers to showcase their skills and achievements.

Until next time

Cheryl