How Do HR-Recruiters View and Vet CV's?

The first person in most HR departments and recruitment offices who Touches your CV / resume will not be the recruiter in charge of recruiting for that job. In most offices – assuming they are not using a scanning system, which serves the same purpose – it will be either their assistant, normally called a researcher, or an officer junior. They will have been given a clear and precise brief to reject anyone who does not meet that jobs basic functional skills requirements. So that is what they search for, to create a pile of CV / resumes for the recruiter to review. This process will reduce the pile of applications by around 2 / 3rds in most cases.

The recruiter in charge of the job will judge you on the appearance of your CV / resume. If it lacks signs of originality and creative thinking – such as the use of an internet template – you may not get the interview even when you are the best candidate for the job. A basic check here is to hold your CV / resume at arms length, so you can not read the words – too much white, or too much black are both bad.

Most recruiters still at this point have piles of CV / resumes to evaluate and have limited time for the assessment. They typically scan through the stack and throw out anything that is not interesting enough. Only the short list gets a second look, and it"s a complete read through. The whole process is based on the content, format, lay-out and originality. It is that worth the effort to be original.

The four stages of selection can be summarized in the following way:

• First glance: if the office does not use a scanning system, then a researcher will fulfill the same basic purpose. The researcher will glance at the first page of each CV / resume and if it fulfills the basic skills requirements it will be kept. They will not look at the second page unless the basic skill requirements are met on page one – a scanning system will scan the whole CV / resume end up in the bin without a full history of the candidate is required. The CV / resume must be three or less pages, and ideally two. CV / resumes without an introduction or quick summary of the candidate and the skills or relevant qualifications also get placed in the rubbish bin. Long descriptive paragraphs and sentences earmark the CV / resume for the bin – ideally, keep sentences at 12words or below. Poor formatting and grammar mistakes are also frowned upon. After the first glance there are usually only a third of the CV / resumes left


• Second glance: now the recruiter will take their first look at each remaining CV / resume to establish whether the applicants skills, qualifications, career history and motivation match the job requirements. The recruiter must be able to identify this from the first page of the CV / resume


• The in-depth look : the remaining CV / resumes are visually scanned and then matched with all the job description criteria. The applicants are no longer thrown out – these candidates could fulfill other jobs vacancies – but the best possible candidates are taken for this job


• Final examination : only at this stage that the recruiter examines the content from the rest of the CV / resume in more detail. They are looking for those skills, signs of innovative thinking, leadership, trustworthiness, and specific achievements that make the candidate right for the specific job.

As the candidate, you must ensure that your CV / resume survives the elimination stages and still stands out enough to get the interview. Relevance and engagement within the first page is the assured route to the final pile, the rest of the content and lay-out determinates whether you get a telephone call let alone the interview. To ensure your CV / resume reaches the final pile, make use of free CV / resume review services offered by CV Writing professionals.

Good Luck!

How Do HR-Recruiters View and Vet CV"s?