For companies in search for top talent, a robust talent acquisition and hiring process is vital. It’s a candidate-driven market out there so streamlining the process that helps you find that talent is crucial to any business. Similarly, a strong recruitment process will ensure that you avoid the dreaded bad hire, which can cost a company time, productivity and money.
CV selection is one of the earliest stages of any hiring process but it’s also one of the most important. It is the point at which you decide which candidates are worthy of your time to bring to interview. At RECRUITERS, we have learned that you can tell a lot about someone from their CV. So how do you master the art of good CV selection? Here’s how we do it.
When we look at the overall CV, it’s not necessarily the semantics and content of the CV we look at first, but the CV itself in terms of format, structure, layout, grammar and length. It’s the little things in life that can tell you a lot and the CV is a hugely revealing document. Can a great candidate have a sloppy CV? Perhaps someone was in a rush being so busy and successful in his or her job, or maybe the only thing they are not great at is writing a CV? Should some slack be given if you get a sloppy CV from a candidate and press ahead and see what the person behind that CV is like?
The short answer is no.
Over many years in recruitment, I’ve found that there’s rarely, if ever, an instance of a poorly laid out, sloppy CV with mistakes, that has a great candidate behind it.
Great candidates are self-aware. They pay respect to detail. They make the effort. If CV writing is not their forte, they seek help. They consult, they look online, they find the expertise or templates to help them achieve their goal. No one is too busy to produce and present a good CV.
Little things are signs of bigger things to come down the line. If the person failed to spend time and diligence on preparing their CV, what will the rest of their work be like? Some examples of little things you see and the predictors include:
A good CV does not always lead to a good candidate but a poor CV inevitably leads to a poor candidate. Once we’ve examined the CV as a whole, what else goes into good CV selection?
There is an argument to be made that there is a correlation between a candidate with a degree and a level of sophistication around communication. However, just because someone has a degree does not guarantee a level of sophistication and vice versa.
Another factor is around critical thinking and problem solving – the ability to read information, think about it, come up with creative ideas and research it further to present findings. This occurs a lot in university life. There is also a whole social element. People spend a lot of time in college building social bonds and exploring friendships and finding out who they really are. Can you do this without going to college? Of course, college just gives you a really good run at it.
So, do we credit a degree with a place in CV selection? Yes, as there are a few correlations, but it’s certainly not a showstopper in our opinion. We have placed some great candidates without that piece of paper and will continue to do so.
When choosing CVs to take forward to interview, of course it’s important to look at their previous experience, but not just for skills and abilities but how their experience matches with the job and company they could be working in.
When reviewing a candidate’s CV, it’s important to look at the size of the companies they’ve worked in before. If someone has worked exclusively in companies that employ 10-50 people they might be used to a more hands-on approach and be used to wearing many different hats. This can differ from someone who has mostly worked at multinationals with 10,000-20,000 employees, where there is more of a focus on delegation, strategy and communication.
When looking at a candidate’s employment history, it’s also important to consider the industries they have come from. Hiring managers can often gravitate towards those who have worked in the same industry in the past. It’s true that if you hire someone who comes from the same industry, the ramp up time is quicker to hit the ground running but when you take into consideration the quality of candidate re intelligence, attitude and ability, this benefit can be marginal. Smart people will always pick up new things and be motivated to do so as they will enjoy the stimulation and challenge of a change. However, the fact remains that candidates with relevant industry experience can settle in quicker in that all important first 90 days in a new job.
Other areas to consider in their experience outside of actual skills is their experience in B2B versus B2C, domestic versus international and they type of companies they’ve come from, whether that be public sector, private or non-profit. These are all factors that should be considered when looking at a CV, not just how well their skills match the job description.
Internal promotions visible on the CV are the biggest prize as a sign that a candidate is going to be good and a vital element to look out for as a hiring manager or recruiter. Someone who joins an organisation and gets promoted in a timely fashion means that they were getting good feedback because they are doing well. In this day and age, it takes more than hitting KPIs to be recognised as a valuable member of an organisation. You have to be good at managing relationships (up and down, inside and outside). You have to be an example, an ambassador.
When reading a CV of someone who has remained at the same level for 10 years, it shows a lack of progression and tells a tale of someone who is either happy to remain at one level or who has not been recognised for promotion.
Knowing how to select good CVs is one of the most important parts of attracting and retaining top talent and avoiding the costly mistake of bad hires. At RECRUITERS, our experts are adept at finding top talent. Just check out our success stories here. Want to learn more about how RECRUITERS can help your business? Check out our hiring solutions here or contact me directly by phone at +353 1 632 5021 or by email at brian.mcfadden@recruiters.ie
Brian McFadden is the client services director at RECRUITERS
Signpost photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
