As an employer, recruiter, or HR professional, looking at CVs is unavoidable if you’re trying to fill a vacancy. Often times, it can become quite frustrating to look at a considerable number of CVs without finding the precise information that you’re looking for and that would help you quickly move the hiring process forward. It becomes even more complex when you only have a few seconds to scan each CV because your list of applicants is piling up in your inbox.
That’s why we, at Bayt.com, have decided to help you with a CV scanning guide. Here are a few things to look for that will help you decide whether a CV is good enough within a short period of time:
Many job seekers may not realize this, but how a CV is layed out is extremely important for employers like yourself. Looking at any document that is not properly formatted and organized can be very disorienting, and it can waste your valuable time. So, from a quick glance, there should be a few essential elements to look for in order to know whether a CV deserves a full read or not. Some of these items include the applicant’s career objective, their experience, and their contact information.
We’ll be discussing some of these essential elements in further detail below. But for now, if you have a hard time even finding these sections, then you know it’s time to move to the next CV in the pile.
Duration: 4 seconds.
A candidate’s career objective should be the first main section in a candidate’s CV, right after their personal contact information. You can consider the career objective as an introduction to who your candidate is, the type of experience they have, the skills they possess, and where they’d like to be in their career within the next few years.
By reading a candidate’s career objective, you’ll begin to understand what they can bring to your organization, and how hard they’re willing to work to reach their end goals. It should go without saying that the candidate’s previous experience, as well as the skills they possess, should be aligned to the requirements of your vacancy. You’ll be able to quickly tell if the candidate’s previous experience and future plans are truly relevant to your vacancy or not.
If all is well so far, you can move on to the next part of the CV.
Duration: 6 seconds.
So, you’ve gotten this far in a CV and you’re quite hopeful about the candidate. Then, you see something that surprises you. The first work experience depicted in the CV is between 2012-2014. At this point, you’re thinking that you shouldn’t hire a candidate that hasn’t worked a steady job in the past few years. But, as you read along, you discover that this candidate has gotten everything backwards, and their next experience is between 2014-2016.
It is a common rule that all professional work experience is stated in reverse chronology: from most recent to the oldest. This applies to education as well, which we will cover in a minute. But, let’s talk more about work experience for now.
If you are looking at a CV that’s got the work experience order right, it’s time to dig deeper into what your applicant has done at their previous jobs. The first thing to look for is a detailed representation of what their job tasks were, what they were responsible for, and if they’ve accumulated any significant accomplishments.
A simple job title that’s stuck next to a previous employer’s name is not enough, even if it sounds fancy. Unfortunately, some applicants fall into the trap of copying what’s written in their job description and pasting it verbatim on their CV. Firstly, as an employer, you are most likely going to be aware of what their job description will include just by reading their job title. Secondly, you’re not so much interested in the generic tasks performed by your applicant. In order to find a truly qualified candidate who will go above and beyond in performing their job, you’ll need to know what they performed, achieved, grew, and added to their previous company.
Look for keywords that match your core skills and qualifications, look for numbers and quantitative values, and look for indications of growth.
These details will go great lengths in helping you evaluate how good a CV really is. Keep in mind that you’ll need to later on verify some of the details such as the dates of employment, specific job titles, and the names of previous employers. This can be done during the initial screening phases, such as the phone interview.
Duration: 10 seconds.
Let’s assume that you’re hiring a graphic designer. In their career objective, they’ve stated that they have experience in designing social media visuals, fancy PDFs, and brilliant presentations. They also stated that they’re currently looking to work in a dynamic environment that will help them become even more creative and add value to the organization.
In their work experience, you can see they’ve worked in marketing agencies and production houses. But, so far, you still have no idea what their technical skills are. The vacant position requires someone who is knowledgeable in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Competency in these programs should be found under a candidate’s technical skills. So that you precisely know what they’re capable of, and how much value they can bring to your job, especially if they have additional technical skills than what is required.
The next bit of information is the soft skills. Many CVs don’t have technical skills included for some reason, but almost every single CV we come across has a long list of soft skills and, in fact, almost always the same wording. Excellent communication skills, a team player, and works well under stress.
While wording on its own is not a reason to doubt an applicant’s proclaimed skills, you should still be cautious with this section. If you read through their career objective, their work experience, and their job tasks and don’t feel like they’ve had the experience to develop and apply the skills they claim to have, then you’re probably right to be doubtful or put the CV in the “maybe” list.
Duration: 6 seconds.
To some employers, the type or level of education may not be as important as work experience. But for others, and for entry-level job in particular, the vacancy at hand may require knowledge that’s only acquired through learning. And, just like work experience is stated from most recent to oldest, the same should ideally apply to education.
If you’re thinking of looking for a GPA or an overall average, you might not always find it because some job seekers avoid including it for different reasons. But, what you could look for instead is academic accomplishments. This includes things such as merits, certificates, and awards. This information will give you an idea of how motivated and hardworking your candidate was during their learning phase of life, and this will most likely reflect on how well they’ll perform if they were to land the job.
Another aspect to consider is learning outside the formal education. Looking at extra courses, internships, workshops, and such can signify that the candidate is truly interested in growing and developing as a professional.
Duration: 4 seconds.
Because technology is ever evolving, the world of hiring has been forced to keep up with the times. At Bayt.com, we understand how valuable those 30 seconds you spend looking at each CV are, which is why we’ve built advanced technologies that can greatly facilitate this process. Whether you’re looking to expedite writing job descriptions, increase the effectiveness of your job postings, or streamline your CV scanning and search efforts, the technologies are all here for you.