How to spot a winning CV.
You've got 50 Resumes sitting on your desk and only have time to interview the top 5 candidates - sound familiar?
Here are some top tips to look for in the CV that can set a candidate apart from their peers!
Remember > The CV is a ‘pitch’ document. It’s up to the applicant to put their best foot forward and demonstrate the elements below. The candidate should demonstrate self-awareness, targeted job search and go beyond a CV full of bog standard keywords.
80% of the CVs you see will fit the criteria for the role ‘on paper’ but you know in your mind only 1-3% of the CVs will actually make the cut for your specific job (cultural fit, job specifics etc). So we're looking for those 1-3% candidates from the pile plus a few wildcards...
See it like this – the items below are all POSITIVE indicators. Lack of any of them in the CV are not reasons to decline someone. BUT – those CVs with the MOST POSITIVE INDICATORS are normally the ones you will speak to FIRST.
So what are we looking for?
- Does the candidate tell us a story – For me one of THE most important elements. Does the candidate tell a story in their CV and bring their projects to life – make it exciting? Is it a narration moreso than bland list of duties (at least a couple of sentences). Do they give any critical analysis of what they did or why they were excited by their final solution? It doesn’t have to go into too great depth but some flash of intrigue is much better than a mere bullet point list of duties. If you’re writing a CV there are some essentials to include, but if it’s just a stock list of duties there will be nothing to separate you from other candidates.
- Is it about them? – At this stage we want to know what the CANDIDATE did, what THEY achieved, not what their TEAM did. Teamwork should be referenced for sure, but if the CV is ambiguous and doesn’t make clear what they personally contributed to a project then they score low here and we can only assume they contributed little otherwise they’d shout about it.
- Not just a long list of technical keywords – For most it’s the best way to guarantee getting found, but we’ve all experienced it where lists of keywords that were merely studied academically are given equal credence to technologies that the candidate uses commercially day in, day out. When this happens rather than think ‘brilliant the candidate knows all these technologies’ I’ll usually instead start looking for other evidence of competence / credibility to back up all of the keywords listed in the CV.
- Context is king – when the candidate gives some background to their role and builds a more 3-dimensional picture of what happened during their 2 years at x,y,z company that really helps add depth. Much better than just a list of bullets without understanding how much and why they did a certain thing.
- Achievements-focused – Does the candidate demonstrate ‘outputs’ i.e. show knowledge of what benefit their solution had on the business, or do they merely talk about ‘inputs’? With A Players you’ll be looking for those people who think customer-first, so they need to know what they’re trying to achieve before they start the project, and will document this in their CV. If they talk too much about the technical input again it doesn’t show critical thinking associated with changing direction on-project when needed, overcoming problems and considering the alternatives to reach the end goal.
- Who have they worked for? – This is a dangerous one. So yep if the candidate has worked for companies who you consider to be strong players in your sector or the wider market then yes they’ll get instant attention in most cases. The caveat to this is what level did they work at, what projects did they work on and what types of things did they do there. So definitely worth looking at more closely but again you can get two people with similar job titles from the same company who could be worlds apart in terms of suitability for your role.
- They know their numbers – I love it when a candidate includes some great statistics in their CV! It shows that they’re aware of the result of what they’re doing, and also perhaps that they’ve had those targets in mind for the duration of the project. Again look more closely at the context, and are the results closely associated with the project they worked on or merely broader corporate targets that have been plucked from a website somewhere? If they can explain them in good detail with context you’re onto a winner.
- Succinctly describe the stack (Software Developer CVs) – It’s all about relevance here. The tricky thing when pulling a CV together is that there are sooo many techs that you’ll come into contact with on a project. But equally many can be ‘unspoken’ and taking as givens when used in conjunction with core techs. I think the main thing is quality in quality out. Rather than including everything, the CV should highlight the main skills / techs and describe in a way that shows knowledge of the subject.
- The candidate knows what’s important – What are the key skills that credible candidate needs for the job to which they’re applying; what do they bring to the table? Two well-constructed sentences can eclipse two pages of bullets and tech lists on a CV – that’s what the Hiring Manager wants to see, something they can relate to that shows supreme authority of the subject matter.
- They show further learning – Kind of a given, not essential to be a master of your craft but this is about making it easier to come to a ‘yes’ decision than an ‘I’ll think about it’ outcome on the resume review. This is not a new thing so I won’t bore you but again is a positive indicator over someone who has nothing to show.
- Being proud of something (anything) – This can even be a hobby unrelated to their specialist discipline. If a candidate is proud of something they’ve done it shows they’re engaged and passionate individual and looking at how they can get better at something. You can’t buy passion so to see in evident is a massive plus.
- Projects (and personal contributions) – This is quite a broad area and again can take up a lot of page space. But for example someone who’s built out an entire system / process will bring something different from someone who’s worked on quite a focused list of duties. It’s a question of asking yourself what suits the role / business best? Breadth vs depth each has their own strengths depending on the shape of the role and also long term vision for the position.
- Evidence of being good with people – Being good with people is often as important as the technical apsects of a role (again depends on job design). So any evidence in the CV whether in work or outside work of being a great people person will light up any CV! Definitely something to look for.
- All that glitters ain’t gold – Some CVs do jump off the page and make you think ‘I can’t pick the phone up fast enough’ to then interview the candidate and realise there are some gaping holes. Matching up the two in hindsight may be easier than in advance but these are the calls you have to make. But in essence be wary of fancy words / phrases and techs if they’re not backed up with some substance or evidence of critical thinking. Working with something is far different than mastering it. Dig a little deeper.
In Summary
Sometimes a one page CV is better than a 3-page CV. Less can definitely be more. For me the ideal CV would start with some narrative, give an indication what the candidate is passionate about and then gradually drill down into some technical detail. Job specs should be the same but often they aren’t, so I understand the candidate going for a ‘one size fits all approach in the CV’ – I don’t believe there are bad candidates, I just think that different candidates are good for different jobs so this guide is there to help refine targeting for your specific role, which will change from job to job.
Of course, the above list is not designed to be any kind of science to apply to a selection process and I’ve come across people who do buck all the trends above. Your existing end to end selection process is designed to eventually choose the right person. BUT… this can help pick out the potential stars at the CV stage and if you’re proactively sourcing for candidates it will help you to search for people who possess these traits. Sure you may miss out on some others but on balance you’ll get to the good ones that you might otherwise have overlooked.