30 Seconds to Impact – Can Your CV Handle it?

Like everyone these days, our inboxes are bursting at the seams. Uniquely for recruiters though, a large proportion of these emails are CVs and job applications. Given there are only so many hours in a day, the way we scan CVs has become a fine art.

While research suggests most recruiters take just six seconds to decide whether a CV makes the cut or not, we’ve done some number-crunching of our own and found it takes us around 30 seconds to say yay or nay.

With the countdown on, here’s some insight into our decision-making process. Based on our experience, there are three key ways you can make an impact.

Employment history smashes through

Your employment history must make the first impact. It’s the focal point of every CV. This section must be strong because it’s where employers and recruiters make their judgement call on whether to read on. This is where the content needs to jump off the page.

In our experience, one of the biggest oversights is not including the context of your role and details of past employers and/or organisations. Without a complete understanding of your previous role or the context of where your role ‘fitted in’, wrong assumptions can be made as the reader is only getting half the story. Relevant, contextual detail needs to cover the size of the business, the number of employees, $’s turnover and whether it’s a local or international enterprise.

Good structure gives your CV gravity

If your CV is busy and hard to read, you’re going straight into the no pile.

The candidate with the most jam-packed CV doesn’t get the prize. Your CV is a marketing document and the product you’re marketing is you. Does it clearly and concisely tell your professional story? The ‘visual hierarchy’ of your CV helps make it scannable and relevant details should be easy to identify in a flash. Clever use of headings, sub-headings and bolding make for easy reading.  Critical details like an important qualification or security clearance should jump off the page.

By sticking to key headings such as – career objective, skills summary, education, employment history (including job responsibilities and achievements), personal interests and references – you’re more likely to get a swift and positive response.

Be a force without fancy formats

Now is not the time to impress us with your advanced MS Word skills. Fancy fonts, intricate borders, boxes or complex tables only over complicate your CV. It does nobody any favours – it just muddles the process.

A simple and clean CV is the most effective – four or five pages at the most.

Make a positive impact with generous spacing, bullet points and information that is written in plain English. Your CV is your first point-of-contact. Your time starts, now.