How to spot a top CV

Over the last few weeks, we’ve discussed how to improve your job advert, why salary is important for it, and how to make your recruitment process more streamlined for more quality candidates.

Now let’s focus on how to spot a top CV out of a pool of candidates. 

 

Source personality

Find evidence in a CV that the candidate has done their homework and due diligence on your company and role. They should have made it clear in their cover letter why they want the job. For example, do they enjoy problem solving? Or are they interested in working for a large team? Perhaps they would take pride in being a representative for your company. Anyone who can provide good examples of what interests them about your company is probably a more successful hire than someone who chose to send you a generic CV.

 

Locate passion

Having a passion for the job in question is an important asset. You should be able to identify passion in different areas of a CV, for example in the hobbies section, or in the certifications/qualifications section. Perhaps your candidate chose to study alongside their previous role to acquire the skills they feel they have now achieved to apply for your job? Or they have highlighted some key reading materials in their cover letter – this is real passion, going above and beyond to learn more about your job. And this is a candidate worth investing in. 

 

Don’t just look for buzzwords

Yes, you want someone who meets the measure in terms of your job description. But let’s be realistic, in today’s world of Googling, how difficult is it for a candidate to find a suitable job description and simply research the skills required to make themselves sound more qualified than they are? This is why it’s no longer suitable to just seek out buzzwords – read the CV to identify whether the candidate can ‘speak the language’ of the job. And search for a proven track record of achievement on their application. While a keyword search comes in extremely handy to whittle down applications initially, you have to look deeper at the CV to assess if the candidate has genuine knowledge and experience of the area in question.