PROFESSIONAL CV WRITING, CV ADVICE & CAREERS BLOG

CV Writing – Only 30 Seconds to Impress Recruiters

CVs – 30 seconds to impress

CVs and Competition for Jobs

Competition for jobs is intense and recruiters receive many CVs. This leaves little time to properly scrutinise CVs. To a trained eye, recruiters are able to quickly scan CVs for information relating to skills, experience and evidence of suitability to job roles. This means recruiters will on average spend less than 30 seconds reviewing a CV before moving onto the next one until a shortlist is complied.

Initial Recruitment Decisions are based on the CV

So, what are the implications of this? Candidates must create a well-presented, articulated and informative CV likely to stand out amongst competing candidates. It also means that initial recruitment decisions are made almost entirely on the CV itself, meaning that the vast majority of CVs will be rejected at the initial screening stage.

Most CVs are rejected!

A second screening stage will more than likely take place where CVs will be scrutinised in more detail, perhaps for a longer period of time (i.e. 2-3 minutes). A shortlist will be created and invites for interview will be sent out or an initial telephone screening interview will follow to consolidate the shortlist. The likelihood is that over 90% of candidate CVs will be rejected on the initial screening stages, so the importance of having a really good CV must never be under-estimated.

Improving CVs

It is not rocket science, though a few improvements, a better strategy and greater attention to detail can go along way to getting CVs noticed. As a general rule, CVs that hold the recruiters attention, are clearly presented and are targeted/positioned to the role in question will receive more attention and have a greater chance of being shortlisted for interview. Those CVs that do not follow these simple principles will be rejected.

CV as a professional marketing document

Overall, the CV should be seen as a professional marketing document that should reflect the candidate in the best possible way. Invest time and do some research on evaluating how the CV can be improved, refined and tested to ensure it is fit for purpose, targeted and correctly positioned to what you want. Alternatively, seek Professional CV Writing advice by investing in a professional CV writing service or gain constructive feedback from recruiters as to how to improve your CV.

Winning CV is a professional CV writing company offering professional CV and executive CV writing services for career-minded professionals. As professional CV writers , Winning CV also offers services for Graduate CV writing and technical CV writing .

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Tags: better cv writing, cv, cv impressions, cv presentation, cv writing skills, cvs, resume, resumes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 4:01 pm and is filed under CVs - Impress Now!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.