Getting your CV noticed

Below is an article written by a hiring manager of a large company. It gives a useful insight into what grabs their attention and, more importantly, what doesn't.

CV Culling
"When I was actually looking for employees, I would often have a pile of about 70 to go through. In fact one time when we were looking for graduates, I got 743 CVs through, after one small advert in the graduates recruitment magazine. When I did get 70 CVs through, the first job was to whittle them down to about 10-15 CVs that I could consider. I would quickly go through the CVs, spending about 30 seconds on each, looking to see if they had the requisite skills and the requisite experiences.

If I couldn't work out from the CV, in that 30 seconds, if the person had the requisite skills then that CV was out. Once I had selected the 10-15 that I would look at, the other 55-60 went straight into the bin. Candidates putting forward their CVs may be upset by this, but I am just telling it how it is. If candidates want to get their CVs accepted, then they should try and work out what Employers want, rather than trying to tell them what they should want.

Next Stage
I would then go through the 10-15 CVs selected, giving them 5-10 minutes each to whittle then down to around 3-6 candidates (if there was only one job), that I would like to interview.

To make sure that you get from Stage 1 (CV on employers desk) to Stage 2, where your CV is given genuine scrutiny, it is crucial that you survive the 'cull' from the 70 stage to 10-15 stage. It is crucial, therefore, that you have a summary of your skills on the front page. I'm sure that I must have discarded many good people at the initial stage, but I didn't have time to search for their skills and abilities, if they didn't have the skill and ability to bring them quickly to my attention in their CVs.

Customise
Once your CV has got to the second stage, then your CV will be given genuine consideration. Forget about jobs more than 5 years ago. Put your most recent job at the front of your CV, and the more recent the job; describe it in the CV in greater detail. Also, have the good sense to customize your CV for different jobs. Don't let the agency just send out a generic one. Find out what skills that a particular company want, and change your CV to stress those skills. Every company that your CV is sent out to, should be at least slightly customized to reflect the match between your skills and what the employing company want, especially on the summary page. Not many candidates do that, and as a result, many of their CVs get rejected in the initial 'cull'."