From CV to Interview: Bringing in the Right Talent

Recruiting is no easy task. Your inbox is probably flooded with potential candidates who are vying for an open position in your company, and it can get quite overwhelming to receive and review so many CVs. As a recruiter, your job is to sift through potential candidates, analyse their backgrounds and skills, and determine if they will be an asset to the company.

When you hire someone, you are essentially placing your trust in them to represent your company well regardless of their level of seniority. For the first step of the hiring process, you only have a piece of paper to determine if this candidate is worth your time. How should you choose the right person?

Because recruiting is among many other responsibilities, time is of the essence. Reading through every CV that lands in my inbox is simply out of the question. So, I tend to gravitate towards CVs that are short, ideally those that land within one page.

The main purpose of a CV is for the candidate to share their work experience and the impact that their work had on the company. CVs that are concise tend to focus on the most important aspects of the candidate’s background, which will give you an idea of what the candidate has to offer.

Some CVs appear to show an extensive background and multiple positions, but the candidate may not have presented the impact of their work. To me, this implies that they want to be told what to do. They want to follow a program instead of taking initiative to make things happen.

Recruiters always want to hire someone who will bring life to a position and take initiative. Nobody wants a robot who waits for commands. So, keep an eye out for candidates who present projects that made an impact on their company. These people are leaders in the making.

Obviously, no one would explicitly express that they took initiative on a project. So, how can you recognize if someone went outside of their comfort zone and stepped up to do something out of their volition?