Improving Your CV, Chapter 3: Understanding the audience for your CV

Part of Course 1: Improving your CV · Chapter 3 of 29 · 23 min

About this chapter

Before you write a word, think about who will read your CV. I walk through the journey a CV takes: job site to external recruiter, HR, hiring manager, and sometimes a CEO or divisional director. I also cover applying direct through a company's careers page, where a very junior person may make the first cut.

Key points

• An external recruiter is usually the first reader and isn't a domain expert. They scan for keywords and typically need only five or six CVs to send on.
• Recruiters often delete your contact details before forwarding your CV, so make sure they come off cleanly.
• HR may read half-attentively, and the hiring manager is often scanning in the gaps between meetings. They may also forward it to the team for opinions.
• Applying direct, your CV may be screened first by a junior HR person who doesn't know your employers or your field, so explain things clearly.
• Many older application systems have no AI scanning at all; they're essentially upload-and-process tools.
• Your CV may be passed up to very senior people, so it has to work for readers who don't know your detail.

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Next: Chapter 4: How recruiters and hiring managers read your CV →

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