A survey of one of the largest career portals – The Ladders shows that the first 6 seconds of a recruiter viewing a CV determines whether it will be thoroughly read. The eye-tracking method was used, which followed the eyes of 30 professional recruiters on two different CVs. The results of the study clearly showed that what is important is the layout of the content and its appropriate display. In places marked in red, recruiters focused their eyes for longer. Yellow and blue boxes mean you can view information faster. Nobody paid any attention to the white fields.
How to write a professional CV that recruiters will pay attention to?
1. Create a resume with an organized layout.
As you can see in the picture above, the author of the CV on the right uses bold and subheading. Thanks to this, it more effectively attracts attention to key places. When browsing your CV, recruiters look for keywords and information that are interesting in terms of their recruitment. Create an organized CV and you will make their work easier. Remember not to add elements that distract from your most important experiences and skills to your CV. Do not list in detail your old duties that are irrelevant to the position you are applying for. Make sure your CV also has well-chosen colors or boldface emphasis to emphasize job titles.
2. Focus on the last two positions and education.
See that the recruiter’s attention for a long time is focused on the two most recent positions in your experience. Use it! Use boldface to distinguish job and employer names from the description of experience. It’s a good idea to put the exact dates of your employment. If you don’t fill in the months of your employment, the recruiter may think you are trying to extend your working hours here. Briefly describe your education and highlight the names of the fields of study and specializations. If you are at the beginning of your career, you can add information about student or research activities. If you have longer experience, this information is much less relevant.
3. Why is it worth creating a professional profile?
Note that the top of the CV gets the most attention. How can you use it? Create a professional summary, in which you will describe in 3 sentences what you do, what is your greatest professional success and what job you are looking for. Why is this section so important? It allows you to summarize the most important achievements and, above all, show that your CV was written specifically for the advertisement you are applying for.
4. How to highlight your achievements?
Notice that the information in bold catches the eye longer. You can use this to describe your most important achievements in a given position. Use bold letters in the achievements section and add information about your successes there. Use facts and figures, e.g. I have completed 120% of sales plans, acquired 7 key customers etc. Remember not to disclose confidential information and company secrets!
5. How to use the attention to name and surname?
Why do recruiters take longer to look at your name? Subconsciously, they probably want to get to know you better and remember you. Use it! Add near your name and surname, your current or wanted position. This will make you more closely associated with the position you are applying for.
