Is your Résumé/CV good enough? A headhunter’s perspective

Anyone applying for a job knows they need a résumé or a CV. Without it, one would be a soldier without armour. A résumé or a CV helps candidates build a good foundational structure to their professional career. Furthermore, the way you structure and develop your résumé/CV says a lot more about you than you think.

As a headhunter with expertise in the tech industry, you would think I see professionally crafted résumés/CVs all the time. Well, you would be wrong. One would definitely be surprised at how often I see poorly crafted résumé/CVs; from an overload of unnecessary information, to near illegible layouts. I have also seen résumés/CVs spilling up to 12 pages long, detailing superfluous day-to-day information that really does not matter to hiring managers. Sometimes, I even receive résumés/CVs that have blank pages in between! Needless to say, I have seen my fair share of terrible résumés/CVs and I definitely think something should be done about it…

Part of my job as a headhunter involves interacting with and giving my support to tech developers as they apply for a position. This will include some mentoring; giving the developers I work with advice on their résumés/CVs and helping them craft one that they can use professionally anytime. The main  advice I give: make sure your résumés/CVs are as succinct. Only key information about your achievements, role descriptions, skills and awards (if any) is required. If your résumé/CV is over 5 pages, you need to reassess the information you are putting on it.

Just like your codes, your résumé/CV should be easy to read; clean and precise. Hiring managers are typically really busy and will not read through every page of your résumé/CV if it is extremely long. If you can make your résumé/CV as precise as possible, it increases the chances of the hiring manager reading it through and considering your application in full.

Many candidates forget that the résumé/CV represents you as a person. Being able to develop one that is meticulously organised and presented, tells the hiring manager (and myself) a lot about your character. You would be surprised at the correlation between having a good résumé/CV, and the probability of the candidate getting the position they applied for.