CV documents often convey a very personal (and unfiltered) impression. They are a first step in deciding whether candidates might be a good fit for your company and earning an invitation for an in-person interview.
Ultimately, it’s all about finding the right candidates who can complete their training.
Research shows that recruiters spend 7 seconds screening a CV. So, candidates often do not get a second chance for a first impression.
Application documents in particular speak a clear language. This is how to do a CV search to find the most suitable candidates for the job.
Contents
Formal Criteria, Qualification and Experience
In the beginning, there are formal criteria. If the candidate has not followed the desired application process, there are gross mistakes, or if the qualification does not meet the minimum requirements, the decision to reject the application is made relatively quickly.
But once these hurdles have been cleared, nothing stands in the way of an invitation to an interview.
When it comes to formal requirements, a distinction is often made between “must” and “plus” requirements. The more additional qualifications the applicant brings with them, the better.
You can usually find out which characteristics these are in the job advertisement. When doing a CV search, start by answering these questions:
- Has the application procedure specified in the advertisement been followed?
- Are the application documents complete, legible and free of errors?
- Does the professional qualification match the minimum requirements mentioned?
Form and Appearance of the Application
A pre-selection is made based on the first two types of criteria. However, depending on the response to the call for applications, there may still be a large number of applications after the first step. But the capacities for the following job interviews are limited.
Mistakes in the CV can cost the candidate their job – with 77% of job recruiters saying that bad grammar and spelling errors are instant dealbreakers.
Another factor that plays a role in the CV search and selection of the applicants to be invited is therefore often the overall impression that an application makes.
When scoring the CV, you should therefore pay attention to a clean and consistent overall impression.
- Are the design and formatting adequate and consistent?
- Are there any grammatical errors, is the CV confusing?
- Is the application clean and without kinks/is the PDF correctly named and sensibly compressed?
The “Red Flags” in CV Search
The CV search is also about assessing candidates’ careers. Ideally, a CV should bring the applicant’s professional development and experience into a meaningful context.
Special features in the CV such as gaps or a change of industry are less of a problem if they manage to explain them in a comprehensible way. Recruiters should try to identify competencies and skills, but also loyalty, motivation and eagerness for getting better.
- Is the CV complete and up to date?
- How are changes and special features in the CV justified?
- Are overall trends and professional profiling recognizable?
Personal Impression and Authenticity
In addition to the technical skills, there are also the no less important skills and traits of the applicant.
How important soft skills are for company success speaks to the fact that 92% of recruiters say soft skills matter as much or more than hard skills when they hire people.
However, the assessment here is far more complicated. A very important component, which plays an important role in tight decisions, is ultimately the personal impression.
It is usually advisable to ensure that the candidate appears authentic. The less they pretend to be playing a specific role, the more natural they appear.
The following applies: the CV should speak of a professional person, but also of someone that does not pretend.
A Fit is in the Interest of Both Parties
Application processes are not only complex for the applicants. They also mean effort and risk for those responsible for human resources and decision-makers.
There are therefore many other procedures and methods to obtain information about an applicant that is suitable for a decision.
In addition to the criteria considered in this article, psychological or physical tests (assessment centers), telephone interviews or trial work could also be used, as an example.
Nevertheless, that is no reason to worry, because ultimately both sides have a great interest in the fact that they fit together.
Where to perform a CV Search to Find Top Talent
The term CV search is the sourcing of candidates via their CVs. This sourcing method is most effective in resume databases. However: recruiters can also search and find CVs in other places on the web.
The largest CV database is Google itself, i.e. the web. In addition to the direct availability of important details and information with this method, many tips and tricks make it easier to search for and find CVs.
Useful sourcing methods are:
- Simple CV search on the web
- CV search in your applicant database
- CV search from specialized databases
- Talentprise pool of global talent
The last method is most effective, because it is supported by powerful matching algorithms and performed on a large talent pool database.
