A recruiter filling a senior role will typically review several hundred applications. The first pass on each one takes a matter of seconds, and it is not a careful reading — it is a search for three things: what this person does, at what level, and whether there is evidence they do it well. If those three things are not immediately locatable, the application is set aside regardless of the quality of the underlying career.<\/p>\n
What follows is what actually determines that outcome, from the perspective of the people making the decision.<\/p>\n
Most CVs waste their most valuable space on a generic profile paragraph. Replace it with four or five lines that state your discipline, your level, your sector context and two quantified achievements. A reader should be able to finish that block and know whether to continue. Everything below it exists to substantiate it.<\/p>\n
This is the single largest differentiator between CVs that progress and CVs that do not. “Responsible for managing the regional sales team” describes an assignment. “Led a team of fourteen across three markets, growing regional revenue from €8m to €13m in two years while reducing attrition from 24% to 9%” describes a professional. Where you cannot obtain exact figures, an honest approximation with context is far better than a vague duty. Aim for two or three quantified outcomes per substantial role.<\/p>\n
Automated parsing is a reality at most large employers, and it matches on terminology. If the specification says “talent acquisition” and your CV says “recruitment”, include both. This is not keyword stuffing, which is transparent and counterproductive; it is describing your experience in the language of the reader. Tailoring the top third and the skills section to each application takes fifteen minutes and changes response rates substantially.<\/p>\n
Two pages is correct for the large majority of senior professionals; three is defensible for academic, legal or research careers with publication records. Use a single clean typeface, conventional section headings, no columns, no tables, no graphics, no photograph unless local convention requires one, and submit as PDF unless another format is requested. Elaborate design fails parsers and signals unfamiliarity with the process.<\/p>\n
Explain gaps briefly and without apology — an unexplained two-year absence attracts far more suspicion than a one-line note about caring responsibilities, study or a deliberate break. Keep early-career roles to a single line each. Remove the objective statement, the marital status, the date of birth, the full home address and the phrase “references available on request”. Proofread twice and have someone else read it once, because a typo in the first three lines of a senior CV does real damage.<\/p>\n
Recruiters will look at your professional profile before they contact you, and inconsistency between the two documents raises questions you do not want raised. Align dates and titles exactly, and ensure the profile headline states what you do rather than where you work.<\/p>\n
Hand your CV to someone outside your field and give them thirty seconds. Then ask what you do, how senior you are and what you are good at. If they can answer all three, the document works. If they hesitate on any of them, the problem is structural rather than cosmetic.<\/p>\n