The first thing to understand is that recruiters do not actually ‘read’ CVs. The precious document you’ve spent all weekend crafting into a masterpiece will most likely be given a 3 second review before the recruiter decides to keep you in process or eliminate you from the search. Don’t be offended or outraged about this – it is purely a consequence of the recruiter having to process hundreds of CV’s every day, often under unrealistic time constraints. What is actually being done is perhaps better described as ’scanning’ – a one blink glance for key elements within a document that determine whether you are to called or deleted. As a Job Seeker, your first task is to pass this CV scan – here are a five tips on what you’ve got to do.

1. Be Easily Contactable
That means mobile and email on the top of the first page. Putting this information anywhere else forces the recruiter to hunt for it within the document, and every additional second he spends doing this exercise increases the risk that he will give up and move on to the next CV on his list.

2. Be Conventional
Unless you are in a creative industry, its worth avoiding any kind of unnecessary formatting or design that could be considered gimmicky. That means backgrounds other than white, font colours other than black, any kind of non standard font, unconventional bullet points and so on. There is a difference between making your CV stand out, and making it look wierd. Unconventional formatting does the latter and will almost certainly lead to the delete pile.

3. Be Categorical
Of course, you are a multi talented, multi dimensional professional, but to pass the CV scan you need to be easily categorised into a role a recruiter understands. Strange as it may sound, but you need to pigeon-hole yourself on the CV. If you are a Project Manager, the recruiter needs to understand this in 3 seconds of opening your CV, so make it obvious with your headings, the language you use and skills you list.

4. Be Easy On The Eye
Bullet points were invented for a reason – use them. Writing blocks of text forces the recruiter to actually read – remember that’s not what that’s not what he wants to do. It’s time consuming to pick out those key elements within a block of text more than 5-6 lines long. Make a clear, related points within short paragraphs (try for 3-4 lines) and follow up with subheadings and bullets if you need to expand upon it.

5. Be brief
A recruiter can tell how long your CV is as soon as the document is open. Keep your CV to two pages if you can, four pages at an absolute maximum. Anything over that and the recruiter will close it down before they even begin to read.

There is a somewhat unpalatable rule of thumb in all of this; don’t make the recruiter work. Your best interests are served if you make as easy as possible for the recruiter to understand your CV and do so in 3 seconds or less.

Consider these five steps a sanity check on your CV – do you need to change it?