Over the past 8 months, I’ve probably gone through some 1000 CVs. Tonight I’m going through another 400 CVs for a new opening at my company. You must be wondering how is it possible for a person to go through so many CVs in just one night?
Well here’s the secret: I don’t actually go through each one of them. The reality is that these days there’s just too many candidates for a simple job and there’s no way recruiters can go through them one-by-one. So what do they do? Well they base their decision on some criteria that may sound totally absurd to you. It takes a recruiter less than a second to deny you your dream job.
I do the same. Since it’s not possible for me to go through all the applications, I simply go through the ones that fit the criteria I’ve set. Knowing these criteria will help you understand what recruiters like me go through when deciding whether to call a person for an interview or not and improve them in your next job application email.
1. Gender
I hate to say this but not all jobs are equal. It’s not a question of a person’s ability but rather the circumstances that surround a job that make the job more or less suited to a particular sex. The candidate I am looking for is for the post of a Procurement and Inventory Executive. The person needs to travel to different marketplaces and negotiate with suppliers. The raw nature of the job makes it suitable for a male candidate so I will just not even open the emails sent by female candidates.
Lesson: the nature of the job often decides what gender the recruiter is looking for
2. Email Subject Line
The second thing I notice is the email subject. Not writing any subject line or simply writing “CV” or the job title is a big disappointment. Specific subject lines like “Application for the Post of Procurement & Inventory Executive” are the ones that are more likely to get opened.
Lesson: subject lines must be specific
3. Name of the Sender
If a candidate can’t distinguish between user ID and user name, then probably he or she is not going to cut it. Candidates should always use their real name like Sayem Faruk and not sayem123 as a name. Small details like capitalizing the first letter of the words that make your name shows that the you pay attention to details and care about presentation.
Lesson: using proper full names makes you appear more professional
4. Cover Letter (within Email)
If you’re sending a cover letter attached with your email, chances are very high that the recruiter won’t even download that attachment. A better alternative is to write a cover letter within the email. Personally, I feel cover letters should just be an informal message where the candidate tries to sell the recruiter why he or she is suitable for the job in question. See how I emphasized the words “job in question”. That’s because a lot of candidates out there just copy-paste the same message for every job they apply to. That just feels impersonal and insincere. The key here is to address the valid doubts of the recruiter. Like saying how you’ve managed inventory before or how good your English is by mentioning how much you scored in the recent IELTS exam you took.
Lesson: write a simple personalized message within the email body to catch the recruiter’s eyes
5. Typos
No matter how good you are, a simple spelling mistake, a grammatical error, or an error in punctuation can just kill the first impression and credibility that is extremely difficult to build. Check, double-check, triple-check, heck ask someone else to check your email before hitting the send button.
Lesson: for the love of God don’t make typos
6. The CV or Resume Itself
Well this part is so broad that it requires a whole blog post on its own. But to cut it short:
(i) the size of the attachment shouldn’t be too large (more than 1 mb is a bummer)
(ii) the file name should not be “CV of” or “Resume of” it should simply be the person’s name with one or two key words like the candidate’s university and major e.g. Sayem Faruk, IBA DU, Marketing. If you follow this small trick, trust me recruiters will thank you for understanding and making their lives a little easier. Furthermore, you will increase your chances of getting hired as well because finding your CV is not easier.
(iii) if the candidate says in the email subject line that what he is sending is a resume then he or she better understand the difference between a resume and a CV. Sadly, even many recruiters in our country don’t even know the difference. Simply put: a resume is a one-page summary of your achievements while a CV or Curriculum Vitae is a two or three page long in-depth documentation of all of your achievements and other accomplishments like publications, awards, honors etc.
I will hopefully write another article on CV and Resume writing soon. Hope this helped. Let me know what you think of this piece in the comments.
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