How to charm a recruiter – beginners' level

As the first person in the business who has the pleasure (it is!) to read your CV, I often find myself developing strong emotions towards a person just from reading this informative and should-be-very-straight-forward document.

And those feelings can make or break your prospects for a future in the position at hand.

So here are a few very simple and basic do's and don’ts that can help get you, and your CV, on my good side. From there, the way to your first interview is much shorter.

Do's:

1. Please help me keep my vision – literally speaking. Use big and clear fonts, ones that I can read effortlessly. If I have to manipulate document size in order to read it or manipulate myself, as in squinting my eyes, I already like you less.

2. Don't make me spell it out for you! Again, literally speaking, this one is on the "Do" list because it makes me very happy to read a CV that doesn't include a ton of typos and terrible grammar. In addition to making me sad, too many of those make me think your performance at your job will be haphazard as well. So please always proofread your CV before submitting it.

3. If you really want to make me root for you, try to make it as easy and quickly as possible for me to find the most important words on your CV. How? Easy! Highlight them. What are they? Usually, they are the words in the job description that make you think you're a good fit for the position. After reading the description and realizing what those words are, simply find and highlight them on your CV.

Don'ts:

1. Don't copy-paste a bunch of random qualities everybody seems to possess, like "passionate about code" and "a great team player." Think about what really makes you unique and give a relevant example to help me see it.

2. The more – not always the merrier. I'm not happy if your CV is too long for no good reason. If you're a great candidate, trust me, I'll get that after the third line. And if you're less than great, making me read more than what is really essential will probably reduce your chance of getting an interview even more. So think carefully about what you choose to include. Tell your story, but only the relevant bits of it.

3. Don't start your CV with anything else but your work experience (after a short summary if you’d like). If I have to look at your education first, as impressive as it may be, I'm going to think one of those: a. you don't have any experience worth mentioning, b. you don't have experience at all. Either way, I’m not happy (unless it's an entry-level position).

Taking my own advice, I’m going to keep it short this time. I hope you found this helpful and that your CV is now as charming as possible. If so, you’re very welcome to send it over; we’re always looking for great people!