Are you sitting with a pile of CVs and not sure how to start identifying the most suitable candidates? In our current environment, CVs are in abundance, but that only makes the task of finding the best candidates for your dealership even harder.
The recruitment process moulds the workplace culture and provides a fundamental asset which the business relies on to succeed. Filtering through CVs should quickly remove the wheat from the chaff because the alternative wastes hours upon hours interviewing irrelevant candidates.
HERE ARE SOME THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR TO QUICKLY DISTINGUISH A GREAT CV:
Prerequisites
The first thing you should be looking for is that they cover the basic requirements for the position. A quick scan of their CV should tell you if they meet minimum educational requirements, have relevant work experience, a desire to do the advertised job and the ability to work at that location. Transformd also includes a one paragraph synopsis on the first page of the CV, where we ask the applicant to explain what differentiates them and why they believe they are the best candidate for the position.
Personalisation
Some applicants will use generic language to appeal to many different job positions and use the shotgun approach in their job search. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you had to choose between a candidate who took the time to personalise their CV and one who didn’t, you could probably tell who was more invested in the process.
Another great opportunity for personalisation is the synopsis – any applicant that has taken the time to write a bespoke summary deserves some attention.
Presentation
You don’t need a CV to look pretty. In fact, trying too hard to look good can be a distraction. A candidate’s experience should speak for itself without any frills. At the same time, any spelling errors or formatting that makes it hard to read is a red flag. Clear and concise is the name of the game. Too much and you can’t tell what is of importance, too little and… well, it’s just not enough.
If you receive a larger than usual mountain of applications, you can always shift your criteria from minimum qualifications to preferred qualifications. This distinction can quickly thin out the herd to spend more time examining the candidates that make it past first impressions.
Then it is up to the interview process to determine whether the candidates would fit well in the company and can back up the claims made on their CV.