How To Get Your CV Shortlisted | Warwick Employment Group

Wondering if there is a trick to how to get your CV shortlisted? The truth is, there is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ CV. However, there is a way to tailor your CV to increase your chance of being shortlisted and offered an opportunity in the interview hot seat.

Warwick Employment Group have outlined the key steps for updating your CV and looked at the common reasons why CVs don’t get shortlisted, to help you get one step closer to securing a permanent job.

What is the CV shortlisting process?

Shortlisting is when a recruiter or hiring manager reads through all the CVs they received for a job and decides which candidates are the best fit for the role. Shortlisting occurs after applicants have been ‘sourced’ (found) for a vacancy, but before the job interview stage.

Candidates who make it onto the shortlist and are brought through to the next stage of the recruitment process. This might be an invite to an interview or a work-related evaluation or test.

Changes to help get your CV shortlisted

After a couple of rejection emails, it’s easy to get frustrated and wonder why your CV isn’t getting shortlisted. While everyone’s CV is different, there are a few things all of us can do to improve the likelihood of getting shortlisted for that dream job.

1. Up to date contact details

Changed phone numbers since the last time you applied for a job? Or perhaps you’ve started using a different email address. You wouldn’t be the first person to skim over the contact details section of your CV in favour of paying more attention to your work history. But incorrect contact details might explain why you’re not hearing back about your job applications, so check them thoroughly before submitting your CV.

2. Tailor your CV

When you’re applying for a few similar roles, it can be tempting to submit the same CV to each one. But tailoring your CV to that job is a vital part of getting it shortlisted.

Use the summary paragraph at the top of your CV to make a strong case for why you’re a great fit for the role. Let’s say you’re applying for an admin role at a university and you’ve worked within higher education before; something like ‘strong administrative background with experience of working in higher education’ is more tailored to the job than ‘Over 5 years of administration experience across a range of sectors’.

Read through the job description and person specification, note down any keywords or phrases, and then use these in your CV. For example, if the job advert mentions interpersonal skills but your CV mentions working well with others, why not update your CV to say interpersonal skills? Simple changes like this are a great way to refine your CV so it's tailored to the job.

3. Highlight relevant skills and experience

Be selective about the skills and experience you mention. Only include what’s relevant to the job in question and remove anything that the employer isn’t looking for.

Imagine a scenario where job #1 lists line management experience as desirable, but job #2 doesn’t. If you have line management experience from previous roles, include it in the CV you submit for job #1. With job #2, is there a skill or experience listed in the job advert that you could mention instead of your line management experience? If there is, then make the swap. It’s an easy change and puts you closer to being shortlisted for both jobs.

If you’re a few years into your professional career, it might be time to remove the first job or two that you held when you were younger. The general rule is to go back as far as 10 years or 5-6 jobs in your career. Whether you’re still working in the same industry or you’ve changed careers over the years, your most recent experience is what an employer wants to know about.

4. Make it easy to read, with clear headings and bullet points

An overcrowded or messy layout may be another reason why your CV isn’t getting shortlisted. Ensure your CV is easy to read with:

● Only one or two columns of text

● One font type or font family

● Clear headings by making them bold, underlined, or a bigger font

● Bullet points when giving details about your work history, education, skills and qualifications

5. No more than two pages

This is related to the points above, but a CV becomes more difficult to read the longer it is, so aim for no more than two A4 pages at most. By only including relevant experience and skills, going back no further than 10 years or 5-6 jobs and using bullet points, it’s much easier to stay under that two-page mark for your CV and increase your chances of making it through the CV shortlisting process.

6. Include relevant links

This is an important element of a CV when it comes to the creative industries. If you’re applying for a role in an area like marketing, graphic design or photography, it’s a good idea to link to a portfolio or website where you can demonstrate previous work you’ve done - showing your creativity and experience in using certain tools or software.

For non-creative roles, if you have a LinkedIn that is up to date, it’s worth including in your CV as it might give the employer some additional information or context.

Common reasons why your CV might not be shortlisted

1. Unexplained gaps in your work history

If you’re not allowed to send a cover letter or supporting statement with your CV and you have gaps in your employment history, then your CV needs to explain why. This doesn’t have to be in depth, particularly if it’s a personal matter. A quick sentence like ‘Employment break between September 2017 - April 2018 due to health’, ‘Employment break between May 2021 - June 2022 due to caring responsibilities’ or ‘Career break to travel and work in Australia between October 2023 - present’ would do the trick.

Explaining as to why you weren’t employed for a period of time is better than leaving the gap unexplained, as this may raise enough of a concern among the hiring manager or recruiter that they choose not to shortlist your CV.

2. It’s not tailored to the job

Hiring managers and recruiters look through countless CVs and, with an average of 25 applications per vacancy in the UK, they’re not afraid to be tough when deciding who gets shortlisted for a job and who doesn’t. If your CV doesn’t demonstrate that you read the job description and have a good understanding of what’s expected of the role, then your CV is most likely ending up in the rejected pile.

3. Vague personal summary

The personal summary is one of the first things a hiring manager will read on your CV, so writing an effective one is a crucial part of how to get your CV shortlisted. If it’s vague, for example using generic phrases like ‘Good communicator’ or ‘A team player’, isn’t written concisely, or doesn’t give a good idea of what you could bring to the job, then you’re missing a crucial opportunity to grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to read the rest of your CV.

4. You didn’t proofread it

If you submit a CV without proofreading it and there are mistakes - consider what message this sends to the employer. An error-free CV shows you think that the position is worth the time to review your CV, lets you remove any mistakes before submitting and ensures the hiring manager has something high quality to read.

5. You didn’t follow the instructions on how to apply

Some job adverts include instructions on how to apply, for example:

● Submitting your CV and any supporting documentation in a specific file format (Word doc and PDF are the most common)

● Naming your CV and any other documents in a specific way (e.g. ‘Applicant name - CV’ or ‘Applicant name - Job title - CV’).

● Downloading and filling out additional forms to submit alongside your CV

● Submitting your CV before 12 noon on the day of the deadline (not midnight)

Double-check the job advert for any specific instructions on the application process and make sure you follow them. Again, think about what impression you are giving the hiring manager if you struggle with following instructions on how to apply.

6. It’s not passing applicant tracking software (ATS)

Some companies use applicant tracking software to scan CVs for specific skills and experience. In these cases, submitting a generic CV that isn’t tailored and doesn’t highlight specific skills and experience means you won’t get past the ATS stage of the recruitment process.

7. You relied too much on AI

AI tools can help out with a few of the things mentioned in this article, such as making your CV easy to read and proofreading. AI might also be able to give you some suggestions on how to get your CV shortlisted.

There is nothing wrong with asking for AI’s help in creating a CV, but don’t rely on it completely. Don’t ask AI to write your CV for you and don’t input any personal details (such as your contact information) into the software. Read anything produced by AI thoroughly to check for inaccuracies, awkward or clunky phrases, and make sure that it feels like something you could have written yourself.

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