Writing a CV That Gets Read
A recruiter gives a first-pass CV somewhere between six and ten seconds. That is not enough time to read a career, so the document has to work before anyone reads a word: clear job title, obvious relevance, results near the top. The advice below is about making those seconds count.
What happens in the first pass
Most first passes happen in a pile, often after a keyword search. Someone scans the top third of page one, checks job titles and dates, and decides whether to read further. If your most relevant experience sits in paragraph four of page two, it will not be seen on that pass.
That is why the top third of page one carries the weight. Put your current or target job title there, your years of relevant experience, and two or three results that match what the advert asks for.
Keep to two pages unless you have more than ten years of directly relevant work. A four-page CV is not read more slowly. It is read less.
Applicants often ask how long the CV should be. The answer is as long as it takes to make the case and no longer. If two candidates have equal experience and one needs four pages to explain it, the two page version usually gets the interview, because the reviewer can find what it needs in half the time.
Lead with a summary that names the job you want
Weak: 'Hardworking professional with excellent communication skills seeking a challenging opportunity in a dynamic company.' Every word there could describe anyone, and none of it can be checked.
Strong: 'Warehouse shift supervisor with six years leading teams of eight to fifteen in chilled distribution. Cut pick errors by 22 percent in 2025 and ran a site through a stock system migration with no missed dispatch.' The second version names the job, the size of the teams and two results.
Three lines is enough. Write it last, after the rest of the CV is finished, so you know what you have to summarise.
Turn duties into results
You do not need dramatic numbers. Estimates are fine as long as you can defend them, and you should phrase an estimate as one: 'roughly 40 calls a week'. If there is no number, name the scope or the outcome: the size of the team, the budget, the deadline, the client, or the fact that the process you wrote is still in use.
Anything you cannot back up in the interview should come off the CV. A project you watched is not a project you led.
- Managing the rota - Built a four-week rota for 14 staff that cut last-minute shift swaps by half.
- Responsible for customer service - Handled around 40 calls a week with a 92 percent first-contact resolution rate.
- Helped with training - Trained three new starters on the till and returns process; all three passed their first review.
Formatting rules that survive automated screening
Applications are often sorted by software before a person touches them, and that software reads text. A plain layout beats a designed one. Use a single column, standard headings in the order employers expect (contact details, summary, experience, education, skills), and a common font at 10 to 12 point.
Keep essential information out of tables, text boxes, headers and graphics. A two-column design can scramble the reading order, and a photograph can push a good CV out of the shortlist in countries where photos invite discrimination claims.
Save as PDF unless the advert asks for a Word file, and name the file with your own name and the job: Sam Ncube - Warehouse Supervisor.pdf.
Check the file opens cleanly on a phone. A growing share of first passes happen on a small screen, and a CV that only looks right in a desktop editor can arrive with the layout broken and the dates overlapping.
Tailor it, then stop
A generic CV rarely wins a competitive role, because the reviewer is matching your document against a list. For each application, rewrite the summary, reorder the bullets so the most relevant sit first, and mirror the advert's own wording for skills you genuinely have. If the advert says 'stock control', do not write 'inventory management' and hope the reader translates.
Then reread it for the small things that end applications: a phone number with a digit missing, a job listed twice, dates that overlap, a reference who has not been asked. Ask one person who will be honest to read it, and take the criticism.
Keep one master version with everything on it and trim a copy for each application. Deleting from a full version is faster than rewriting from scratch, and it stops you losing a good bullet point you cut for the wrong advert.