Employees are the most important resources for a company. It is ultimately the people of the company who work in order to achieve the goals of the organisation. Be it sales, finance, legal or any other department in a company, selecting the right person with the correct skill sets is the biggest challenge.
HR Managers play a pivotal role in shortlisting the right candidate for interviews. It is very critical for HR managers to understand a resume or CV and decide for a candidate for a job opening.
Here are some parameters which HR managers consider while evaluating a CV.
1. CV Layout- The most important aspect for any cv is the layout. CVs must be neatly designed so that it get noticed. The academic qualifications, past work experience, achievements, extra curricular rewards etc all must be highlighted separately. If the CV is shabby and unstructured, there are high chances it would get rejected even without notice.
2. Language- Resumes with incorrect spellings and grammatical errors are a big turn off for companies. The CV is the face of a potential candidate and hence it has to be very accurate in terms of language and grammar.
3. Consistently Strong academic record- Companies mostly prefer a candidate who has been consistent in scoring well in academics. The reason being that a company wants consistency in the attitude that reflects from a positive resume. A candidate who has over the years performed well ensures of the good learning capability of the candidate.
4. Relevance of Work Experience- One of the most important aspect would be prior work experience. The more relevant the experience would be, more would be the chances of being shortlisted. Companies would definitely want a resource who has worked in a similar area before. This would also make sure that the learning period and training required would also be less.
5. Positions of responsibility- Companies give a lot of importance to candidates who have handled a position of responsibility. The reason is that the company wants to nurture people who can steadily grow in their environment, handle a team and then can be a part of a company’s succession plan
6. Awards and achievements- A student with good marks and good awards will always be better than someone with only excellent academics. Companies always look out for all rounders who have a sound overall personality. They should not be book worms but should be dynamic in all activities which are given to them.
7. Length of a CV- Every HR manager has to work endlessly going through multiple applications. Single page CVs with crisp information provided are considered to be the best. If the CVs are two or more pages, the HR loses interest as not only is there paucity of time but also important credentials might get missed.
There are a lot of applications that HR managers receive for any vacancy available. Hence it is always a major task to shortlist candidates for an interview. And when a lot of applications apply for a position or a job opening, most of the candidates are simply rejected basis their CVs. Therefore it is critical to have a good strong crisp CV.