A recruiter scanning a shortlist spends a short time on each CV before deciding whether to read it properly. That first pass is what you are writing for.
What happens in the first scan
The reader is answering three questions:
1. Has this person done something close to the role? 2. Does the experience level fit? 3. Is there anything obviously disqualifying?
Everything that helps answer those should be near the top. Everything else can wait.
Lead with what you did, not where you worked
Most CVs lead with the company name and job title, then list responsibilities. Responsibilities describe a job; they do not describe you.
Lead each role with what you actually achieved or changed. Compare:
> *Responsible for managing the customer support team.*
With:
> *Took over a support team of nine with a four-day response backlog. Restructured the queue and introduced triage; backlog cleared within six weeks and stayed under a day.*
The second tells the reader what you can do. It is also harder to write, which is precisely why it stands out.
Use numbers where you honestly have them
Scale, change, and outcome. How many people, how much budget, what moved and by how much.
If you do not have numbers, do not invent them. A clear description of what you changed works without metrics. Invented figures tend to fall apart at interview.
Match the language of the job description
Not keyword stuffing — genuine alignment. If a job asks for experience with stakeholder management and you have done exactly that but called it something else internally, use their phrasing.
Many organisations screen with software before a human reads anything. More importantly, a human scanning quickly is pattern-matching against the specification.
Keep it to two pages
One page if you are early in your career. Two if you are experienced. Three only in academia or where a publication list is expected.
Roles from fifteen years ago need a line each. Nobody is assessing your first job.
Fix the top third
The top third of the first page is what gets read. It should contain your name, what you do, and either a very short summary or your current role.
If you use a summary, make it three lines and make it specific. "Results-driven professional with a passion for excellence" is filler and the reader skips it. "Finance manager with eight years in manufacturing, mostly in cost control and month-end close" tells them something.
Things that cost you unnecessarily
Photos, in markets where they are not standard. They introduce bias and some systems handle them badly.
Elaborate formatting. Columns, text boxes, and graphics frequently break when parsed. A clean single-column layout is read correctly by both software and people.
Unexplained gaps. A gap is fine. An unexplained one invites assumption. A short note is enough.
Listing every technology you have touched. It dilutes the ones you are genuinely good at. Separate what you know well from what you have used.
A different file name every time. "CV final v3 updated.docx" is read by the person receiving it. Use your name and the role.
Tailor, but efficiently
Rewriting completely for every application is unsustainable and you will stop doing it.
Keep a master CV with everything. For each application, adjust the summary, reorder the bullets within your recent roles so the relevant ones come first, and align the language. Fifteen minutes, most of the benefit.
On AI-written CVs
Using a language model to tidy up your writing is reasonable. Having it write the whole thing is visible, because the output has a recognisable flatness and tends toward generic claims.
More practically: you will be asked about what is on the page. If you did not write it, you will not defend it well.
Where to start
Take your most recent role and rewrite every bullet to say what changed rather than what you were responsible for. That single change does more than everything else on this list.
Sizanid recruits across fourteen sectors and 20+ countries. [Browse our open roles](https://jobs.sizanidstaffing.com) — and if we think your CV is holding you back, we will tell you.
