Five Ways to Get Your CV Seen By a Recruiter

Have you been considering how to find your next job? A recruiter could help – of course we’d say that I hear you say, but it’s the truth. The great thing about using a specialist recruiter is that it can give you access to exclusive or hidden opportunities, help provide market insights to benchmark your salary and benefits expectations, or to keep a foot in the door for future job progression or contracts (even if you aren’t actively looking yet). 

For years, recruitment specialists have estimated that approx. 70% of jobs are not publicised according to Matt YoungQuist, meaning, you need to do more that only apply for advertised jobs if you want to get noticed.  
If you want to hack the system and increase your chances of being seen by the right people, you can make proactive moves to make your CV more visible.  

In this blog, I investigate five ways how you can make your CV more visible: 

1. Key industry terminology 

2. LinkedIn profile 

3. High quality CV 

4. Using different job boards 

5. Valuable working relationships  

Consider using key industry terminology  

Many recruiters search for relevant candidates through keyword searches, typically guided by the job descriptions they are given or direct overviews by Hiring Managers.  

This can be:

·         General industry words, such as Technology, Digital, Insurance, Banking etc. 

·         Project specific words, such as Data Transformation, SEO, Digital Optimisation etc. 

·         Specific skillsets, such as Dynamics365, Modelling, Analysis etc. 

·         Soft skills, such as leadership, management, negotiation etc.  

By ensuring your CV has a clear overview of your skillset, projects and the industries you have worked in can allow your CV to be more visible in the searches that recruiters make. Alongside this, it ensures the roles that recruiters contact you for are relevant to you and your specific skillset.  

A great shortcut to avoid the jobs boards, is to register or upload your CV directly to a recruitment agency. Once your CV is on their database, you can be included in their future candidate searches.  

You can join our Gravitas database here by registering and uploading your CV.  

Use LinkedIn to your advantage 

LinkedIn has been a fantastic tool to connect individuals to others in their industry network. However, LinkedIn has also been a great tool for job hunters and recruiters alike for finding relevant candidates. Each year, its reported that there are over three million new hires through LinkedIn, and in 2022 an 88% increase in hires, as it becomes more popular in job hunting.  

LinkedIn profile features include a brief overview of yourself, insight into your previous roles, recommendations, skills – without needing to look at your CV. Even if you are not looking for a new job at the moment, staying connected with recruiters can mean you can discover the best recruiters in your specific market. Then when you’re ready to explore new opportunities, you have a head start on who might be the best contact to reach out to.   

You can also actively update and improve your LinkedIn profile as you go on, including the certifications or qualifications you gain in your career journey, alongside recommendations, can be the thing that differentiates you from others in your market – bringing the recruiters to you.  

Learn more on how to make your LinkedIn profile stand out. 

Have a high-quality CV 

As job markets are becoming more competitive, having a standout CV is key to ensuring your CV’s visibility on the market is valuable and effective. Therefore, when a recruiter see’s your CV, you can create a fantastic first impression so they can reach out.  

A good CV can mean a number of things, but as highlighted in our blog, How to make your IT CV stand out, as a minimum your CV should consider: 

• An easy-to-read structure that’s simple to follow. 

• Personal statement to add a personal touch to the CV.   

• A summary of your skillset.  

• A career history with an effective overview highlighting what role you were in, what responsibilities and projects you had and any key achievements.  

• Education and qualifications.  

As your CV is posted on job boards, or via a website, making sure your CV is in a suitable format is vital, as many CVs are automatically filtered into a database, that reads your keywords and terminology to make the process more efficient – this is called ‘parsing’. Most automatic parsing software only works efficiently with a Microsoft Word format or PDF (not a flat image PDF), so make sure your document is parse-friendly and can be accessed easily. If you can’t highlight your contact details in your CV, when you hover over the text, the software won’t be able to do this either. 

Your CV is your story, so allow recruiters to be taken on a journey with you. They should be able to understand your skillset and how you might want to progress with your career. It could be worth stating at the start of your CV what type of roles you are looking for! 

Use different job boards 

Job boards are a fantastic tool in searching for relevant jobs, getting updates on new opportunities that have appeared on the market increasing the visibility of your CV to recruiters. 

Recruiters will use different job boards, but this action will differ between industries as well as what subscriptions recruiters might have to post job adverts. By being active and uploading your CV to different job boards, you can increase your visibility on the market as well as the recruiters viewing your CV. For example, Jobsite is a great job board database for new job listings of over live 280,000 job adverts, including a career advice section for CV assistance, alerts and job recommendations.

Make valuable working relationships 

As the saying goes, “its not about what you know…it’s about who you know”. By having a great network and good reputation in the industry, this can be highly valuable in finding the recruiter that’s perfect for you. 

Specialist recruitment consultants will build a specific network, looking to connect with new candidates by word of mouth and recommendations from other industry specialists. Whether you are building relationships with managers, colleagues, someone you met at an industry networking event, or a LinkedIn connection, building relationships and leaving a good impression can make you more memorable and lead to recommendations.  

On LinkedIn, you can ask for recommendations on your profile when you work with someone to show you are someone to be trusted. Review this from time to time, to proactively request recommendations, especially when changing jobs. Overtime, you’ll have a portfolio to impress recruiters who will be keen to work with you if you are shown as hard-working, reliable, skilled and a great teammate.  

Ready to find your next job? Speak to one of our specialist recruiters 

As a niche, specialist recruitment agency, we have over ten years of experience building valuable relationships in niche specialist areas. Join our networks across Technology or Insurance, so we can provide a tailored solution for you whilst considering new opportunities. Browse our jobs or register your CV here. 

About the author 

Rhianna McArdle, has been with Gravitas for nearly 7 years, originally joining to start the Dynamics desk in the Manchester Office. Over the years with standout performance and multiple promotions, she is proud to currently be the Team Leader of the Dynamics team. Placing skilled tech candidates across commercial, public sector and non-profit organisations in her career, Rhianna is passionate about Dynamics 365, shown by hosting numerous networking and roundtable events in this space, bringing the D365 community together to discuss trending projects, topics and challenges.