CV Analysis: What Do Recruiters Actually Look For?

2019-03-14

What do recruiters pay attention to in a CV?

This is a question that regularly comes up among job seekers. Work experience seems like the obvious answer. But what about the other elements of a candidate’s CV? Do recruiters even pay attention to:

education?
interests?
skills?

Take education, for example. In nearly 10 years of working in the recruitment industry, I have encountered only one employer who absolutely required candidates to have graduated from a specific university program. Interestingly, this client expected not only a specific field of study but accepted graduates from only one university. I am, of course, setting aside all situations where completing a specific program was necessary to obtain a professional license, such as for lawyers or doctors.

The requirement for a candidate to hold a specific degree is frequently found in job postings. In practice, however, this is usually an insignificant expectation, almost entirely disregarded during recruitment processes for positions requiring specific skills or competencies.

In a survey examining how recruiters work on social media platforms, we asked recruiters to rate individual elements of a candidate’s profile during initial screening. Elements related to education and interests received nearly the lowest ratings. Below those elements, only the candidate’s photo and name scored lower. It appears that recruiters — and therefore employers — themselves admit that a candidate’s education is of little importance.

Our recruiter survey results showed that work experience was rated as the most important CV element, while education and interests ranked near the bottom. Out of all profile elements evaluated, professional experience dominated with over 80% of recruiters marking it as their primary focus during initial screening.

Another survey was prepared by Grzegorz Deszczka. The survey was published on LinkedIn. Of the 344 people who voted at the time this article was updated, 86% confirmed that they pay the most attention to experience in a CV.

In Deszczka’s LinkedIn poll asking “Which CV section do you pay the most attention to?”, the results were clear: Experience — 86%, Education — 6%, Skills — 5%, Interests — 3%.

Survey research is very useful, but we wanted to take a closer look at how recruiters actually work. We decided to investigate how an experienced recruiter’s gaze analyzes a candidate’s CV — what they look at first and what they focus on the most. For this purpose, we used eye-tracking technology. The research was conducted as part of the development of Element, an ATS system that automates the daily work of recruiters and hiring managers.

I also had the opportunity to participate in this study. In the photo below, I am wearing special glasses that precisely track my eye movements.

The biometric research we conducted — specifically oculographic (eye-tracking) studies — confirmed that the ratings declared in surveys match the actual way recruiters perform initial analysis. When reading a CV, recruiters primarily focus on work experience, while nearly completely ignoring education.

We generated a heat map showing how a recruiter analyzes a candidate’s profile. The yellow, orange, and red areas correspond to the work experience section, where the recruiter’s gaze lingered the longest. The closer the color is to red, the more time the recruiter spent focusing their gaze on that area.

The eye-tracking heat map of a candidate’s CV revealed that virtually all visual attention (red and orange zones) was concentrated on the work experience section. The education section received minimal attention (brief green zones), while the interests and hobbies section was almost entirely ignored.

You can read more about our biometric study in my article: 3 seconds — that’s all it takes to reject a candidate’s profile. Biometric research results.

Evidence that recruiters focus primarily on candidates’ work experience can now be found extensively online. This should not surprise anyone. Relevant professional experience confirms that:

we most likely possess the necessary competencies or qualifications to perform the work required by the position
we have actual professional experience, as opposed to non-professional activities related solely to personal interests or hobbies.

From these two facts, additional benefits for the employer follow, such as:

faster employee onboarding
higher work efficiency
lower turnover risk

A person with the right education but lacking the required professional experience will typically be someone who:

requires longer training and onboarding
takes significantly longer to achieve high productivity
carries an increased risk of turnover

These are precisely the reasons why recruiters pay attention primarily to work experience.

Younger readers and parents will probably ask — what about education? Is education in a CV irrelevant?

Education is the foundation upon which we build professional experience. Without the right education, it is difficult to become a lawyer, a doctor, or a programmer. Of course, there are professions where one can learn on the job without formal education, but the chances of fully capitalizing on all the opportunities life brings with only such training are significantly lower.

Education, beyond teaching us about the world, develops independence, discipline, communication, social skills, teamwork, and many other important aspects of life. This range of knowledge, skills, and competencies acquired in schools and universities means we gain professional experience faster, and both we and our employers benefit more from it.

Let us learn. Let us learn what interests us and what will allow us to use our predispositions and passions to achieve satisfaction and success in our professional lives.