Is extra-curricular important in the candidate's CV?

Hiring Insight: 5 Things You Should Look Out for in a CV

Hiring the right employees can make or break your business. Whether you’ve become well-versed in the hiring process, or are just at the beginning and hiring your first team member, the recruitment process is all about managing stress and making sure that you make the right selections at every stage.

Chances are that if you’ve already got people working for you, you’re going to be judged no matter what selection you make, but you can’t please everybody in your organization. What matters the most is that you choose to hire an employee who is not only a good fit for the role that they applied for, but also for the business overall.

Here’s what all employers should look out for in a resume to improve their chances of hiring the right person every time.

1. A Commitment to Their Career:

You need somebody who is committed to their career. A resume that indicates somebody switches careers or jobs frequently just to get a higher salary could be a red flag. If a candidate doesn’t tend to have any loyalty to a particular company, hiring them could definitely turn into a problem for your business.

2. The Right Education:

Of course, there’s always the chance that you could take on somebody with no formal education and they turn out to be the best person for the job with a little training, but most of the time, you’ll want to ensure that your candidate is educated appropriately for the role they’ve applied for, especially if it requires certification.

3. Compatible Skills:

A good resume will not only list, but also demonstrate, the skills that a candidate holds. Along with ensuring that they possess the right skills to do their job well, you want to find an employee that’s a good fit for your company’s culture. Check whether they have the right social skills to get along with the other people in your organization, particularly current employees and managers. Remember that willingness to adapt is one of the primary skills that a candidate must possess in order to work successfully with you.

4. Extra-Curricular Activities:

Another thing to look out for when screening resumes is any extra-curricular stuff your potential candidates have been involved in. Often, even hobbies can help to develop a lot of skills that can be transferred easily to the office. Do they play with a football team every weekend? They should be excellent team players with strong teamwork skills. Maybe they enjoy art; usually this would indicate that you’ve got a creative candidate on your hands who’d be adapt at coming up with new and interesting ideas.

5. Willingness to Learn:

How willing is your candidate to learn new things exactly? A quick screen of their resume should help you figure this out. Look for any programs that they have taken which might not be directly related to the job that they were working in at the time; this demonstrates a keen desire to improve their knowledge and their future career outlook. Have they committed to learning anything or gaining qualifications simply because it’s something that they are passionate about?

Keep Improving Your Hiring Process:

Finally, continuous improvement of your hiring process is essential to ensure that you’re in with a better chance of selecting the right candidates every time. Whether you’re hiring candidates for a large company or need a bigger team for your growing start-up, the hiring process is the most important factor to focus on.

Make sure that any questions you ask are relevant and help you learn more about the candidate. And, when advertising job vacancies, going into as much detail as possible will help you get better, more suitable applicants.

When hiring, what stands out to you the most on a CV?