10 CV Tips From the People Who Actually Read Them All Day
What recruitment consultants notice, reformat and quietly fix before sending a CV to their client — and what that tells you about your own.
There is a group of people who read several hundred CVs a week and then have to do something with them: recruitment consultants. Before your CV reaches a hiring manager through an agency, a consultant has usually reformatted it onto the agency's own template. What they change on the way through is a remarkably direct signal about what does not work, because they are not being polite about it — they are fixing it so their client will read it.
1. They move the current role to the top, always
Whatever order you sent, the version their client receives leads with what you are doing now and how long you have done it. If a consultant has to restructure your CV to make that visible, a hiring manager reading it directly would simply have missed it.
2. They cut your personal statement roughly in half
Long opening paragraphs get trimmed to two or three lines carrying the specifics: field, seniority, the thing you are actually good at. Everything removed was adjectives. Write the trimmed version yourself and you keep control of what survives.
3. They standardise your dates and find the gaps
Mixed formats — "2021–present" in one role, "March 21" in another — get normalised, and that process surfaces every overlap and gap. A consultant will ring you about a gap so they can explain it to the client. Applying directly, nobody rings; the reader forms their own theory.
4. They keep the numbers and delete the duties
Where space is short, "responsible for" lines go first and quantified outcomes stay. If your CV is mostly the former, a consultant's edit removes most of your content — and the version representing you is much thinner than it needed to be.
5. They rebuild multi-column layouts as single columns
Partly for template consistency, partly because sidebars do not transfer cleanly. Anything you put in a sidebar is at risk of being dropped in transit, so do not put anything load-bearing there.
6. They remove your photo, address and date of birth
For UK submissions these come off routinely, both to reduce bias and because clients often ask. A full postal address is unnecessary — town and county is enough. That is space back for evidence.
7. They rename your file
"CV final v3 (2) copy.docx" becomes something a client can file. It costs you nothing to send "Jane Smith CV.pdf", and it is the first impression of how you handle detail.
8. They chase the qualification you mentioned but did not evidence
"Working towards" and "part-qualified" get clarified before submission, because a client asking later is worse. State the actual status — expected completion date, modules passed — rather than leaving a phrase that invites the question.
9. They flatten your skill bars
Graphic proficiency ratings — four stars for Excel, 80% for SQL — get converted to plain lists. They mean nothing consistent between candidates, they occupy a lot of space, and as graphics they often do not survive being read by software. List the skills as text.
10. They send PDF, and keep the Word file
The client gets a PDF so it looks the way it was approved. The agency keeps an editable version for the next reformat. Doing the same yourself — PDF to apply, editable master to maintain — means you never rebuild the layout to make one change.
Doing the same edit to your own CV
Every item on this list is presentation and structure rather than writing talent, which is why a consultant can do it to a stranger's CV in a few minutes. It is also why it is worth doing before anyone else does it for you: the version that goes out is then yours.
The tooling we build is the same tooling agencies use for exactly this — read the document into a structured record, correct anything the parser got wrong against the original page, apply a clean layout, export PDF and Word from the same approved version. The first conversion is free, no card, with 57 layouts to choose from.
Writing a CV from scratch is a different job from fixing one; the UK CV formatting guide covers the layout rules recruiters apply.
FAQ
Q01Should I send my CV to agencies as PDF or Word?
Ask, and default to Word if you cannot. Agencies genuinely need an editable file because they reformat onto their own template before submitting — sending a locked PDF means someone retypes it, and retyping introduces errors into your CV that you never see.
Q02Will a recruiter change my CV without telling me?
They will reformat it, and reputable ones will not alter the claims. You are entitled to ask to see the version being submitted on your behalf, and it is a reasonable thing to ask for.
Q03Does applying through an agency hurt my chances?
It changes them rather than hurting them. You gain someone who knows the client and will present you properly; you lose direct control of the document. Which matters more depends on the role, but it is another argument for your own CV being in good shape before it leaves you.
Q04How can I make my CV more effective?
Put your current role and strongest result in the top third of page one, replace duties with outcomes you can evidence, keep dates consistent, cut the opening statement to three specific lines, and use a clean single-column layout. Those are the edits recruiters make most often before a CV goes to a client.
Q05How do I send my CV to a recruiter?
Email it as an attachment with a short note: the role or type of role you want, your current position, your notice period and where you can work. Send a PDF unless they ask for Word, name the file with your name, and if the agency has an upload form, use that as well so your CV lands in their database. Our CV cover note templates include a version for this.
ConnectIQ Editorial documents practical recruitment operations and the controls implemented in the ConnectIQ product. This guide is general operational information, not legal advice.
