Career Advice

Recruitment can become too focused on the obvious.

The UK talent market is changing.

A CV is a useful starting point. It gives you a snapshot of someone's career — where they've worked, what they've done and the results they've achieved.  But a snapshot is not the whole picture. It doesn't necessarily tell you what motivates someone, how they handle pressure, how they lead, what kind of environment brings out their best work or what they're hoping to achieve from their next move. Those details can make the difference between someone who can do a job and someone who will genuinely thrive in it. That's why two people with almost identical CVs can be completely different candidates. One may enjoy autonomy and a fast-moving environment. Another may be at their best in a structured, collaborative team. Their experience might look almost interchangeable on paper, while their expectations, ambitions and working styles are anything but. The CV tells you what someone has done. The conversation starts to tell you who they are and what they want next. What isn't written down?... Some of the most valuable information in recruitment doesn't sit neatly under a job title or qualification. What drives a candidate? What are they looking for in their next role? What type of leadership brings out their best? What challenges do they enjoy? What have they learned that isn't immediately obvious from their career history? And perhaps most importantly, what would make them genuinely want to accept an opportunity? These are the questions that create context. Without them, it's easy to judge candidates against a list of requirements without understanding what could actually make the relationship successful. The business has a story too! Of course, recruitment isn't only about understanding candidates. A job description has limitations just like a CV does. It can outline responsibilities, experience and qualifications, but it can't always communicate the reality behind the role. What's the team like? Who will the person report to? How does the business operate? What's the pace like? Why is the position available? What needs to be achieved in the first year? What could the role become? Those things can have a huge influence on whether someone succeeds and whether they actually want the job in the first place. A job description tells you what the role is. The wider conversation tells you what the opportunity could be. Stop searching for the perfect CV It's easy to approach recruitment as a process of elimination. Does the candidate have the required experience? Do they have the qualification? Have they worked in the right industry? Do they have every technical skill listed? If the answer is yes, they move forward. If it's no, they disappear from consideration. But people aren't checklists. Someone may not have every requirement yet have the ability to learn quickly and transfer their experience into a new environment. Someone from another sector may bring an approach or perspective that the business hadn't considered. Equally, someone who appears perfect on paper may not be the right fit for the culture, leadership style or ambitions of the organisation. The strongest appointment isn't necessarily the candidate with the longest list of ticks. It's the person whose experience, capability, motivation and potential make sense for the particular opportunity. Both sides have to get it right A successful recruitment process shouldn't ask only whether the business likes the candidate. It should also ask whether the candidate genuinely wants what the business is offering. For the employer, that means finding someone who can make a contribution, develop with the organisation and help it move forward. For the candidate, it means finding a role that fits their ambitions, strengths and circumstances. Those two perspectives need to meet somewhere in the middle. That's why understanding both sides is so important. A business may think it needs someone with a very specific background when transferable experience could actually be more valuable. A candidate may believe they need a particular job title when what they're really looking for is greater responsibility, flexibility or progression. The better you understand the reason behind the requirement, the better the recruitment decision becomes. This is where recruitment adds value Technology has made it easier to search CVs, filter candidates and identify people with particular experience. That's useful.. But technology can identify a potential match. It can't replace the understanding that comes from asking better questions and listening to the answers. At Vested Talent, we believe that's an important part of recruitment. We look beyond the obvious information to understand the individual behind the CV and the reality behind the vacancy. We want to understand not only whether someone can do the role, but whether the opportunity makes sense for them. And we want to understand not only what a business says it needs, but what it actually needs to achieve. Because sometimes the best candidate isn't the one who initially appears to match. Sometimes the best opportunity isn't the one with the longest job description. The CV opens the conversation. It shouldn't end it.

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