CV Checklist: The 19 Checks a Recruiter Makes in the First Seven Seconds

I've been on the hiring side of the table for 25 years, and if there's one thing I wish every woman sending out her CV right now understood, it's this: your CV doesn't get read, it gets skimmed, and the skim is over far quicker than you think. That's exactly why I built a CV checklist around those first few seconds, the same checks I run in my head every time a CV lands on my desk, so you can run them yourself before anyone else does.

This isn't a list of generic CV tips. It's 19 checks across four areas, plus one final test you can do at your kitchen table, and if you work through them honestly you'll know exactly what to fix tonight. If you'd rather work from a printed page with a pen in your hand, you can download the Red Pen CV Checklist free here.

How long do recruiters actually look at a CV?

The number most people quote comes from an eye tracking study by the US jobs site Ladders, which found recruiters spent an average of around 7.4 seconds on their first look at a CV. That figure gets repeated a lot and it can sound dramatic, but from where I sit it's pretty accurate for the first pass, and the first pass is the one that decides whether there's a second.

In those seven seconds I'm not reading, I'm scanning for three things: what you do, what you've achieved and what you want next. If I can find all three quickly, I slow down and read properly. If I have to hunt for them, I usually don't, because there are another 80 CVs behind yours and the next one might make it easier.

The same study found that the CVs which held attention had simple layouts, clear headings and results that stood out, while cluttered pages, multiple columns and long blocks of text lost the reader fast. None of that is about being clever, it's about making the recruiter's job easy, and that's what this checklist is designed to do.

Section 1 of the CV checklist: the top third, where the seven seconds go

The top third of the first page is where most CVs are won or lost, so if you only have half an hour, spend all of it here.

Check 1: Your contact details fit on one line. Name, location, phone, email and LinkedIn link, and that's it. No photo, no date of birth and no full home address. In the UK none of those are expected, and every line they take up pushes your best evidence further down the page.

Check 2: There's a headline under your name that says the role you want next. Not your current job title, the role you're going for. "Commercial Operations Director" or "Head of People" tells me immediately which pile to put you on, and if you're changing direction this one line does more heavy lifting than anything else on the page.

Check 3: Your opening summary has no empty adjectives. Motivated, passionate, results driven, proven track record, dynamic. I read these words dozens of times a week and they've stopped meaning anything. Every one of them is a claim, and what I'm looking for is evidence.

Check 4: The first line holds one specific result only you could claim, with a number in it. Something like "Grew regional revenue 18% in two years across a portfolio of 40 sites". One line like that does more work than a whole paragraph of adjectives, because it's specific, it's credible and it gives me something to ask you about in the interview.

Check 5: Within two lines a stranger can tell what you want next and why you're credible for it. This is the real test of the top third. If someone outside your industry read your headline and first two lines, could they explain back to you what you do and where you're heading? If not, keep rewriting until they could.

Section 2: how to make your CV stand out through your experience

Once the top third has earned you a closer look, your experience section has to back it up, and this is where most experienced women undersell themselves without realising it. I wrote more about the language patterns behind this in the CV that was too polite to get her the job, but the checks below are the practical fixes.

Check 6: Every role opens with one line of scope. Team size, budget, region or revenue. Before I read a single bullet I want to know the size of the job, because "led a restructure" means something very different in a team of 6 than it does across 600 people in 12 countries.

Check 7: Bullets start with what changed because of you, not what you were responsible for. "Responsible for supplier management" is a job description. "Renegotiated 14 supplier contracts, saving £320,000 in the first year" is a result. The question to ask yourself for every bullet is simple: what's different because I was there?

Check 8: At least half your bullets include a number. Money, percentages, time saved, people led, scale of the operation. Numbers aren't about showing off, they're about credibility, and they're the thing a skimming eye catches first.

Check 9: The last ten years get most of the space, and anything older than fifteen is a short list. A long career doesn't need to be documented in equal detail from start to finish. Your recent roles are what I'm hiring, so give them the room, and summarise the early ones as a simple list of title, employer and dates.

Check 10: Internal job titles and acronyms are translated into language an outsider understands. Every organisation has its own vocabulary, and after a few years in one place it stops sounding like jargon to you. It still sounds like jargon to me. If a stranger wouldn't understand it, rewrite it in plain English.

Section 3: the career change CV checklist

If you're changing direction, your CV has a different job to do. A standard CV is a record of where you've been, but a career change CV is an argument for where you're going next, and that changes how you build every part of it.

The biggest problem I see with career change CVs is that they're beautifully accurate records of the old career, so the recruiter files the candidate under her past, however clearly she's said she wants something else. These four checks fix that.

Check 11: Your headline and summary point to where you're going, not only where you've been. Name the move clearly and frame it as a choice, something like "Operations leader moving into learning and development, with a track record of building team capability programmes across three regions". Direct, confident and not apologetic.

Check 12: Results that transfer are moved to the top of each role, ahead of sector specific detail. If stakeholder management, commercial wins or leading through change matter in your new direction, they need to be the first bullet under each role, not the fourth. If you're not sure which of your skills travel, this guide to reframing transferable skills for a career change walks you through it.

Check 13: Projects, courses or freelance work in your new direction have their own short section. Anything that shows you've already started moving, a qualification, a side project, volunteering or a secondment, deserves its own heading near the top. It tells me this move isn't a whim.

Check 14: Any career break is explained in one confident line, not hidden. Gaps don't put recruiters off nearly as much as the fear of them suggests, but trying to hide one does. A single line such as "Career break, 2022 to 2024, raising a young family" is all it needs. If you're returning after time out, how to return to work after a career break covers the interview side too.

Section 4: CV format and finish, including ATS

This is the section people either obsess over or ignore completely, and the truth sits somewhere in between. Format won't get you the job, but the wrong format can absolutely stop you getting seen.

Check 15: Two pages at most, three only for board or executive roles. One page rarely gives an experienced professional enough room, and three pages tests my patience before I've found your best evidence. Two pages, with every line earning its place, is what gets read.

Check 16: A clean single column layout, with no tables, text boxes or graphics. Most medium and large employers use an applicant tracking system, usually called an ATS, which reads your CV before a human does. Two column designs, text boxes and graphics can come out as scrambled text on the other side, which means the beautifully designed CV you paid for might never reach a person at all.

Check 17: Dates, fonts and spacing are consistent from top to bottom. Small inconsistencies don't feel important, but they signal a lack of attention to detail, and that's the opposite of what an experienced candidate wants to communicate.

Check 18: It's saved as a PDF named "Firstname Lastname CV". Not "CV final v3 updated". It's a small thing, but it's the first thing I see, and it tells me you've thought about the person on the other end.

Check 19: You've read it out loud once, slowly. Spellcheck won't catch the wrong word spelled correctly, and reading out loud is the quickest way to hear the sentences that run on too long or don't quite make sense.

The final test: would your CV survive a recruiter's first skim?

Once you've worked through all 19 checks, do this. Hand your CV to someone outside your industry, a friend, your partner or a neighbour, give them seven seconds and then take it away.

Ask them three questions: what do I do, what have I achieved and what do I want next? If they can answer all three, your CV is doing its job. If they can't, go back to section 1, because that's almost always where the problem is.

It's a slightly uncomfortable exercise, but it's the closest you'll get to seeing your CV the way a recruiter does, and it costs you nothing but a few minutes.

The most common CV mistakes this checklist catches

When I go through CVs with the checklist, the same handful of problems come up again and again, and most of them have nothing to do with a lack of experience.

The first is a CV that opens with a paragraph of adjectives and no headline, so I can't tell what job you want. The second is an experience section full of responsibilities rather than results, which makes a genuinely strong career look ordinary. The third, and it's the one I see most from career changers, is a CV that tells the story of the last job perfectly and gives no reason to believe in the next one.

And the fourth is the one nobody likes to hear: a CV that's trying to show everything. When everything is included, nothing stands out, and the reader has to do the work of finding what matters. In a pile of 80, most won't.

For more on what's going through a hiring manager's mind once they move past the first skim, what hiring managers really think when they read a mid career CV goes deeper into the full read.

What to do once your CV passes the checklist

A strong CV gets you into the conversation, but it's only one part of the picture. The moment a recruiter likes your CV, the next thing they'll do is open your LinkedIn profile, and if it tells a different story you've lost the thread you just worked so hard to build. These five LinkedIn mistakes are worth checking next.

It's also worth thinking about where your CV is going. Many senior roles are never advertised at all, and the hidden job market explains how to reach them. And when the CV does its job and the interview invitation arrives, the Final Round Interview Prep framework will help you walk in ready.

If you'd like a recruiter's eyes on your actual CV rather than a checklist, that's exactly what I do inside the Next Role Programme, alongside your LinkedIn profile, interview preparation and a clear plan for your next move.

Frequently asked questions about CV checklists

What should be on a CV checklist?

A good CV checklist covers four areas: the top third of your first page, your experience, any change of direction and your format. The most important checks are a headline naming the role you want, a first line with one specific result, bullets that show outcomes rather than responsibilities, and a clean single column layout that applicant tracking systems can read.

How long do recruiters spend looking at a CV?

An eye tracking study by Ladders found recruiters spent around 7.4 seconds on their first look at a CV. That first skim decides whether your CV gets a proper read, which is why the top third of your first page matters more than anything else on it.

How long should a CV be in the UK?

For most experienced professionals, two pages is right. One page rarely gives enough room to show your results, and three pages tests the reader's patience. Board and executive level candidates can sometimes justify three.

Should I put a photo on my CV in the UK?

No. Photos aren't expected on UK CVs, they take up valuable space, and they shift the reader's attention away from your experience. The same goes for your date of birth and full home address.

How do I make my CV stand out to recruiters?

Add a headline under your name that names the role you want next, open with one specific result that includes a number, and make sure at least half your bullets show measurable outcomes. Specific, credible results stand out far more than design or adjectives.

How do I write a CV for a career change?

Point your headline and summary towards the role you want, move your transferable results to the top of each role, give any relevant projects or qualifications their own section, and translate internal jargon into plain language. A career change CV is an argument for where you're going, not just a record of where you've been.

Is there a free CV checklist I can download?

Yes. The Red Pen CV Checklist is a free one page printable with all 19 checks and the final test, so you can work through your own CV with a pen in about 30 minutes.