Recruitment Consultant CV Example & Writing Guide

If you’re an experienced recruiter you’ll have seen a few CVs in your time. But when you turn the tables and assess your own skills and experience it can be tough going. That’s why we’ve created this guide to writing a recruitment consultant CV. 

We’ll give you a mini refresher course and give you the confidence to describe your own abilities the way you’d expect other candidates to.

Read on and you’ll see a recruitment CV example that’ll help turn you into a grade A candidate. Plus you’ll discover an easy to action formula for recruitment jobs that’ll get you ten times more interviews than the CVs you’ve written in the past.

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Looking for different CV writing advice? Read more:

• How to Write a CV [Professional UK Examples]
• Skills Based CV Format [Complete Guide]
• What Should a CV Look Like? Tips for a Professional CV
• Career Change CV Example & Guide
• Internship CV Example & Guide
• Chef CV Example & Guide
• Hospitality CV Example & Guide
• School Leaver CV Example & Guide
• CV for a 16 Year Old Example & Guide
• Administrator CV Example & Guide
• Graduate CV Example & Guide

Sample Recruitment Consultant CV Template

And now, the job-winning recruitment CV formula.

1. Use the Right Format for Your Recruitment Consultant CV

A recruitment consultant sources job candidates and then matches them up with vacant positions for companies who are their clients. They work closely with those clients to gain a detailed understanding of their specific recruitment needs.

So the purpose of your recruitment CV is to show you’ve got the ability to find the best candidates for your clients. And as you know from experience, the average time spent reading a CV is measured in seconds. So a good first impression is essential. Here’s how to do it.

• As a recruitment consultant what do you think is the best CV format? I bet you said chronological, and you’re right. It’s the best option for most candidates due to its familiarity and focus on your work experience.
• Nothing puts you off quicker than a bad CV structure. So remember the basics:
• Margins set to one inch on each side and double space between CV sections. This creates negative space, making your CV easier to read.
• Stick with conservative and readable fonts for your CV.
• How long should your CV be? No prizes for guessing right, you know the answer, 1–2 pages.

And when it’s all written, save it as a PDF unless specified otherwise. That’ll ensure your layout stays perfect.

Read more: How to Create a Perfect CV Layout

2. Start with Your Recruitment Consultant CV Profile

As the opening salvo of your CV, your personal statement needs to be on point. After all, if it doesn’t grab the recruiter’s attention they’ll just move on to the next candidate. Here’s how to stop that from happening.

Your CV profile should be 3–4 lines long, and to write it you need to answer the following questions.

1. Who are you? 
2. What can you offer to the employer? 
3. What are your career goals? 

Those questions work for everyone, because all you need to do is vary the way you answer them depending on how experienced you are. E.g. If you're an experienced professional writing a recruitment manager CV, then use this approach.

• Sit down and list all of your strengths and abilities as a recruiter. Consider every aspect of your skillset that helps you succeed in your job.
• Then go back to the job advert and read the job description. Note the experience and abilities it requires and match 3–4 of those points to your own list.
• Then use those matching points to write a CV profile that’s tailored to the job you’re targeting.

For a trainee recruitment consultant CV you should adapt your strategy like so. 

• Create a list of all the skills and experience that you’ve obtained from your education and prior work history. Then highlight everything that’s transferable to a career in recruitment.
• Then use those points, mixed with passion for the career and job role to prove you’ll be able to hit the ground running.

And finally, always leave your personal statement until last. That way you’ll have everything laid out in front of you and ready to refer to.

Read more: How to Write a CV Summary (10+ Professional Examples)

3. Write Your Recruitment Consultant Work Experience Section

I’m sure you get tempted to skip straight to a candidate’s work experience section. It’s the single most significant section of a CV, and the part you pay most attention to, so it pays to get it right. So here’s a reminder on how to optimise it to perfection.

• Put your work history in reverse chronological order.
• Include the essential information for every role.
• Job title
• Name of employer
• Dates of employment
• 4–6 bullet points that describe the job
• Give the bullet points energy by starting them off with an action verb. 
• Put the emphasis on measurable achievements, not just a boring list of duties. 
• Strengthen those achievements by using the PAR technique to structure the bullet points.
• Write a fresh work experience section for every job you apply for. It should always be specifically targeted to the role.

Read more: How to Write Your CV Work Experience Section

4. Include an Education Section

Most of your recruitment skills are learned on the job, not in a classroom. But your education is still an essential addition to your CV. This is the basic information you need to include.

• For school-leavers you’ll need to include the details of your GCSEs and A-Levels. Start with the name of the school and the dates you attended. Then for A-levels, list all your subjects. But for GCSEs you only have to list Maths and English specifically as they’re minimum requirements for many entry-level roles.
• Then for uni graduates, it’s the name of the university, the name of the degree and dates you attended. Only include honours if they’re a 2:1 or a first. And you’ve just graduated you can include details of individual modules if they’re relevant to the job.
• And if you’re a recent graduate or school-leaver you can put this section before your experience section.

Read more: What to Include in Your CV Education Section

5. Demonstrate Your Recruitment CV Skills

Being a recruitment consultant combines sales, customer service and HR functions. So there’s a myriad of skills required to do your job well. Which leaves the question, how do you choose which ones to include on your CV? Here’s how to narrow it down.

• Use the job advert as your cheat sheet. List all the skills mentioned in the job description. It’s your cheat sheet to discover what the hiring manager is looking for.
• Now consider your own skills and put those in a list too.
• Next put the two lists side by side and choose 5–10 of them to include in your CV.
• And back up each skill by including a short sentence explaining how you demonstrate it. E.g. Ability to work under pressure. Effectively met tight deadlines for urgent hires at short notice.

Here are a few examples of skills for your recruitment consultant CV.

Recruitment Consultant CV Skills Sample

• Oral communication
• Sales skills
• Negotiation
• Ability to work under pressure
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Adaptability
• Administrative skills
• Confident and positive manner
• Ability to meet targets and deadlines

Read More: Top Skills for Your CV [Best List of Examples]

When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your CV here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Put Additional Sections in Your Recruitment Consultant CV

A good recruitment consultant doesn’t just choose the first candidate in their inbox. They separate the wheat from the chaff to offer their clients the best potential employees out there. Additional CV sections are a major factor in separating the best candidates from the average ones. These are the ones that work best.

• Languages. Being able to communicate with international talent will be a real feather in your cap. If you can speak another language be sure to mention it in your CV.
• Other good options include volunteering, awards, projects and interests. As long as it makes you look like a good choice for the job, it’s worth including.

A hobbies and interests CV section is a particularly good choice if you’ve got less experience. Chosen carefully, they can help to demonstrate particular skills. The classic example is team sports, which show both teamwork and leadership.

Read more: Should You Include References on a CV?

7. Add a Recruitment Consultant Cover Letter

So that’s your CV written but how about a cover letter? Speak to your recruitment colleagues and some will consider them essential, others won’t read them at all. But there are enough hiring managers who consider them a must-have to definitely make them worth your while. 

Here’s some cover letter tips for your recruitment consultant CV.

• Start off with professional cover letter formatting and that includes the cover letter address. Make sure it follows UK standards
• Then open your cover letter with a hook, share an impressive accomplishment with the hiring manager to keep them engaged.
• Use the body of your cover letter to demonstrate you have the full set of abilities needed to excel as a recruitment professional.
• Then end your cover letter on a high note. Use a call to action to ask to speak to the hiring manager to discuss the role in more detail. You’re more likely to get that interview if you ask for it.
• And make sure the length of your cover letter is right. It shouldn’t be more than a page.

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Then for the finishing touch to your job application make sure you follow up. If you haven’t had a reply to your application within a week then make contact with the hiring manager to check back on your application.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found our recruitment CV examples useful. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about writing a CV for UK recruitment then let me know in the comments section and I’ll be happy to help.

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