How to Spot a CV That Looks Good but Won’t Deliver on the Job
Karl Montgomery • February 18, 2025
Hiring the right candidate can be challenging, especially when faced with CVs that look impressive but don’t reflect true competency. Some candidates master the art of presenting themselves well on paper without the experience or skills to succeed in the role. Here’s a deep dive into common CV red flags and practical steps to assess candidates effectively.
1. Overinflated Skills and Experience
Candidates sometimes exaggerate their capabilities, especially with in-demand skills like data analysis, software proficiency, or project management.
Red Flags to Watch For:
- Excessive jargon without specific examples.
- Certifications without practical experience.
- Claims of expertise in multiple areas with little supporting evidence.
How to Uncover the Truth:
- Ask for detailed examples of when and how they applied the skills.
- Use technical assessments or tests to verify their claims.
- Request references that can speak to their practical application of the stated skills.
2. Vague Job Descriptions
A lack of clarity around past responsibilities can signal a potential issue.
Red Flags to Watch For:
- Generic terms like “helped with,” “assisted in,” or “participated in” without clear outcomes.
- Missing context for projects or achievements.
- Broad job titles that don’t align with listed responsibilities.
How to Uncover the Truth:
- Ask candidates to explain their role in key projects.
- Use behavioural interview techniques (e.g., STAR method) to explore their contributions.
- Request examples of their work, especially for roles requiring technical or creative skills.
3. Unexplained Employment Gaps
Employment gaps aren’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but candidates should be transparent about them.
Red Flags to Watch For:
- Multiple or long gaps with no explanation.
- Inconsistent job titles and dates.
How to Uncover the Truth:
- Ask about the reasons for these gaps during the interview.
- Look for positive activities during gaps, like volunteering, freelancing, or upskilling.
- Validate employment history with reference checks.
4. Frequent Job-Hopping Without Explanation
While career mobility is more common today, excessive job changes can indicate a lack of commitment.
Red Flags to Watch For:
- Multiple roles with less than a year’s tenure.
- Career progression that seems lateral rather than upward.
How to Uncover the Truth:
- Ask about the reasons for leaving each role.
- Look for patterns like project-based work or seasonal jobs.
- Assess the candidate’s long-term career goals to gauge fit.
5. Too Good to Be True Achievements
Achievements that sound extraordinary might warrant closer scrutiny.
Red Flags to Watch For:
- Unbelievable results without context (e.g., “increased revenue by 500% in six months”).
- Lack of supporting data or references.
How to Uncover the Truth:
- Ask how the candidate achieved these results.
- Request specific figures and context for success metrics.
- Contact previous employers to verify claims.
Real-World Example:
A client once hired a candidate from another agency who claimed to have led a team of 20 engineers to deliver a complex automation project. During the probation period, it became evident the candidate lacked fundamental technical knowledge. A follow-up reference check revealed they were a junior team member, not the lead.
Lesson: Always verify significant achievements with references and practical assessments.
Conclusion
A polished CV doesn’t always mean a perfect hire. By staying alert to these red flags and incorporating thorough interview techniques and assessments, you can better predict candidate success and avoid costly hiring mistakes.
Here's a statement that will make every recruitment leader squirm: Your recruitment marketing is burning money, and you don't even know it. While you're celebrating that uptick in applications, your actual quality hires are plummeting. While you're patting yourself on the back for lower cost-per-application, your cost-per-quality-hire is spiralling out of control. And while you're obsessing over job board metrics, your competitors are leveraging recruitment marketing analytics to dominate the talent market. The harsh reality? 57% of marketers use leads to measure the success of their marketing initiatives. In recruitment terms, that's like judging a restaurant by how many people walk past the door instead of how many actually buy a meal and come back for more.
Here's a controversial statement that'll ruffle some feathers: Your pandemic career gap is not the liability you think it is—it's actually your secret weapon. While you've been losing sleep over that employment gap between March 2020 and whenever you landed back on your feet, the recruitment landscape has fundamentally shifted. That gap you're trying to hide? It's become so commonplace that more than half (53%) of all candidates screened in the last 12 months have career gaps on their CVs, according to employment screening provider Accurate Background. The pandemic didn't just change how we work—it rewrote the rules of what employers expect from a CV. If you're still approaching your pandemic career gap resume with pre-2020 thinking, you're not just behind the curve; you're potentially sabotaging your chances with outdated anxiety.
Here's an uncomfortable truth that most recruitment leaders won't admit: your current ATS is actively sabotaging your ability to find the best candidates . While you've been religiously adding keywords to job descriptions and hoping for algorithmic magic, the most talented professionals have been slipping through your digital fingers – not because they lack the skills, but because they don't speak your system's rigid language. The recruitment technology revolution isn't coming. It's here. And it's fundamentally rewriting the rules of candidate discovery in ways that make traditional keyword-based systems look as outdated as fax machines in a WhatsApp world. Welcome to the age of AI candidate search technology, where understanding context matters more than matching words, and where the smartest recruitment teams are already gaining an almost unfair advantage over those still stuck in Boolean search hell.
Here's an uncomfortable truth: most of us are rubbish at negotiating our own worth . While 55% of job candidates don't even attempt to negotiate their salary, the very employers who'd benefit from their skills are sitting there wondering why talented people keep walking away from "generous" offers. But here's where it gets interesting – we're living through the biggest shift in workplace transparency since the gender pay gap reporting requirements landed in 2017. Pay transparency isn't just knocking at the UK's door; it's already reshaping how smart candidates approach salary conversations. The question isn't whether you should negotiate – it's whether you're equipped with the salary negotiation strategies that actually work in 2025.
The UK's food manufacturing sector stands at a critical crossroads. With advanced automation technologies revolutionising production processes, a significant disconnect has emerged between the sophisticated capabilities of Industry 4.0 systems and the skills of the existing workforce. This gap isn't just a minor operational challenge—it represents an existential threat to the sector's competitiveness, productivity, and long-term sustainability.
The explosion of e-commerce has fundamentally transformed the logistics landscape, pushing traditional warehouse and distribution models beyond their limits. In the UK, where online penetration rates have increased from 9.3% to 26.6% between 2012 and 2022, logistics providers face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more flexible solutions while maintaining efficiency and controlling costs. This revolution isn't just changing what logistics teams do – it's transforming how they're structured, the skills they need, and the roles they're creating to meet the demands of the digital commerce age.
In today's fast-paced business environment, the ability to secure top talent quickly has become a critical competitive differentiator. Yet many organisations continue to struggle with prolonged hiring processes that not only frustrate candidates but also impact the bottom line in ways that often go unmeasured. While quality hiring decisions should never be rushed, there's a substantial difference between thorough assessment and unnecessary delays.
In the competitive landscape of technical recruitment, your CV might secure you an interview, but it's your problem-solving prowess that will land you the job. Technical interviews have evolved far beyond simple knowledge checks, becoming sophisticated evaluations of how you approach challenges, communicate solutions, and adapt under pressure.
Picture this: after weeks of interviews, countless email exchanges, and meticulous CV screening, you've finally found the perfect candidate. The offer letter is sent, champagne is on ice—then silence. A few days later, the dreaded email arrives: "Thank you for the opportunity, but I've decided to pursue another option." Last-minute candidate rejections aren't just frustrating—they're expensive, time-consuming, and increasingly common in today's competitive job market. According to recent research by Robert Half UK, 42% of UK professionals have accepted a job offer but continued to interview for other roles. More alarmingly, 28% admitted to accepting an offer only to back out before starting. But why is this happening, and what can recruitment professionals and hiring managers do to prevent these eleventh-hour disappointments?
In today's competitive business landscape, intuition and experience remain valuable, but they're no longer sufficient on their own. UK businesses facing rising operational costs, increasing competition, and a challenging economic environment can no longer afford to make critical workforce decisions based on gut feeling alone. The difference between thriving and merely surviving increasingly depends on how effectively organisations leverage data to optimise their most valuable resource: their people. According to research from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) , UK productivity growth has stagnated since the 2008 financial crisis, lagging behind other G7 nations. With the April 2025 minimum wage increases looming, businesses face growing pressure to extract maximum value from their workforce investments. The good news? The rise of workforce analytics provides unprecedented opportunities to identify inefficiencies, optimise performance, and cultivate environments where employees thrive. As Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Arts (RSA), noted in the UK Government's Good Work Review : "In a world of increasing workplace complexity, the organisations that thrive will be those that measure what matters and act on the insights." This blog explores how data-driven decision making can transform workforce productivity, examining practical approaches that UK businesses are implementing today with remarkable results.
