Your CV from a recruiter’s perspective: Lucia Nikolaou

Our ten carefully selected questions will help you understand how recruiters look at your CV.

Who is Lucia Nikolaou?

Lucia has over 10 years of experience, has interviewed thousands of candidates and hired between 100-200.

As a People leader, she scaled teams across tech startups and scale-ups, advised leadership in 20+ departments and led Global HR teams spanning 12 geographies. She worked through rapid growth, international expansions, and M&As and now helps startups and scale-ups grow sustainably through CompanionHub. With her hands-on experience, she has seen what works and what doesn’t when it comes to hiring and building teams.

You can connect with Lucia on LinkedIn.

How much time do you typically spend reviewing a single CV?

Between a few seconds and a few minutes. The judgement happens fast. I once heard an analogy: a recruiter’s job is to match apples with apples, not to see an orange and wonder if it might someday turn into an apple. We’re not here to interpret hidden talent or guess what you meant to say. The maths is simple: there’s a list of requirements, and they have to be visible—no detective work involved.

What are the first three things you look for in a CV?

• Structure / Format 
• Responsibilities
• Achievements

How important are formatting and visual appeal when reviewing a CV? What makes a CV easy or difficult to read?

Again, STRUCTURE! You can never go wrong with a clean, simple layout: a short intro/bio, then professional experience, education, and finally, languages, interests, and hobbies. Skip the columns, images, and fancy Photoshop formats. Switching between CVs all day is tiring, so the less demanding your layout, the better. Use a readable font, neutral colours like greys or blues, and some light bolding to stand out. Simple wins.

What common mistakes do you see in CVs that immediately turn you off?

• .doc. files 
• Unprofessional photos 
• Chronological order of professional experience
• Spelling mistakes… one? Fine. Two? OK. But consistent errors are a dealbreaker.

How has technology (like Applicant Tracking Systems) changed the way you review CVs?

It’s much faster now! I still remember, more than 10 years ago, manually sorting through CVs from random job platforms and emails—what a nightmare. Today, everything’s centralised and streamlined. With AI things are speeding up even more, though I haven’t personally used AI for screening yet. The general rule seems to be: “use with care.”

How much weight do you give to a candidate’s online presence (LinkedIn, GitHub, portfolio websites, etc.)?

Depends on the role. Ideally, I’d like to find the candidate on at least one platform. For some positions, though, no online presence is a red flag. It’s just expected in today’s world.

How important is a cover letter in today’s job market? If a cover letter is included, what key elements should it contain?

I’m also happy when there is none, but if it’s there, I will, of course, read it. However, if it feels like a copy-paste job, my interest will fade fast. The cover letter shouldn’t just repeat your CV. It should be short and answer at least one of these: 

why the industry, 
why the company, 
why the role? 

A fully personalised cover letter always earns bonus points with me. To personalise effectively, research the company, the decision maker, the role in the organisation, etc., and show that you did your homework and are genuinely interested in joining.

How do you view gaps in employment history?

Honestly, I had to train myself to spot them because, in a quick scan, I might not even notice. But if you get invited to an interview, trust that the recruiter will have noticed and might ask. So don’t leave gaps unexplained—just address them upfront. It spares us both the uncomfortable moment when you want to explain you took time to mourn a relationship. Life happens, and gapless careers are rare these days.

What advice would you give to someone trying to stand out in today’s job market?

Start with a spotless CV. It needs to be clear, concise and well-formatted—something that won’t get you disqualified right away. But don’t stop at the CV! Network, post on social media, engage with content, and connect with decision-makers (so few people do this; this will make you immediately stand out). It’s all about getting your foot in the door.

Are there some common misconceptions about CVs that you’d like to address?

Yes—having one CV for all applications. Just NO. You can’t possibly highlight your best qualities and match all roles with a single CV, even if they’re all for “Senior Software Engineer.” Read the job ad carefully (not everyone does, thanks to that tempting “Easy Apply” button), and tailor your CV to fit the role. You can’t expect recruiters to shape your CV for you! Remember, most of the time, it’s matching apples with apples.

You can connect with Lucia on LinkedIn.

Read the previous interviews with Andreea, Anastasiia or Insight: What do hiring managers look at in CVs?