What to send with a CV

By the time you submit, most of the work is done. You took the brief, read the CVs properly and spent two days on calls finding a handful of people who could do the job and would move for it. Then it all rides on one email, opened on a phone between meetings by someone with a full inbox.

That email decides more than who gets an interview. A hiring manager who can see the fit at a glance replies the same day. One who has to work it out leaves it for later, and while it waits, your candidates are on other agencies’ shortlists. A slow week here is how a fee turns into a withdrawal.

It also tells the client what kind of recruiter you are. A CV forwarded with “strong candidate, great fit” on top says you’re passing paper along. A short note that shows what you found out, and what you think, says you’ve done the part they can’t do themselves. That’s the part they pay for.

What recruiters told us

Put those together and the job is clear. Speed matters, but only for CVs that fit the market: three good ones in two days beat ten in a week. The write-up is short, but it isn’t filler. Recruiters told us it’s judgement work, the bit the client is paying for, so it should read like an opinion. And from the hiring side, a full match gets a fast answer while a partial one is left a few days to be weighed. That pause is deliberate. A submission that does the weighing for them shortens it.

Write it as an opinion

The client can read a CV. What they can’t see is what you heard on the call: why this person would move, what they’d move for, how they talk about their work, and whether the salary on paper is the one they’d accept. That knowledge is built over years of conversations, and it’s why clients work with a recruiter they trust rather than an ad. Put it in the write-up.

The write-up is judgement work. The client is paying for your opinion, so it should read like one.

From our conversations with recruiters

How much to write varies by client. Some want three bullet points in the email. Some want a cover sheet on top of each CV. Some want your full call notes. Ask once, when you take the brief: “When I send people over, what do you like to see with the CV?” Then keep to it. A hiring manager who gets the same shape every time knows where to look.

Whatever the length, commit to a view. “I’d meet her first: she’s done this exact migration twice and wants to do it somewhere smaller” is more use than three paragraphs of balanced summary. If you use Hamrr, it drafts a cover sheet for each candidate from your notes, but the opinion in it stays yours.

Show the fit, requirement by requirement

Lead with the must-haves from the brief, one line each, with evidence. Evidence is something the hiring manager could check: what they built, how big it was, how long they owned it. “Strong stakeholder management” is an adjective. “Ran the weekly steering group with the finance director for two years” is evidence.

This matters most on niche roles, where the same title means different things to different clients. One company’s forward deployed engineer does pre-sales engineering. Another’s owns delivery once the contract is signed. And when a skill is in demand, CVs overstate it. Vetting means reading each CV in depth for the detail that proves it, then writing that detail down so the client doesn’t have to hunt for it.

Then add what the CV can’t show. “No cloud certification, but rebuilt their deployment pipeline on it last year and talked me through every step” answers the question before it’s asked.

Name the gap before they find it

Every partial match has a gap the client will spot. Leave it for them to find and they’ll weigh it on their own, which is the few days your candidate sits in limbo. Say it first, in one line, then say why the person is still worth meeting.

You often know which must-haves will bend, because you heard it when you took the brief: the “essential” sector experience that turned out to be a preference, or the years of experience that matter less than the right project. Use that. “Gap: no line management yet. You said the first year is hands-on, and he already mentors two juniors” turns a reason to wait into a reason to meet.

Put salary, notice period and availability in plainly too, along with anything that has changed since your first call. A surprise at offer stage costs far more than a frank line now.

Send fewer, sooner, and ask for a date

A common benchmark is three to five market-fit CVs within 48 hours of the brief. A few strong candidates get a faster answer than a long list, because a long list hands the sorting back to the client. If you only have two you’d stand behind, send two and say when the next is coming. If the market can’t give them what the brief asks for, say so in the same email, along with what it can give them. That’s an opinion too, and clients remember who told them early.

Build the admin into those 48 hours. Making each CV client-safe, with names and contact details out and the formatting fixed, is often still done by hand, and some clients will want candidates typed into their own ATS as well. Check each candidate is happy for their CV to go to this client, and hold a couple of interview slots in their diary: the candidate’s diary is often harder to pin down than the panel’s.

Then close with a question and a date: “Could you let me know who you’d like to meet by Thursday? I can set up first interviews on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon.” A date gives the client something to answer and gives you a reason to follow up. Without one, you’re chasing an update. With one, you’re chasing a decision they agreed to make.

The submission email

Copy it, fill in the brackets, and cut anything this client has told you they don’t need.

Hi [Name],

Here are [number] candidates for [Role]. Their CVs are attached.

[Candidate initials], [current job title]
· [Must-have 1]: [evidence]
· [Must-have 2]: [evidence]
· [Must-have 3]: [evidence]
Gap: [one line, or none]
My view: [one line on why you’d meet them]
Salary [expected] · Notice [period]

[Repeat for each candidate]

Could you let me know who you’d like to meet by [date]? I can set up first interviews on [days].

[Your name]

Get each candidate’s OK before their CV goes to a client, and send the client-safe copy until your terms are agreed.

Questions