Killer CV guide for IT professionals
Your CV gets ten seconds. Here's exactly where I look.
A Senior IT Recruiter shows you what happens in the first ten seconds of a CV screen — and how to make those seconds work for you.
My name is Tomasz Dao. I've spent eight years recruiting in tech, hiring for global banks, pharmaceutical giants, fast-growing startups and fintechs. I've reviewed thousands of CVs and interviewed hundreds of IT professionals.
One thing comes up again and again: even highly skilled specialists struggle to present their experience in a way that actually speaks to a recruiter or a hiring manager.
That's not a skills problem. It's a translation problem and it's fixable in an evening.
What's inside:
The CV heatmap. A real CV with the areas I actually look at marked on it. Most people are surprised by what I skip.
The five core areas that decide whether you get read: core title, summary, experience, skills and contact details — and what each one needs to say.
Professional summaries that work, with four worked examples including one for changing role and one for targeting relocation.
Weak versus strong bullet points. The same work, described two ways, with the difference explained.
How to mirror the job description without lying — matching titles, keywords and projects to the advert.
The Master CV method: build one long document once, then create tailored versions in fifteen minutes per application.
AI prompts that actually help, including a full multi-step prompt that scores your CV, rewrites it for ATS, converts responsibilities into achievements and gives you a gap analysis.
How recruiters search LinkedIn — the filters we use and the hidden ranking factors that decide whether you appear.
ATS tips and common pitfalls, so your CV survives the software before it reaches a human.
Red flags in a recruiter's eyes. Eight things candidates say that quietly cost them the role.
What recruiters need from you and why — availability, visa status, salary, references, and the real reason we ask.
Six recruitment myths, including the one about the best candidate always getting the job.
Networking that works, with four ready-to-send LinkedIn connection templates.
A quick CV checklist and a list of free tools worth your time.
Who it's for: developers, engineers, analysts, architects and consultants. Whether you're applying, being headhunted, or quietly keeping your options open. Even if your role is not listed here, majority of this guide is still applicable for you!
What it won't do: get you the job. A CV gets you a conversation — you get the job. And if you're sending the same document to a hundred adverts, no formatting fixes that. Ten tailored applications beat a hundred generic ones, every time.
€5 - that's the price if you would take me for a coffee to get real unfiltered advice!
