Recruitment is a job measured in numbers, yet most recruiter CVs read like a description of the process. 'Sourced candidates, managed the client relationship, ran interviews, negotiated offers.' All true, all necessary, and all completely silent on the one thing a hiring manager actually wants to know: do you bill? A recruitment consultant CV that hides its billings, placements and performance against target is describing activity, not results. The fix is to put the numbers back in.
What employers want
Whether you are applying to another agency or moving in-house, the reader is looking for evidence that you deliver: that you bill, place and hit target consistently. Agencies want a biller who can be trusted with a desk from day one. In-house teams want someone who fills roles quickly, at quality, without burning the budget. In both cases the process is assumed; it is your outcomes that make the case. Describing the 360 cycle in detail while leaving out the results is the most common way a strong recruiter looks average on paper.
Lead with headline numbers in the profile
Open with a short profile that carries your strongest performance figures: annual billings, placement volume, consistent achievement against target, or a ranking within your team. A reader should see proof of delivery in the first few lines. 'Experienced recruitment consultant with a strong track record' tells them nothing; 'Perm consultant billing £250k–£300k a year on a technology desk, consistently 120%+ of target' tells them everything. Put the evidence where it will be read first.
Clarify your desk and model
Recruitment is not one job. Perm, contract and temp desks work to different rhythms and reward different skills; a 360 consultant who wins business and delivers is doing a different role from a 180 resourcer or delivery consultant. Be explicit early about which you do, your sector or vertical, and the seniority level you recruit at. A hiring manager scanning your CV needs to place you against their desk within seconds, and vagueness here costs you. State the model, the market and the level plainly.
Quantify every role
For each position, lead with the results. Annual billings, number of placements, fill rate, interview-to-placement conversion, average fee, and league-table ranking are all fair game. Where exact figures are commercially confidential, use ranges, percentages against target or growth rates instead of leaving the space blank. 'Exceeded target' is weak next to 'billed £280k against a £220k target, placing 34 permanent roles across a mid-market software vertical'. Numbers are what a recruitment hirer scans for, and a role without them reads as a role that underperformed.
Show both sides of the desk
A 360 recruiter has two jobs: winning and growing clients, and finding and placing candidates. Strong CVs prove both. On the business-development side, show new client wins, terms negotiated, retained assignments or accounts grown. On the delivery side, show sourcing, shortlisting, candidate management and offer conversion. If you sit on a 180 or delivery desk, be honest about that and lead with the delivery metrics that matter for it. Balance matters: a CV heavy on client wins but silent on delivery, or the reverse, leaves an obvious question mark.
Framing for in-house roles
Moving from agency to in-house changes the scorecard. Billings and fees stop being the headline; the metrics that matter become time-to-hire, quality and retention of the people you hire, cost-per-hire, and hiring-manager satisfaction. Reframe your evidence accordingly: the same delivery skill that hit a billing target now shows up as filling a hard requisition faster and cheaper than the agency alternative. Bring stakeholder management, process ownership and multi-role delivery forward, and keep the commercial discipline as a strength rather than the whole story.
Keep tools and ATS in proportion
Naming the systems you use — a CRM, an ATS, LinkedIn Recruiter, a sourcing tool — is worth a line, because it signals you can step in without training. But a list of platforms is not a substitute for results, and a CV that leads with tooling reads like it is padding around thin numbers. Mention them in proportion, in service of the placements they helped you make.
Tailor to the desk in the advert
A contract IT desk, a high-volume industrial temp desk and a senior perm search are three different jobs, and the same generic CV cannot speak to all of them. Read the advert, identify the desk and level it describes, and bring your most relevant billings and placements to the front. Tailoring shows a hirer you understand the specific market, which reassures them your results will transfer. For more on this, see our guide to tailoring your CV to a job description.
A worked example
Before: 'Recruited for clients across sectors.' After: 'Billed £280k against a £220k annual target on a 360 permanent software desk, placing 34 roles and winning six new client accounts at a 92% offer-to-acceptance rate.' The first line could belong to anyone; the second proves a biller. That shift, applied across the CV, is what turns a process description into evidence of performance. Our piece on duties versus outcomes walks through the same rewrite for other bullets.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Describing the 360 process instead of the billings and placements it produced
- Leaving billings and target figures off entirely rather than using ranges or percentages
- Being vague about the desk, model, sector and seniority you recruit for
- Showing only client wins or only candidate delivery, not both
- Applying an agency-framed CV, with billings front and centre, to an in-house role
- Leading with a list of systems and tools in place of results
Common questions
What should a recruitment consultant CV focus on?
Evidence that you bill, place and hit target. Lead with headline numbers in the profile (annual billings, placement volume, performance against target), then quantify every role and show both new business and candidate delivery. Be clear about your desk: perm, contract or temp, 360 or 180, and your sector and seniority.
How do I show billings if the figures are confidential?
Use ranges, percentages against target, growth rates or ranking rather than exact figures. 'Consistently 120%+ of target' or 'top-three biller in a team of twelve' proves performance without disclosing sensitive commercial numbers.
How do I move from agency to in-house recruitment on my CV?
Keep the performance evidence, but reframe it around in-house priorities: time-to-hire, quality and retention of hires, cost-per-hire and hiring-manager satisfaction rather than billings. Emphasise stakeholder management, process ownership and multi-role delivery over commercial targets.