Hiring questions
How do you go through 200 CVs quickly and fairly?
Decide what the job cannot be done without before you open the first CV. Then read every CV against that same short list, ask candidates about what their CV leaves unclear instead of guessing, and write down the reason for each decision. Every decision becomes the same kind of decision, which makes it faster, and everyone is judged on the same things, which makes it fair.
Before the first CV
Split the advert into must-haves and nice-to-haves. A must-have is something the job cannot be done without, such as a driving licence category, a language at working level, a certificate or a shift pattern. Keep it to three to five. Everything else is a nice-to-have, and it only decides between people who already pass.
The first pass is only about must-haves
Read each CV once, looking only for the must-haves, and put it in one of three piles. Yes, no or unclear. At two minutes a CV, 200 CVs are almost seven hours of reading, so this pass has to stay narrow.
Do not reject the unclear pile. A CV is a list of job titles, not a record of what someone can do. The person who helped with the audit may know the accounting better than the one whose title says accountant.
Ask, do not guess
For the unclear pile, one short question per missing must-have settles it. Do you hold a C category licence? Can you work nights? Have you used this software every day or now and then? Give answer options that make it easy to say no, so people answer honestly.
Rank the rest the same way
Score everyone who passes against the same list, in the same order, and write one line of evidence from their CV for each point. When two people look equal, the notes tell you why. When a candidate asks why, you have an answer.
Answer everyone
People who are out should hear so within days, not weeks. A short, kind no is enough, and it protects your name with the next person they talk to. How to write it ā
Keep it lawful
Only ask about what the job needs. Health, age, family plans, pregnancy, nationality and religion have nothing to do with the job. Since 13 July 2026 Estonian law also forbids asking what a candidate earns now or earned before. The pay rule ā
How Staffholm does this
Staffholm reads every CV against the must-haves in your advert, asks each candidate about ten questions on what their CV leaves open, and ranks everyone with the line from the CV behind each reason. It never turns anyone down on its own. You decide, and it helps you answer everyone.
Where Staffholm fits next to a job portal ā
Written on 24 September 2026.