The Perfect CV: What Mining Recruiters Actually Look For

If you’ve ever sent off what you thought was the perfect CV into the void and heard nothing back, you’re not alone and it’s rarely because you’re not qualified. In CA Chats’ new podcast series, CV Unpacked, host Lula de Rose sits down with recruitment expert Leanne to pull apart a real, anonymised CV from the mining industry. The conversation is a reminder that a CV isn’t just a record of your career, it’s a marketing document and in a competitive mining and renewables job market, the small details are often what separate a shortlist from a rejection pile.

Here’s what experienced recruiters are really scanning for in those first few seconds, and how you can shape your CV to work with that process instead of against it.

You Have Seconds, Not Minutes

Recruiters in specialist sectors like mining and renewables review dozens, sometimes hundreds, of CVs for a single role. That means your CV isn’t being “read” on first pass, it’s being scanned. A recruiter’s eye moves fast, looking for job titles, company names, dates, and a handful of keywords that match the role’s technical requirements.

This has a practical implication: the most important information on your CV needs to be visible without scrolling or hunting. Your current or most recent role, your core discipline (mechanical, electrical, metallurgical, geological, and so on), and your years of relevant experience should all be obvious within the first third of page one. If a recruiter has to dig for basic facts, you’ve already lost valuable attention.

First and foremost, include a paragraph that Leanne refers to as an”elevator pitch” in your first page, right in the beginning. This short paragraph summarises your expertise to the reader and get’s straight to the point.

Formatting Is Not a Cosmetic Choice

It’s tempting to think of formatting as the least important part of a CV, surely what you’ve done matters more than how it looks. In practice, formatting directly affects whether your experience gets read at all. Dense paragraphs, inconsistent fonts, tiny margins, and CVs that run to eight or nine pages all create friction for a recruiter trying to move quickly through a stack of applications.

A clean, consistent structure signals professionalism before a recruiter has even processed the content. Some practical guidelines:

• Keep it to two or three pages. For most operational and technical roles, this is enough to cover a full career without padding. Executive or highly specialised technical CVs can stretch further, but every extra page needs to earn its place.
• Use consistent headings and formatting throughout. Job titles, company names, and dates should follow the same visual pattern every time they appear.
• Avoid excessive graphics, tables, or columns. Many CVs are still parsed by applicant tracking systems before a human ever sees them, and heavily designed layouts can scramble text on import. CVs large in file size might not even be able to enter AI CV reading systems. If you are applying within South Africa, due to BEE requirement, it is okay to include an image but if you are applying internationally rather avoid the image inclusion as it might cause unconscious biased.
• Use white space deliberately. A CV that’s easy on the eye is easier to scan, and easier to remember.

Showcase Technical and Operational Experience Properly

This is where many strong candidates undersell themselves. It’s common to see mining CVs that list job titles and responsibilities but say very little about scale, output, or impact. “Responsible for maintenance planning” tells a recruiter almost nothing. “Managed preventative maintenance planning across a fleet of 40 haul trucks, reducing unplanned downtime by 15%” tells them a great deal.

Wherever possible, translate your day-to-day into specifics:

• Scale — tonnage processed, size of the operation, number of direct reports, size of budget managed.
• Equipment and systems — the specific plant, machinery, or software you’ve worked with, since this is often what a technical recruiter is scanning for directly.
• Outcomes — improvements in safety statistics, cost savings, efficiency gains, or production increases.
• Context — commodity type, mine type (open pit vs underground), and operating environment (remote site, FIFO, international), all of which shape whether you’re a fit for a given role.

Technical and operational roles in mining are judged heavily on demonstrable, hands-on competence. Vague descriptions read as a lack of confidence in your own experience, even when that’s not the intention.

Tailor Rather Than Template

One of the most common mistakes recruiters see is a CV that’s clearly been used, unedited, for every application. A generic CV isn’t wrong, exactly, it’s just far less effective. Roles in mining and renewables can vary enormously even within the same discipline, and a CV that speaks directly to the specific requirements of a role will consistently outperform one that doesn’t.

This doesn’t mean rewriting your CV from scratch every time. It means reviewing the job description before you apply and making sure the language and emphasis of your CV echoes it where genuinely relevant. If a role emphasises regulatory compliance and safety leadership, and that’s part of your background, make sure it’s visible near the top, not buried on page three.

Don’t Bury the Basics

It sounds obvious, but recruiters consistently flag CVs where core information, full contact details, location, right-to-work or visa status, availability is missing, outdated, or hard to find. In an international sector like mining and renewables, where roles frequently involve relocation, FIFO rotations, or cross-border work, this information isn’t a formality. It’s often the first filter a recruiter applies before even considering your experience.

Make sure this information sits clearly at the top of your CV, is current, and is unambiguous. If you’re open to relocation or specific rotation patterns, say so explicitly rather than leaving it implied.

Rethink How You Handle References

One detail Leanne flags that catches a lot of candidates out is the reference list. It used to be standard practice to include full reference details, names, job titles, phone numbers, and email addresses, directly on the CV. That’s no longer the safest approach. With data privacy legislation like POPIA in South Africa and GDPR internationally, sharing a third party’s personal contact details without their direct involvement in that specific application is a real compliance risk, not just an outdated habit.

The better approach is to list your referees by name and title only, with a simple note that full contact details are available on request. This protects your referees’ personal information, keeps you compliant, and still gives a recruiter everything they need to follow up once you’re genuinely being considered for a role, rather than having those details sitting exposed on a CV that may be forwarded, stored, or shared well beyond your control.

The Human Layer Still Matters

Beyond the technical checklist, there’s a softer point that comes through the CV Unpacked conversation: recruiters are also trying to build a picture of who you are as a professional, not just what boxes you tick. Career progression, the reasons behind moves between roles, and any gaps in employment all tell a story. Where there are gaps or lateral moves, a brief, honest line of context can go a long way toward reassuring a recruiter rather than raising questions they have to chase down separately.

The Bottom Line

A strong mining or renewables CV isn’t about cramming in every detail of your career, it’s about making the right details impossible to miss. Clear formatting, specific and quantified experience, a document tailored to the role in front of you, and complete, current basic information will consistently outperform a CV that’s longer, denser, or more generic.

As the mining sector continues to compete with renewables and other industries for the same technical talent, the candidates who stand out won’t necessarily be the most experienced, they’ll be the ones who’ve made that experience easiest for a recruiter to see, understand, and act on.

This post draws on themes from Episode 1 of CA Chats’ CV Unpacked podcast, in which host Lula de Rose and recruitment expert Leanne unpack a real, anonymised mining CV. Listen to the full episode for a closer look at recruiter thinking in action.

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