Most CVs get one thing right.
The first three sections tell you exactly what you get if you hire the person.
- Profile: who they are
- Skills: what they can do
- Highlights: what they’ve delivered
That part works.
It answers the buyer question:
“What do I get?”
Then something quietly goes wrong.
What the Rest of the CV Really Says
Everything after those first sections is essentially historical evidence.
It tells you:
- where they worked,
- what others asked them to do,
- and what happened when they were there.
In other words, it tells you what everyone else got when they hired them.
Useful. Necessary.
But incomplete.
Because none of that explains the one thing that actually determines whether the next hire will succeed.
What’s Missing Is the “How”
Not what they did.
But how they did it.
Not the outcomes.
But the mechanism behind the outcomes.
This is the part CVs almost never capture and interviews rarely uncover properly.
Yet it is the only part that predicts future success.
Why Interviews Feel Vague (and Often Disappoint)
Most interviews are framed around experience validation.
- Have you done this before?
- Can you give an example?
- What was the result?
These are comfort questions.
They reduce hiring risk emotionally, but they don’t reduce it operationally.
Because success is not transferable by title or track record alone.
It is transferable by method.
The Real Point of an Interview
The interview is not there to repeat the CV.
It is there to surface the how factor.
How does this person:
- diagnose a situation,
- decide what matters,
- sequence action,
- and adapt when conditions change?
That is the wow factor.
Not charisma.
Not confidence.
Not storytelling.
But clarity of execution logic.
The Three Questions That Actually Matter
Every hiring decision, whether acknowledged or not, comes down to three questions:
1. What is the current state?
Where are we really starting from, not where we wish we were?
2. What is the target trajectory?
Not just the end point, but the direction, pace and constraints of change.
3. What resources are actually on the table?
People, budget, authority, systems, time, political capital.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
The person you hire is never the only resource.
They are the orchestrator of resources.
Why Great Candidates Often Fail in the Wrong Role
High performers fail when:
- the starting point is misunderstood,
- the trajectory is unrealistic,
- or the resource envelope is fictional.
They don’t fail because they lack skill.
They fail because the conditions that enabled their past success are missing.
But this is rarely discussed openly.
Where the “How” Lives
The “how” is not a rehearsed answer.
It is revealed when a candidate can:
- ask intelligent questions about the current state,
- challenge the assumed trajectory,
- and recalibrate ambition based on real constraints.
This is why the best candidates often sound less certain at first.
They are not selling outcomes.
They are mapping reality.
Why This Changes How CVs and Interviews Should Work
A CV should earn the interview by proving capability.
An interview should earn the hire by proving execution intelligence.
If the interview never moves beyond:
- “what did you do?” and
- “can you do it again?”
Then the most important variable remains untested.
The Shift Hiring Managers Rarely Make
Hiring managers often look for reassurance.
What they should be looking for is process clarity.
Not:
“Tell me about a time you delivered X.”
But:
“Given where we are today, how would you approach this?”
The second question exposes thinking.
The first just confirms memory.
The Real Differentiator
Two candidates can have identical CVs.
The difference is not talent.
It is not experience.
It is whether they can clearly articulate:
- how they assess starting conditions,
- how they sequence action,
- and how they adapt delivery to the resources available.
That is what transfers.
That is what scales.
That is what survives change.
Final Thought
CVs tell you what someone can do.
Career history tells you what they have done.
But success in the next role depends entirely on something else.
How they think.
How they move.
How they make things happen when the conditions are different.
The interview is the only place that can be revealed.
If it isn’t, you’re not hiring capability.
You’re hiring hope.
