Making a good first impression may be pretty tough, and outstanding applicants frequently fail at the first hurdle by making stupid mistakes on their CV.
First impressions do matter. With potentially tens to hundreds of applicants to compete with, your CV is your one shot at standing out to recruiters. Unfortunately, many ambitious professionals often overlook common but fatal CV mistakes that cost them what could have been a flourishing career.
In this article, we’ve compiled the most common CV mistakes that applicants make.
1. Making Typographical and Grammatical Errors
A lack of attention to detail might ruin your otherwise fantastic CV. Spell-check does not always identify errors and is unable to detect the overuse of misspelled terms. Words such as ‘diary’ are misspelled as ‘dairy” could be rampant in your CV, and you wouldn’t be notified. Therefore it’s always good asking a fresh set of eyes to look over your work and find any remaining typos for you.
Reading your CV aloud may help you improve your grammar – if it doesn’t sound right, it probably won’t read right either.
2. Choosing a Cluttered or Inappropriate CV Format
Contrary to popular opinion, while the chronological CV is the most common and easily recognised of all CV forms, it is not necessarily the best option.
Indeed, if you’re changing jobs or have a few gaps in your employment history, a skills-based CV is your best friend since it focuses on your abilities rather than your work experience. Similarly, if you’re searching for a job as an animator, an animated video CV can better display your abilities in a manner that a standard CV cannot.
3. Not Listing Your Most Current Employment on the Top Half of the First Page
This is a subtle CV mistake and often has the most negative impact on your chances of getting contacted for an interview.
It is critical to place your most recent or current work or job-related experience at the top of your resume’s first page. This is generally the first thing hiring managers look for, and they aren’t exceptionally patient in their search for it.
Make it easy to discover. Otherwise, you risk wearing out the hiring manager’s patience before they ever get to this part.
4. Your CV Paragraphs Aren’t Spaced Out Properly
Hiring managers scan resumes rather than reading them. They seek keywords, section names and headers, essential facts and figures, and so forth. If you wrote your resume with the expectation that it will be read word for word, rewrite it! It’s going to be skimmed, so write with that in mind.
Use clear headings (job history, education, etc.) and, if possible, bullet points and short phrases instead of paragraphs.
5. You’re Submitting a 3-Page Long CV
A CV should be 2-3 pages long on average. While you don’t want to leave your prospective employers wondering, you want to leave them wanting more.
This might be unexpected, but they do not need the entire history of your professional experience to date.
Giving yourself a short word count to work with allows you to concentrate on bringing out the critical criteria that qualify you for the position. If you include material that has nothing to do with the work or all you’ve done so far, the person reading it will become tired. Maintain clarity and conciseness.
Conclusion
Recruiters spend most of their day evaluating CVs. Their initial assessment includes detecting anything that doesn’t quite fit the job criteria or raises a red flag – whether it’s a simple typo or a blatant falsehood. So, if you’ve made any of these typical CV blunders, now is the time to correct them!
Start In Recruitment specialises in locating and placing sales and customer service professionals into a recruitment role that fits their qualifications. Contact us today if you want to submit your CV or learn more about how to become a recruiter!