Your Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the first way you present yourself to a Recruiter or a potential employer. Remember, the recruiter and employer don’t know you, so the best way to introduce yourself is to write a clear, simple document stating the most important details about yourself, your abilities, skills and work experience as they relate to the advertised job for which you have applied. It tells the recruiter or employer whether they should engage you further.
Writing a good CV is an exercise in careful auditing of the facts of your work life. It is an excellent opportunity to put your best foot forward. In the following paragraphs, this article will consider 5 of the most common CV mistakes and ways to fix them.
1. Inaccuracies/Lies: The information you state on your CV must be consistent with roles you’ve held and work experience you’ve gained. To tell untruths on a CV is to attempt to deceive a recruiter or an employer. This is ill-advised and does not usually end well.
Fix It – Don’t tell any lies on your CV. Be ready to explain any gaps in work experience. Don’t change job titles. Arrange information on your CV in chronological order making sure that dates are correct. State all relevant qualifications, skills and experience.
2. Inappropriate Email Addresses: When the internet arrived and getting emails were a novelty, a lot of people had interesting email addresses. Such addresses as ‘gorgeousbaby87@hotmail.com’ were rife. It is important to give recruiters, potential employers and other professional acquaintances with a simple, standard email address at which they can reach you.
Fix It – Create a different email address for professional purposes. Your first and last names separated by a dot, underscore or hyphen for example, work very well.
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3. Poor Grammar/Bad Spelling: Misspelled words and poorly constructed sentences in a document cause a reader to lose interest in it. A CV is no different. When there are many qualified candidates to interview, recruiters and employers find reasons to narrow down their list. CVs with typos and poor spelling will be rejected as time-consuming and tedious to read. Don’t miss a good opportunity to get a job for which you are qualified!
Fix It – Use the Spell Check feature on Microsoft Word. Read your CV over and again, and ask friends and family to check it as well.
4. Lengthy CVs: As you progress in your career there will be more valuable information to state on your CV. There really is no need to state every piece of information about your work life and career. A CV should be as detailed as possible, but it should also be simple.
Fix It – Include a personal statement to align and focus all your skills and experience. State only relevant information, and make sure that your CV does not exceed two pages.
5. Vague Statements: With CVs, there’s a tendency to use generic phrases. In describing your work experience, it is extremely important to show the work you do and even more so, the impact it has on your employers and their business.
Fix It – Describe your work, and using indices, highlight results achieved in your earlier roles. For example, the statement “I built strategic relationships with clients. This led to a 40% increase in sales and profits over a period of one year.”
Finally, please review your CV as often as necessary. It’s okay to ask for help with your CV if you need to, especially among your peers and mentors. They’ll often catch something you’ve missed.
