When it comes to finding a new job, your CV is your most powerful tool. Whilst, in person, you may appear to be the ideal candidate, whether or not you get to secure the interview all comes down to two sides of A4 paper.
Here are the top five CV mistakes our consultants see and what you can do to avoid them.
1. Spelling and grammatical errors
This is, without a doubt, one of the most common CV mistakes . Sending a CV with errors in shows the hiring manager that you haven’t taken the time to carefully check through your application and can give a bad first impression, especially when spellchecker tools are so easily accessible.Be sure to proof read every application for mistakes and perhaps even ask a friend or family member to have a look too. A fresh set of eyes will be able to spot any obvious mistakes more easily.
2.Presentation and layout
On average, it only takes 7 seconds to review a CV so recruiters need to be able to easily pick out any relevant information. Try swapping large blocks of text for bullet points when displaying important information and avoid hard to read fonts. While a serif font like Times New Roman may look professional, it can be difficult to skim read at a small size. The safest bet is to choose something simple and clear such as Calibri or Arial.
3.Forgetting to include contact details
While this may seem like a fairly obvious thing to do, our Recruitment Consultant, Charlotte, says “you would be surprised by the number of CVs we receive that don’t include a phone number, so we can’t call them.” Something like this can really slow down the process, especially if the employer really likes the look of everything else on your CV.Always remember to include all relevant contact information on your CV and place it in a prominent position on the page such as in the header or footer.
4.Lying/ over-exaggerating
Though it may be tempting to slightly over embellish information on your CV to try to increase your chances of getting through to interview, it’s almost certain that at some point in the process you will be found out. Save yourself the embarrassment of being caught out and just be honest about the skills and experience that you do have and work to really sell these.
5. Not tailoring your CV to the role you’re applying for
Try to avoid sending the same general CV to every role you apply for and instead treat each application individually. Think carefully about what each job is looking for and ask yourself if the skills and experience highlighted on your CV relate to this.
Don’t worry if the role that you’re applying for is quite different from what you are doing now or have done in the past, there are plenty of transferable skills that you have likely picked up in another job which can be applicable across a number of roles. The main ones to look out for are customer service skills, computer knowledge and basic admin duties.
Our consultants work with every candidate to help them find a job that suits their skills and needs.Register now to start the process.
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