When looking over a candidate’s CV, it is estimated that an employer will study the resume for 11 seconds in total.
If by the end of this period they cannot find the information that they are looking for, they will simply discard the application and move onto the next one.
Bad resumes are the number 1 reason for employers to reject candidates. If you can’t impress the employer then you’ll never get an interview, and consequently won’t get the chance to show them why you are a great fit for the role.
Your CV is your opportunity to make a first impression, so use it wisely.
In this blog, we’ll help you to avoid career defining mistakes, by showing you 7 common CV mistakes.
Mistake One – Absurd Ambitions
Absurd Ambitions.
- By all means show the employer that you are confident in your ability to perform the role, and that you have ambitions to progress within the company, but don’t go too overboard.
- Statements such as, ‘I see myself running this company within 5 years’ or ‘I want to be the next Steve Jobs’ will only make you seem deluded, and unappealing to work with.
Mistake Two – Extraordinary Experience
Extraordinary Experience.
- This is one of most common CV mistakes. Remember when filling out your resume is to tailor your experience to the role.
- For example, you may have taken a week of paid work helping with a child-minding services, but this is not particularly relevant if you are applying for a role as an IT technician.
- The more irrelevant information that is on your CV, the harder it will be for the employer to find exactly what it is that they are looking for.
Mistake Three – Horrific Hobbies
Horrific Hobbies.
- At the end of your CV, you should always dedicate a short section to your ‘interests and hobbies’.
- The problem is, many people take this too literally. They give a detailed account of all their interests, without any consideration for how the employer will perceive these. Keep this section to a minimum, and ideally tailor your hobbies to the role.
- For example, if applying for a job as an IT technician, make sure to mention how your hobbies revolve around computers.
Mistake Four – Personal Peculiarities
Personal Peculiarities.
- Similarly to the last point, one of the most common CV mistakes that candidates make is to reveal too much irrelevant personal information about themselves in the CV.
- The employer doesn’t want to know that ‘you recently divorced from your wife’ or that ‘you have two pet dogs’. T
- hey just want to know that you have the right skills, experience and interest in the job.
Mistake Five – Catastrophic Communication
Catastrophic Communication.
- This is a very basic, but fundamental point.
- If your grammar and communication on the CV are poor, then there is no chance that the employer will consider you.
- The best CVs have been proof read several times, in order to ensure that they are in grammatically perfect condition.
- If the employer can’t read the message that you are trying to communicate, because of grammatical and spelling mistakes, your chances of success will be severely limited.
Mistake Six – Mad Mail
Mad Mail.
- When writing your contact information on your CV, it is always important to include an email address.
- The big mistake that many people make, is to use their personal email for this purpose.
- For example, you might end up with something like, ‘[email protected]’. This makes you look extremely unprofessional to employers.
- When applying for jobs, create a professional email that won’t draw attention to your contact details, for example, ‘[email protected]’
Mistake Seven – Laborious Length
Laborious Length.
- This is very important. Your CV should be no longer than 2 pages.
- Remember what we told you in the introduction, the employer will look at your resume for no longer than 11 seconds. If they open it up and there are 4 pages worth of information to sift through, they will simply throw it away.
- A further tip is to break up your CV as much as possible. Don’t insert the information in big chunks of text; keep it in short paragraphs and bullet points.
For more great tips on what you SHOULD be putting in your CV, check out our guide on How To Write A CV!
