Writing your CV can be difficult, and it is easy to believe that filling it out with a lot of jargon will make it look appealing to those reading it – this is not the case!
Your CV is a self-marketing tool, and it needs to stand out from the competition. This document will serve as the first impression that a recruiter or potential employer will have of your qualifications and experience.
Application tracking systems (ATS) are being used by large enterprises as well as smaller organisations to screen candidates’ resumes and applications.
As such, it is necessary for your CV to be personalised to the role and the company in order to advance to a subsequent level of the recruiting process. This may be accomplished by concentrating on the experience, qualifications, and skills parts of your CV.
Here’s a list of the items which applicants commonly include on their CVs that they should avoid putting in:
1: Irrelevant Work Experience.
It is crucial to mention previous employment history, but if your previous employment history has no relevance to the position you are applying for, don’t include it…or very briefly cover it at best.
You should also avoid writing about any work experience that is more than 15 years old, on top of particularly short-term employment.
If you had to take a break from the workforce for some reason, try to not mention this.
Recruiters can sift through hundreds of CVs on a daily basis and are only interested in seeing material that is relevant to the position they are searching for, so make sure you concentrate on this.
This doesn’t mean you should completely ignore the positions which have helped you in developing transferable abilities.
To make up for a lack of relevant work experience in your preferred field, take a look at the roles you’ve held and identify the abilities you’ve gained—just make sure you can explain why they’re relevant!
2: Justifications For Quitting Your Job.
If you are considering a career change, you will almost certainly be questioned “Why are you considering leaving your current job?“
Do not be tempted to disparage your latest occupation and employer, regardless of the terms under which you are departing.
Always be prepared to give a positive response: “I’m looking for a new challenge” is a much better reaction than “my job is boring! “, for example.
3: Role & Responsibilities Which Are Not Significant To Your Job.
If you’re going to write all the responsibilities you have in your current position, make sure to mention the relevance or outcomes of those responsibilities.
Employers want to know what you can bring to the table and what you’ve already accomplished, not just what you’re expected to do on a daily basis in your current position.
An effective alternative is to provide information regarding the performance of your tasks and the metrics by which they were measured, such as how they considerably raised morale, improved productivity within your team, or assisted in decreasing employee turnover.
4: CV Clichés.
Your CV should be all about you, and it should explain why you are the unique individual that recruiters should consider hiring.
As a result, adopting and making use of clichés which can be found in practically every other standard CV will not help you in distinguishing yourself and standing out from the crowd.
Instead, it will make you blend in with the surrounding applicants and can increase the likelihood you will not reach the interview stage.
Consequently, stay away from clichés that don’t convey any concrete information about your marketable skills.
This means getting rid of the “hardworking candidate with a results-driven mindset” and the fact that you can “work well as an individual and in a team” are no longer necessary.
Highlight facts-based statements which describe your industry-specific talents and expertise in its place.
5: Information About The Individual.
Information like as your age, gender, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs do not need to be disclosed on your CV.
Since new legislation has been approved, it is now illegal to request this information, so there is no reason for you to submit it in your application.
Not only is it not necessary, but it is also not recommended; providing this information may put you at risk of being discriminated against by your employer.
6: Poor Formatting.
The way your CV appears in front of a recruiter is quite important. Typically, they will develop their first impression of your CV within the first 30 seconds, and a poorly formatted CV will almost certainly end up in the reject pile.
Make certain that your CV is appropriately laid out and that the material is bullet-pointed rather than being presented in large blocks of text.
You should also avoid choosing out-of-date or sophisticated typefaces, and instead choose for more common fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman.
7: Deceptive or False Information.
Recruiters are trained to recognise facts and statements which don’t add up. For example, they are constantly on the alert for things that are inflated:
Qualifications.
Salaries.
Job titles which are a combination of letters and numbers.
Employers are becoming more aggressive in their background investigations of potential employees.
From running a Google search on you and looking at your social media accounts, to hiring a specialist candidate checking firm, there are a variety of options available. Something that you believe is simply “bending the truth” could end up causing you serious problems.
8: Skill Graphs.
A skills graph does not provide any meaningful information.
Essentially, it is your personal assessment of your own ability. It is subjective to rate your project management abilities on a scale of one to ten.
A recruiter will find it difficult to compare your abilities to those of another candidate.
Instead, the space on your CV would be better utilised by really elaborating on the qualifications and experience you have that demonstrate your ability to perform the task.
Recruiters will be able to tell what skills you have and whether or not they are in accordance with their expectations in this manner.
9: Photographs.
There is only so much space on your CV to work with…and by including a photograph you will be robbing yourself of precious space which could otherwise be used to sell your abilities.
A photograph will not help you to describe your abilities or why you are the best candidate for the positions you are applying for — it will only show people what you look like, not what you do.
Unless you are an actor or a model, your physical attractiveness will have no impact on your ability to do your work duties, and employers will not be interested in seeing your photo unless you are one of those people.
10: Blocks of Text.
Big unbroken blocks of text are the last thing that a recruiter wants to see on a CV when they are looking at you CV. Afterall, research has found that the average recruiter scans a resume for six seconds before deciding if the applicant is a good fit for the role.
If you have large blocks of text on your CV, be prepared for the fact that the majority of recruiters will not even bother to read it, regardless of how valuable the information contained inside is.
Make a point of breaking up long sections of writing into short, punchy sentences that are contained within compact, logical paragraphs.
It might be beneficial to break up your CV with headings and sections, and it can also be beneficial to include bullet points inside role descriptions to ensure that recruiters can easily go to the section they are searching for.
