Is your CV a recruiter’s nightmare?

It might be the time of year for ghosts and ghouls to make an appearance, but that’s no excuse for your CV to be ghastly! If your current resume is scaring off potential employers then it might be time to get out your cauldron and cast a magic spell onto it!

CV’s are a critical part of the recruitment process and are your first chance to get in front of your potential new boss – so they really need to impress! Your main focus is to leave the reader wanting more and interested in what you have to say. A boring and dull CV is a serious no no!

These are the things you need to AVOID when writing out your perfect CV:

  1. A missing personal statement. Your personal statement is what starts off the CV and is a short paragraph about why the employer should recruit YOU for the role. It needs to contain all the key information about you and make them want to read the rest of your resume. It’s essential really!
  2. A lengthy CV. A good resume should be ideally a couple of pages long – no more. You don’t want to bore the reader, or end up in the recycling pile, so keep it short, simple & sweet please!
  3. Irrelevant to the job specification. Make sure you are adapting your CV to make it relevant to the role you are applying for. If one of the essentials of the role is communication skills, make sure you mention that in your CV!
  4. Out of date information. This is your big chance to sell yourself, and you will only look stupid and dis-organised if the information on there isn’t even up to date or relevant. It’s a no-brainer.
  5. Poor structure. Your CV needs to flow really well, and make sense! You don’t want to confuse the reader, so keep it simple and in date order. Make sure it looks nice when you print it out and it’s all lined up, with a good use of space & bullet points. If it looks messy and too wordy, it might not even get a glance!
  6. Poor grammar. One of the biggest CV killers is poor grammar and can be really off-putting. So use your spellchecker and get somebody to read through it before you send it anywhere! A second opinion is always advisable before you finalise it.
  7. Unprofessional email addresses. Believe it or not, a whopping 76% of CV’s are ignored because the email address used is unprofessional – who knew! So please keep your “hotstuff@…… “ account for friends only!

Bearing in mind recruiters spend barely 15-20 seconds deciding whether or not to continue reading a CV, you can see why it’s so important to be aware of what NOT to include on there. To avoid being rejected in the recruitment process, and getting through to the interview stage, makes sure your CV looks polished and that it truly reflects you and your key skills in the best possible way.