Are these CV mistakes stopping you from landing that job?

You skim over your CV, it’s up to date, no obvious typos, now to send it off, right? WRONG!

Having read more than a thousand CVs ranging from the CEOs of well-known organisations to school leavers at the very start of their career; alarmingly, they all have similar issues.

Is it the stylish font or the picture that will improve your chances of landing that job that you really want? No, it’s the core ingredients that will really make the difference.

Based on these common issues, here are my five tips that can dramatically increase your chances.

Tip 1: Your CV’s summary

For a start, where should it be on your CV? How long should it be? What are you trying to say? Are you just summarising your CV in continuous prose?

The summary represents a great opportunity to:

• summarise yourself in a succinct paragraph (at the beginning of the CV)
• showcase what you want to achieve
• what skills (just a few) you could bring
• explain why and how you are changing roles or industry (if applicable)

Most importantly, the summary should have a purpose as opposed to being fancy words glued together to increase your CV to more than a page or two.

Tip 2: Spelling & grammar

Yes, no surprises here.

Spelling and grammatical errors are the single biggest turn off (well, except sending a double spaced 23 page CV. Yes, I was sent one) and can be a deal-breaker.

Once you’ve written and edited your CV, check it, give it to somebody else to read and read it again a few days later with a fresh perspective.

Recruiters out there look for these mistakes and they are costly, particularly for graduates who are applying for popular roles. There’s no excuse for not getting everything perfect. Try reading your CV from the last sentence backwards – this prevents you skimming over the details and missing errors.

Tip 3: Experience vs education

Where do you put your university credentials, your school/college and should you even put your primary school down?

For a start, stick with just your university degree and A-Levels.

In my experience, education should always be after your experience.

Recruiters are more interested in your experience and skills as you will be measured on these, not where you studied or what A-Levels you achieved.

In most application processes, before even applying to the role, you may be asked if you have achieved a minimum attainment level, such as a 2:1.  If this is the case, then why prioritise this over your experience and skills on your CV.

It is becoming increasingly common that firms are placing less emphasis on educational attainment when it comes to their recruitment process.

Perhaps now is a great time to start applying for work experience and internship opportunities to really make you that complete package.

Tip 4: Concise vs waffle

Don’t write long paragraphs.

Recruiters won’t read them and will only search for key words, if they can’t find them easily enough, you’ll quickly end up in the 'rejection' pile.

Short, sharp sentences with bullet points are the easiest way to put your point across without all the fluff. If it looks like you’re trying to bulk out your CV or are simply unable to make points clearly and succinctly, recruiters will take a dim view.

Here’s the most important one:

Tip 5: Relay the facts

For example, if you were the President of a society at University - how large was it? What did you do? Provide examples of actions you took that made a difference.

It’s easy to vaguely describe positions held and your responsibilities but this doesn't help strengthen your application, it hinders it. Ask yourself:

How many?
How much?
Who with?
What did you do?
From how much to how much?

The answers to these questions tell a recruiter far more than just your job title or a top line of what you did. This gives them a chance to assess your impact with something tangible.

I hope you found these tips enlightening and I’d love to hear some of your top tips or questions.

Good luck with your job applications!