First impressions are important when it comes to applying for a new job. Your CV is your chance to knock the socks off the recruiter/employer, so you don’t have any chances to mess up! It can be demotivating being rejected for a role, but it may have just been down to an issue with your CV – an issue that could have taken 5 minutes to fix. Here are some of the common issues our consultants have found:
You have an unprofessional email address
Did you know that 76% of CV’s are ignored if you have an unprofessional email address? That email address you set up when you were 13 isn’t going to go down well when applying for jobs. Luckily, setting up a Gmail account only take a few minutes to set up. Take 2 minutes out of the time you would spend on social media and put them to good use by making a new email. Just a simple ‘[email protected]’ will suffice.
your cv is written in the third person
43% of CV’s are discarded if they are written in the third person! This is because it sounds like someone else has written your CV for you. Getting help with your CV is perfectly fine but a good professional CV writer will write from your perspective rather than their own. Third-person can also come across as strange on CVs – when does anyone refer to themselves in the third person? (Unless you’re Joe from ‘You’ (Red flag emoji).
You lied about your skills and experiences
A huge 52% of candidates believe it is necessary to lie in order to get an interview! However, 47.3% did admit that their lies didn’t work. Lying about your experience might get you a job, but it’s likely you won’t last long in your position. A good interviewer is also likely to get to the bottom of your lies! This can damage your reputation – you’re unlikely to be put forward for a role again by an agency.
You’re not formatting your cv correctly
A great job opportunity has just come up and you quickly edit your CV, so it fits the job description. However, you didn’t take those extra five minutes to format it properly. Those few sentences that were added are in a different font or text style. This shows the recruiter/employer that you can’t really be bothered. Therefore, you’re not really bothered about the role when in reality, you really want the job! Again, take another five minutes out of your day, which you probably would have spent scrolling on an app, and use it to format your CV.
Spelling or grammar errors
More than 6 in 10 CVs contain spelling mistakes! Misspellings on your CV shows a lack of attention to detail but can also show your inability to represent yourself. This puts off recruiters/employers as they don’t want their company to be represented the same way. Simply spell checking on Microsoft Word, or even using a spelling checker such as Grammarly can help you out. You could also get a friend or family member to proofread and they may also suggest other skills and experiences to add.
Author: Charis Bedford + the JRR team
