Top 10 CV Mistakes To Avoid and 4 Questions Your CV Must Answer

Top 10 CV Mistakes To Avoid – Get recruiters

to notice your CV by ensuring it meets this

essential criteria. Everyone needs an effective

CV to hold recruiters’ attention and persuade

employers that they are worthy of an

interview. It really doesn’t matter if you could

do the job with one hand tied behind your

back, if your CV doesn’t give you the chance

to get a foot in the door, how are you going

to get the chance to prove it?

So, have you found a job that you really want

to apply for? You KNOW you’ll be perfect for

it and you’ve spent all day putting together

a CV and cover letter. But before you press

‘send’, STOP!

Take a moment to read our guide to common

– and easy – application mistakes that can

make the difference between getting a job

interview and having your CV put straight on

the ‘no’ pile.

1. Mr Jones? Oh, sorry, Mr James…

It may seem obvious but make sure that you

have spelt the name of the person you’re

sending the application to correctly – on the

email and on your cover letter… and that you

have their title correct. Mr Smith doesn’t want

to be called Mr Jones, after all. Then, just to

be on the safe side, double-check the

company and product names that your

spellchecker wouldn’t have caught.

2. Check it

Speaking of which, spell check. Spell check

right now!

3. Right application, wrong company

If you’re sending out lots of applications at

once double and triple check that the right

CV is going to the right job. Every CV should

be different – slightly tweaked to make sure

it fits each job advert. If you send the wrong

CV to the wrong job then you can really harm

your chances…

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4. Get attached

Attach your attachments! It does not look

good if two minutes after you press send you

email them again with a bashful ‘and this time

with attachments’. This is especially true if

you’ve listed attention to detail as one of

your attributes.

And then don’t make these other email

mistakes!

5. Ready, set, format!

Make sure the format of your CV is easy to

open for all computers – or at least most of

them. There are so many different versions of

Word now that some machines can’t access

the files attached – it’s best to save your CV

as a standard .doc file that any computer can

open. Also, be careful with too much

formatting – if it’s a highly designed CV for a

creative role then a PDF file is a safer option.

6. Judge a book by its title

Your CV should have your name, in bold and

clearly laid out, at the top of the document.

You don’t need to write ‘CV’ at the top or

even ‘Curriculum Vitae’ (shudder). You want

them to remember your name!

7. Think about it

Make sure the email you’re sending the

application from isn’t a cutesy personal email

address. Beerlover69@hotmail.com isn’t likely

to be taken seriously. This is also true of the

email address you have added to your CV as

a point of contact.

8. Once more for luck…

Spell check again!

9. But remember

Spell checkers aren’t infallible. Go through it

yourself and look for grammatical errors; if

you’re not confident in editing your own work

then get a friend or family member to go over

it for you. You can always bribe them with a

cup of tea and a biscuit. Lucky them.

10. And, finally

Now, take a breath. Have one more read

through – yes, AGAIN! – and if you’re sure

everything is 100% correct press send.

4 Questions Your CV Must Answer

Let’s take a closer look at 4 questions to

make sure your CV is selling your skills

effectively to your potential new employers.

1. Is your CV tailored for your target roles?

2. Do you start with a persuasive profile?

3. Is your CV easy to read?

4. Do you prove your impact?