5 CV mistakes to avoid

Organisations are becoming inundated with applications and CVs. You need to make your application or CV stands out from the hundreds of others that they receive. If your CV has mistakes it may end up being disregarded. Along with the obvious spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, here are 5 others that you may not have considered.

1. Omitting essential skills/responsibilities/achievements

The skills the role requires must be shown clearly on your CV, prioritised and ideally mentioned consistently. You only have 30 seconds to get the employer’s attention.

2. Waffle

Less most definitely is more. Every word and sentence needs to have a purpose for the specific employer. If it’s not important, remove it. A CV is a great way to give a representation of your communication skills.

3. Complex formatting, gimmicks, photos, shading, stylised fonts, colours

Keep it simple as you don’t want to stand out for the wrong reasons. Applicant tracking systems may reject CVs with text boxes.

4. Dates in the wrong order

Always state the most recent first as it’s your most recent experience they will see as the most relevant.

5. Using jargon and abbreviations

A potential employer may not understand any specific jargon specific to your previous company so you need to ensure that you are clear.

Renovo is one of the UK’s leading providers of outplacement and career transition support. We work with both organisations and individuals to support all their career transition requirements. If you would like to understand how Renovo can help you please call 0800 612 2011 or email info@renovo.co.uk