6 Things You Need To Delete From Your CV Right Now
Most of us are aware that having a spelling error on your CV isn’t a good look - but there are other, more subtle mistakes you could be making.
In fact, some of your proudest achievements could be ensuring that potential employers don’t give your CV a second look.
Like, for instance, your A Grade in Maths GCSE - or your passionate interest in classical music.
Neither of those belong on your CV at all - here’s why.
The fact that you’re a ‘hard working team player’
On The Apprentice, people who liberally use business cliches tend to thrive - but phrases such as ‘hard-working, dynamic, results-driven team player’ have no place on your CV.
So many people use these phrases that using the phrases makes you look boring and lazy - for instance, 25% of people say they are ‘’hard working’ and 18.3% say they are ‘reliable’.
Recruitment experts at CV writing service PurpleCV.co.uk surveyed 2,000 people on the language they used in their CVs.
‘These days it just looks dated, not to mention lazy,’ says Andrew Arkley from PurpleCV.co.uk.
Your old ‘playa4life’ email address
Most of us have had the odd novelty email address in the past - but don’t put them on your CV.
Experts at StandOut CV list this as one of the worst mistakes you can make.
StandOut CV says, ‘It looks hugely unprofessional and will have readers questioning your judgement and general approach to work.
‘If you do have an email address that seemed really cool when you created it, but now leaves you slightly embarrassed, set up a separate professional email address for your job hunting mail.’
Your school grades
Britain’s National Citizen Service’s research show that employers hate to see people’s school grades listed in full - even if you got all As, people.
It’s based on a survey of 500 British companies - and was listed as one of the top 10 things employers don’t want to see on CVs.
Your passion for classical harp
Recruiters aren’t interested in your interests - in fact, seeing interests will tend to put them off, full stop.
If an employer wants to know, they’ll ask you.
The only time it’s appropriate - or necessary - is where an interest (such as charitable work, or politics) actually has bearing on the job.
‘Personal data may suggest a bias, unless what you want to do next is directly tied to one of those categories, because it shows aligned interest,’ says Roy Cohen, author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide.
That fancy font you use on the subheads
It’s very tempting to get carried away with the sheer rush of desktop publishing - and use fancy, curly fonts to make your CV ‘stand out’.
Just don’t.
The UK’s National Citizen Service’s research shows that employers like to see candidates using boring old Arial, size 11 - and nothing else.
Pages 2, 3, 4 and 5
Google’s Laszlo Bock - their head of People Operations, and who knows a thing or two about HR - says too many pages is a killer.
His rule of thumb is one page of CV per ten years of work experience.