Whatever you do,don’t put this on your CV!
Updated: Nov 4, 2019
As recruiters, when we are beavering away in our offices (aided by multiple cups of coffee!) and working hard on behalf of our clients and candidates we spend a lot of our time looking at CV’s – it’s no wonder plenty of recruiters end up wearing glasses!
But what it does mean is that we know what makes a good CV and what doesn’t. With so many applications being received for just one vacancy it’s crucial that your CV doesn’t contain things that could make your application go into the ‘no’ pile simply because it’s unprofessional.
"Your experience might be fantastic, but if it’s lost in a sea of multi-coloured fonts and the ‘same old same old’ jargon, you’re not going to get picked over someone who has spent a bit of time getting their CV to look and sound great." - Jeremy, Growth Strategist, searchitlocal
Here are some of things we think should definitely NOT be included on your CV.
· Your photo – okay so you might think you look great in your holiday snap from last year but the likelihood of the person hiring you thinking the same thing is slim. Leave it out!
· Political affiliation – does your future employer care what box you’re going to be ticking in the next election? Unless you’re going for the job of Prime Minister, we think not!
· Your primary school – as much as those might be nostalgic days for you when you were knee-high to a grasshopper with not a care in the world, your future employer is not going to care where you learnt to read and write!
· Lies – oh here’s a good one! So, you worked somewhere for 6 months but to hide the 6 months you were out of work you’ve put on your CV that you worked at said company for a year. You’ll always get found out, particularly when a future employer tries to reference you, so don’t run the risk folks! Honesty is the best policy, no matter how bad you think it sounds.
· A ridiculous email address – time after time we see this on candidate CV’s and it’s the biggest turn off when considering you for our clients.
"Email addresses are extremely important in the world of recruitment and digital applications. If you have an embarrassing email address for your personal email, for the sake of applying for jobs set up a more professional one for this purpose." - David Pagotto, Founder of digital agency SIXGUN
· Hobbies – Going to the cinema, cooking, reading, socialising with friends…YAWN! Unless you have something really interesting to write in this section then it isn’t worth including at all! Better to leave it out entirely.
· Multi coloured text – We once received a rainbow CV! Now this certainly stood out and we needed our sunglasses to read it however it doesn’t create a ‘professional’ image and whilst we are on the subject of text, don’t EVER use the font ‘Comic Sans’ for your CV or elaborate type faces.
· CV jargon – we all know that you want to ‘relish the opportunity’ and want a role you are ‘passionate’ about and whilst it’s good to come across enthusiastic on your CV don’t fall into the trap of using CV clichés like this. Try and put a bit of ‘you’ into the descriptive part of your CV.
· Don’t be negative about your previous roles – whether you liked the job or got on with your manager, and even if he/she was the reason for you leaving. Do not put this on your CV. It creates a negative view of you from the offset.
So, there we have it, a few things that you definitely don’t want to include on your CV when you’re writing it. Remember your CV is the first impression your future employer is going to have of you, so make it a good one!
If you’d like us to have a quick scan over your CV to check it all looks good and ready to send out, then feel free to get in touch!