How to Improve Your CV: Avoid These 9 Deadly Mistakes

If you are looking to make a big impression with and improve your CV then it’s crucial that you don’t make any careless mistakes.

Whether it’s poor formatting or inappropriate content, it only takes one or two blunders for employers to start doubting your credibility as a candidate.

Before you hit the job market or make any further applications, check out StandOut CV’s latest visual guide to the 9 deadliest CV errors and discover how to improve your CV.

Here are some key point to note:

1. Avoid anything that makes your CV look unprofessional; this includes things like unprofessional email addresses and unexplained gaps in employment.

2. Don’t make recruiters guess – focus on using factual evidence of your talents and avoid vague indicators like skills graphs, buzzwords and clichés.

3. Make your CV as easy to read as you possibly can by steering clear of over-elaborate fonts and large unbroken chunks of text.

How to improve your CV

How to improve your CV: 9 deadly mistakes

1. An unprofessional email address. Don’t brand the top of your CV with an embarrassing email address – set up a separate email for your job hunting if necessary.
2. Meaningless cliches. Focus on the facts by giving examples of how you have used your skills.
3. Skills graphs. The problem with skills graphs is that they give no real tangible scale and often leave employers with no real indication of your skill levels. To give an indication of skill levels that recruiters can actually relate to use tangible measurements such as length of experience, qualifications and training and scale of tasks.
4. Photographs. Unless you’re an actor or model, a photograph will not be necessary to show your value to an employer.
5. Too many pages. Recruiters and employers are usually very busy, so don’t make them wade through a seven-page CV. Around 2 pages is an ideal length to tell your story without boring people.
6. Unexplained gaps. Unexplained gaps in your employment will worry recruiters. Don’t be afraid to include activities like travelling, volunteering and personal projects.
7. Spelling and grammar mistakes. Sloppy writing mistakes are a huge red flag for employers. Don’t rely on spell-check, it doesn’t catch every error!
8. Elaborate fonts. Over-elaborate fonts make it very difficult for recruiters to read the text on your CV. Stick to a simple, easy-to-read font.
9. Big chunks of text. Huge unbroken paragraphs are a reader’s worst nightmare. They look daunting and make it difficult for recruiters to pinpoint the information they need.

What’s next?

Once you’ve perfected your CV, be sure to upload it to CV-Library so that employers can get in touch with you about relevant jobs!