A CV is an applicant’s shop window. With the right advice and support anyone can turn their CV from a careers void into a careers victory.

– Joe Billington, director of the National Careers Service

Last Monday, Smith came to meet me in my office. He is HR manager in a multi national company. He scans 100s’ of CVs’ and takes interviews of job seekers on regular basis. “Isn’t your job very monotonous Smith?”, I asked him while both of us were sipping our favorite cappuccino.

Smith nodded in negation and smiled. “Silly and Funny CV’s of job seekers entertain us all the day!”, he said.

I almost shouted on him, “Smith, are you crazy? Job seekers send you their CV with many dreams and expectations, not to entertain you.”

Smith said, “I agree. But do you know, more than 60% CVs’ contain silly or funny mistakes which lead to their rejection or even not turn us to give them interview call.”

It gave me a shock! When Smith told me those common mistakes, I was amazed and decided to list those mistakes here.

Poor Design and Layout

Design and Layout of your resume is the first hook to catch interviewer’s attention. Poor design and formatting of your CV can ruin your dreams to get a good job, whereas a good design can open the doors of success for you.

Though, there is no rocket science about good design and proper formatting of CV, but you can work on few points to not let your CV look bad.

• Don’t use very large or very small font size.
• Don’t use stylish or cursive fonts.
• Don’t type entire CV in bold.
• Don’t use capitalization throughout the CV.
• Don’t underline lots of text.
• Don’t use many font sizes.
• Don’t use more than 1 or 2 font styles in entire CV.
• Don’t use colored text.
• Don’t write your CV like a novel. Use bulleted lists and quantify the facts wherever necessary.

Sounding Selfish

If you write first sentence in your CV about your “aim” or “objective”, be sure to not sound selfish. Keep in mind that the aim or objective you are writing, is about the “professional aim behind this job”, not the “personal aim”.

Simply put yourself into the shoes of employer and think if you receive a CV with following statements, what would be the first impression in your mind for the applicant.

• “To work in a professional and fun-loving environment where I can grow along with the organization.”
• “To obtain higher level challenging permanent position by putting in together hard work, knowledge, experience, best attitude and hunt for more knowledge.”
• “To work with one of the fastest growing company where the organisation have better future growth plan for the employee.”
• “To work in a challenging and professional environment that would help me to polish my career and help to excel my talent and skills.”

Hey, are not you going to use (exploit) the resources of the organization for your personal growth and benefit rather than going to contribute your skills to your organization?

Spelling and Grammar Mistakes

You must check your CV thoroughly for spelling and grammatical errors. Sometimes you will find some silly typographical errors in your CV which were overlooked by you and can correct after thorough inspection only.

“I have completed my one year industrial training with Band of America…” – Hmm, we hope you meant Bank of America!
“I have had sex jobs so far…” – Hey, do you meant six jobs?!

Some applicants use to say that they are not applying for a content writing job, so spelling mistakes are not very much important for a CV. It shows your prejudice attitude.

Many times you have to communicate to your seniors, preparing reports and sending mails to clients. No manager want to hire a member in his team who communicates horizontally or vertically in his job with lots of errors on daily basis.

Keyword Stuffing and Use of Clichés

Fancy keywords like “team player”, “result driven”, “committed”, “dynamic”, “highly motivated”, “proactive”, “good communication skills”, “problem solving skills” etc. can ruin your CV. These words have very in-depth meaning.

If you use these words in your CV, then you have to prove it. Otherwise don’t use these keywords just to stuff your CV to look attractive. Wherever you use these power words in your CV, you must link with some achievement.

If you think that you are “result driven” person and really achieved something because of these capabilities, you can use these power words with linking to your achievement, “I worked on xyz project in final year of my college studies and resolved the pqr problem that was not solved by 3 previous batches” or “I worked hard on new plans with my team at the time of recession, and got 13% hike in yearly sales. My company awarded me for my result driving abilities.”

Highlighting Duties instead of Highlight Achievements

There is no harm to tell your interviewer about your duties and KRAs’ (Key Responsibility Areas) in previous/current job. But, telling about your achievements is most important.

Quantifiable achievements always paint your proper picture and help interviewer to judge your candidature for the job you applied for.

Always remember, simply highlighting your duties means highlighting “what you looked after in your job”, whereas highlighting your achievements means “what benefits your comapny achieved bacause of You!”

Over Elaboration

Don’t over elaborate while writing your CV. 2 pages of A4 size are enough to summarize your professional skills. After all, you are writing your CV, not a novel.

On the other hand, employer has to go through many CVs’. He is very busy with recruitment process. You are not the only candidate for this job.

Using Silly e-mail Id

Your personal e-mail id may good for your friends and family, but may not look good for professional use. It may create wrong impression about your personality, character and seriousness about your job.

“jamesrocks”, “cutecristina”, “hotnikki4u”, “barbiegalmonica”, “stylishsmith” are certainly silly e-mail ids for writing in CV.

Incorrect Contact Details

Cross check twice is always better than send your CV with incorrect contact details just because of typing mistakes. You may not get interview call (or joining letter) because of incorrect mobile number, e-mail id or postal address; while the company is trying to contacting you.

What is worst than it, that you are selected for an interview (or job) but you are not getting its information!!

Don’t forget, only your CV let you out stand off the crowd. It plays vital role in your success to get a good job despite your education and experience. Must brush-up your CV before sending it to your interviewer, as you brush your coat before going on date!

Author: Sameer Goyal

Write your comments and valuable suggestions in comment area below which can help others to improve their CV.