CV Writing: The Common Mistakes Candidates makes

Curriculum Vitae also known as CV can determine whether you get that specific job or not.

Even though writing it isn’t easy, it’s still supposed to look great because your CV is your first impression and it is important that you get it right.

Different countries have different guidelines of writing a CV, but most of the countries share the same format of a CV.

The following are some of the common mistakes made by candidates when writing a CV;

1. Spelling and grammar mistakes-Spelling mistakes and poor grammar can really turn off a recruiter. Spelling mistakes show that you don’t pay attention to details.
   
   This can limit your chances of landing an interview and thus lose a job which you may have qualified for.
   
   You can avoid these mistakes by allocating some time to proofread your CV, reading out your work aloud as you’ll be able to hear something which doesn’t sound right or give your family member to read it.
2. Not tailoring your application to the job-According to apg media, every CV that you write should be tailored to the company or the role that you’re applying for.
   
   If you do this right, it will show the recruiters that you did your research and that you’re the perfect candidate for the job. This is why it’s usually advisable to update your CV once in a while.
   
   When you’re applying for the same post that you once applied for but in a different company then you find that your experiences are irrelevant to this other company, the best idea is to remove the irrelevant experiences.
3. Lying-Everybody wants to impress the recruiters with his/her skills, experiences or accomplishments, but you don’t need to do this by telling a lie.
   
   The recruiters can tell from your CV whether you’ve stated facts in your CV or better still, they can list you for the interview where you’ll be asked the questions and you will have no answers.
   
   So instead of fabricating lies in your CV, concentrate on selling the qualifications, skills and the experiences that you have.
4. Being under qualified-This can waste the recruiter’s time and your time as well. For instance, if you are applying for a job as a Director, while in the real sense you have no experience in this post or you’ve just been employed a few weeks ago.
   
   This will be a poor time wastage on both sides. If you’re applying for a job, check the descriptions and make sure that your skills and experiences match what the role requires. 
   
   And then when writing a CV, you can include these skills and experiences and support them with an evidence.
5. Having a photo-Having a photo of yourself on your CV is a waste of space which you could have used to state your skills, experiences or accomplishments.
   
   Recruiters consider this as one of the biggest mistakes in CV writing.
6. Not including your contact details-Some candidates forget to include their contacts e.g. their emails or phone numbers in their CVs.
   
   This is very dangerous because even if you qualify for an interview, there’s no way the recruiters will contact you to let you know the date and time of the interview.