Ten Things Not To Write In Your CV — Part Two

This article is continued from ‘Ten Things NOT To Write In Your CV – Part One’. Your CV (Curriculum Vitae) – Resume for our American friends sells you to your prospective employer. It has to be straight and too the point. However too many CV’s contain irrelevant information. What are the ten things that you shouldn’t write in your CV?

6) Don’t be all things to all people

Some people with a broad range of experience or an eclectic background feel that this can’t be anything but good news for their employment prospects. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! In all but a handful of circumstances, unless you can demonstrate a clear, logical career progression in your CV then you’re diminishing your chances of future employment. This doesn’t mean that you should lie about your past on your CV. It simply means that you should try and find a common trail of experience in the bullet point summaries of your previous experience. Try not to highlight a vast range of skills from administration to sales unless you’re applying for a general management position.

7) Don’t mention every qualification you’ve every earned

This again stems from pride. It stems from pride and a willingness to demonstrate that you’ve achieved things in the past. Unfortunately gaining a basic qualification in Geography at school doesn’t mean a thing unless you choose to study the subject at University! A rule thumb should be that a better qualification replaces the one before. If you have a degree, you are generally better off not mentioning your school qualifications. Similarly, if you have over five years experience in your chosen industry then you’re probably better off not mentioning your school qualifications. Remember that people will only skim your CV and you only want relevant, important details to be read.

8) Don’t be too personal about your personal interests

You can probably turn people off more than you can turn people on when they’re reading your CV. The secret is to include nothing more important or appealing than your employment experience or qualifications. Sure, you should mention the fact that you enjoy playing golf in your spare time. Some people however talk about their favourite golf course or their best score. That’s going too far. Leave that for bonding with the interviewer if appropriate.

9) Don’t make your CV longer than 3 pages

No matter the quantity or quality of your experience there is no need to have your CV longer than 3 single sides of paper. If you are relevant for a job role, your prospective employer may ask for more information – but until then don’t take the risk of them not finding the most important information. Again, remember that the first and only purpose of your CV is to get you an interview. A CV by itself will never get you a job; so don’t expect it to contain everything about you.

10) Don’t add referee details to your CV

Don’t give out any reference details until you are asked for them. It is unethical and unnecessary for anyone to ask others for information about you before the interview stage. In addition, good references are hard to come by. Why bother your referees about a position that you may not be interested in? You want your referees to be bothered as little as possible and only contacted when necessary. Don’t take the chance that someone may contact them after seeing your CV ‘on spec’. Take their names and contact details off your CV.

Written by David on November 27th, 2006 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on CV Advice.

Ten Things Not To Write In Your CV — Part One

Your CV (Curriculum Vitae) – Resume for our American friends sells you to your prospective employer. It has to be straight and too the point. However too many CV’s contain irrelevant information. What are the ten things that you shouldn’t write in your CV?

1) Don’t use first person in your personal profile

It sounds too informal if you use the word ‘I’ too often. If you see CV’s that say ‘I am good at this’ or ‘I have experience at this’ or ‘My skills include’ it sounds extremely amateurish. However, if you use the third person, it denotes a certain amount of respectability, authority and value to your previous experience. For instance, you would be better off saying ‘David’s core skills include…’ or ‘He graduated with an MBA in 2005’.

2) Don’t write too much in your personal profile

Your personal profile should be a four or five line synopsis about you, your key experience and your unique skills. It shouldn’t contain any more information than that. That’s what the rest of your CV is for. Think of it as a subheading. It should succinctly summarise what is to follow. It is merely an extension to the selling tool that is called your CV.

3) Don’t include family details

Never, ever include personal family details on your CV. If you include details like your wife’s name or your children’s name on your CV then it’s like saying to your prospective employer that family is more important than your current job. Even if it is – it’s not a very good way to ‘sell’ your willingness to focus on work. Think about it. Do business professionals include details about their children on marketing materials for their business? Of course not. It’s as crazy as that. A CV is a selling tool for your industry experience. Nothing more, nothing less. If necessary you can talk about your family at the interview – but it doesn’t do you any favours by discussion them in your CV.

4) Don’t write paragraphs about your previous jobs

CV’s are skimmed and not read by employers. Quite often, good potential candidates are missed out on simply because their appropriate experience couldn’t be found within the thirty seconds used to initially browse a CV for relevance. Think about it from an employer’s perspective. Would you really have the time to read through hundreds of CV’s from start to finish? The secret to ensuring that your application has every chance of reaching the interview stage is to highlight your employment experience in bullet points. You only need a MAXIMUM of 10 bullet points for each job role. Any more, and it would be likely that not all the bullet points will be read. Make sure that you therefore only mention the most important parts of your experience about your previous employment.

5) Don’t focus on what you are proud of

It’s so easy to summarise the things that you are most proud of about your previous employment experience. This is an even more pertinent point for more mature individuals. Don’t do it! The only pertinent employment experience to have on your CV is experience that’s relevant for the position that you’re applying for. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have any other experience on there. It just means that you shouldn’t focus on what you are proud of. You should focus on what is relevant.

This article is continued in ‘Ten Things NOT To Write In Your CV – Part Two’.

Written by David on November 25th, 2006 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on CV Advice.