One of the most painstaking, scrupulous but annoyingly integral parts of entering the professional world is the dreaded Curriculum Vitae. The simple task of listing ones pro’s, experiences and interests is for some unknown reason one of the hardest possible rigmaroles in existence. It is easy however when racking your brains trying to remember when it was you once worked at that place you can’t remember the name of, to make the odd mistake (or two). Here is a list of the top 5 CV blunders…
Strange cliché sayings
This may sound odd, but more often than not when writing their CV, people opt into using rather bizarre mottos in an attempt to woo their potential new bosses. A real life example of this would be this quite frankly worrying approach to life given in a recent CV. “I am a wedge with a sponge taped to it. My purpose is to wedge myself into someone’s door to absorb as much as possible.” Now I dread to imagine the psyche of the person writing this CV, but it nevertheless qualifies in the top 5 CV blunders.
Blatant copying
Again, this may sound very obvious to most, but time and time again budding new employees forget to fill in their CV altogether, let alone read it back afterwards. A woman quite unwisely sent her résumé and cover letter to a company without deleting someone else’s editing, including such comments as “I don’t think you want to say this about yourself here” and “Tell them something about the theatre.” It may seem eccentric to you, but perhaps you might want to re-read your CV next time you send it into the clutches of an unknown business.
Irrelevance
Irrelevance is a very common CV blunder, and is something that is far easier to do than you might think. An example of plain irrelevance within a CV would be putting under “job related skills” for an IT Contractor for example “can function without additional oxygen at 24,000 feet”. Now this is a real mistake that occurs far too often. Remember, what may sound inspiring and impressive to you is probably either inappropriate or simply worthless.
Link to Personal Email
This is a CV error that occurs very frequently, and is something that can lead to not only being discarded altogether, but sheer embarrassment during interviews (believe me). More often than not people include their personal email addresses on the end of their CV, but some fail to consider how unsuitable their ‘addy’ may be, no matter how charming. Basically, if you are looking for a job in business insurance, don’t list your email address as “pornstar69@****.com”.
Hobbies & Interests
The ‘tell us about yourself’ or ‘Hobbies and Interests’ sections of a CV are a battleground for the weird and wonderful. People here either tend to lie (nobody who reads 5 books a week then has the time to spend a weekend watching foreign films and charcoal painting) or are far too honest (although you think heavy drinking and street fighting is a blast, others may not). Others however tend to take a far vaguer, widespread approach. The last CV blunder on the list is this recent insight into the life of this promising employee. Under Hobbies & Interests, he put, “Having a good time.”
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