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April 2008
A recent survey of CV’s carried out by an online recruitment site has found that four out of every ten CVs received by an employer will contain a fundamental error. Spelling mistakes, poor punctuation and bad design lead the list of worst CV crimes.
As well as poor attention to detail, other errors included the omission of qualifications, key dates and personal contact details.
With the majority of applicants submitting their details to 2nd City Resourcing hailing from a Marketing or Communications background, you’d think that attention to detail would be high on the agenda – however this is not always the case.
“The most basic of errors, such as omitting your address and contact details, or displaying an incorrect phone number still come up on a regular basis,” said Louisa Cannon, consultant for the West Midlands region. “Most of our roles are marketing related and therefore proof-reading should come as second nature. If a CV contains spelling mistakes or grammatical typos then our clients’ are going to reject the candidate at the very first stage of introduction. In a competitive job market, candidates should be ensuring that their CV is error free before sending it to any potential employer.”
“All word processing software has built in spelling and grammar checkers – so there should be no excuse for such errors appearing in a CV. Although there isn’t an industry-standard template for CV design, information should be clear and easy to read. Dates of employment should always be included and all qualifications listed.”
Your CV is so important as it is the first impression a potential employer will get of you. Follow the basic rules and make sure you proof read it. For advice on putting together you CV, see our “Guidelines to preparing a CV” page in the Candidate Services section of our website.
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