You only have one chance with your CV

Making Grammatical Errors and Typos

There’s no room for sloppiness. According to a survey by CarrerBuilder, 58% of employers identified CVs with typos as one of the top mistakes that led them to automatically dismiss a candidate.

In this day and age, there is no excuse for the number of grammatical errors regularly seen on CVs. Common errors observed include the misuse of words (“your/you’re” and “lose/loose”), words spelled incorrectly (“business” and “finance,” if you can believe it), and overuse of punctuation (namely, commas).

Don’t solely rely on spell check. It’s helpful to get a second set of eyes on your CV after you’ve reviewed it yourself. Try reaching out to a trusted mentor or colleague in a similar industry, or if you’re a student, using the resources at your college career centre.

Mistakes Found on CVs

In today’s fast-paced society, people tend to hit the send or submit button without checking their work more than once. For example, one woman sent her CV and cover letter without deleting someone else’s editing, including such comments as “I don’t think you want to say this about yourself here.”

Blunders or Just Poor CV Submission Judgement

Creativity might be good in some instances but think twice before you get too creative on your CV. Below are a few examples taken from CVs.

1. Skills: “Strong Work Ethic, Attention to Detail, Team Player, Self Motivated, Attention to Detail”
2. Skills: “I have technical skills that will take your breath away.”
3. Hobbies: “getting drunk everynight at my local pub, playing my guitar and smoking pot”
4. One candidate’s electronic resume included links to her home page, where the pictures were of her in the nude.
5. Nine-page cover letter accompanied by a four-page CV.
6. One applicant tried to make an impression by using four different fonts, three ink colors and a variety of highlighting options on her CV.
7. Project Management Achievements: “Managed software project at €1.2 million over budget.”
8. Reason for leaving last job: “maturity leave.”
9. “It’s best for employers that I not work with people.”
10. Objective: “I want to play a major part in watching a company advance.”
11. Languages: “Speak English and Spinach.”
12. Objective: “So one of the main things for me is, as the movie ‘Jerry McGuire’ puts it, ‘Show me the money!’”
13. Skills: “I have integrity so I will not steal office supplies and take them home.”
14. Objective: “I would like to work for a company that is very lax when it comes to tardiness.”
15. References: “Please do not contact my immediate supervisor at the company. My colleagues will give me a better reference.”
16. Accomplishments: “My contributions on product launches were based on dreams that I had.”

In conclusion, before you push the submit button and send your CV into the either, do yourself a favor and make sure that you are not making some of the same errors as described above. Don’t worry, if you are working with the professional recruitment team at InSource, we will make sure that these things will not happen on your CV.