1) Objective

Write clear and short objective. Don’t write an encyclopedia of your achievements. Just give 2-3 lines on how you are planning to add value to the company or how excited you are to grow with the company.

2) Be relevant

If you are applying for marketing job for GOD sake don’t list 3 pages of your designing experience and then half a page of your marketing expertise. Time is money and in business if you are not relevant you will be kicked out right from the door.

3) Double check your spellings

First impression is the last impression. In school they deduct your marks if your spelling is wrong but in business they drop your CV. Make sure spelling feature is enabled in your Word pressing program.

4) Keep it short

Don’t overdo your CV. Keep it short. No need to write paragraphs of your expertise just lists it down in bullet points. That will be enough.

5) Keep it simple 

Don’t just copy and paste stuff from other CV’s. Give it some time, organize your CV and divide them in sections. This will make it more readable and judgment will be easy.

6) Size matters

This tip is specially for designers because it took me half an hour to download a CV which was around 35mb L . Don’t send huge presentations or heavy PDF documents. Just write a 3 page CV and send. For experience part just copy your work in a USB or burn it in a CD then bring it along on your interview.

7) How you can be valuable to the company?

Most of us don’t really know why they are applying for the job. Take out some time and write a paragraph in which you will define what benefit you can provide to the company. Google company’s website or visit their Facebook fanpage. Check out what they are missing and write that down in your CV.

8) Use clear fonts

The most common fonts for writing curriculum vitae are Times New Roman and Arial. These are used because they are clear, easy to read and look professional. But I personally prefer Calibri (which is more clear and nice).

The most common size that candidates use is between 10 to 12 points, with 10 being the most popular. Anything smaller may be difficult for some people to read. Whilst anything bigger like 14 points will look unprofessional.

9) GPA Vs Experience

When I was in university I use to hear a lot that “Keep your CGPA (grades) above 3.5 or you won’t get a decent job.” But now I realize that my job was purely on the basis of experience I gained while working on extra stuff. Like designing, marketing and social media.

I am not suggesting that GPA doesn’t count I am only suggesting that other than studying do some internships (even if they are offering for free) and work part time if you can.

10) Re-check before you hit the send button

Before hitting the send button do pause for 5 seconds in which you will check email address of company and also do check that CV is attached with the email.

One final tip to finish off is to write your name, address and contact number on top so it’s easier to get call you for interview.

Your resume is the story of your career experiences and achievements.  Errors discount your value and minimize your ability to communicate the value you bring to a prospective employer.  Your resume is the hiring manager’s first impression of you.  Remember that old adage, “You never get a second chance to make a great first impression”.

CV is the first and the very crucial step you take towards landing your dream job. So, it is important that you get it right. Since, CV’s give a peek into all that a job seeker is; it is natural for them to get tempted to add lots of information. While there are many of who give in to the temptation, there are equally many who do everything right yet don’t get called up for the interview. At some time you might have experienced that even after doing all that was advised, you didn’t get the kind of response you were expecting to get from potential employers.

There are lots of articles available online that give out tips to write or update your CV. But very few point out exactly what you should be excluding from your CV. Through this article, we want to highlight the not-so-highlighted mistakes in your CV that may be making your CV unattractive to the potential employers.

Here is a list of all the things you should avoid writing in your CV.

We do not mean that putting a short form is what you should not be adding to your CV. Even the full form ‘Curriculum Vitae’, needs to be excluded from it. There’s no need to label your CV. Once the employer takes a look at it, he/she can figure out what it is. The thing that should be written at the top of your CV has to be you name so that the hiring manager knows it belongs to you.

The personal Information included in your CV should not extent beyond your address, phone number and email address. Give a miss to unnecessary personal information such as marital status, ethnicity, race or religious preferences.

Unless you are applying for a job abroad, don’t add a photograph to your CV. It takes up a lot of space which may otherwise be used to add your valuable skills and achievements. Also, it is quiet distracting and may even promote bias on an employer’s part.

Though it may be counted under the previous point, but age needs a special mention here. Revealing age in the CV is the worst mistake job seekers make. If you do not want to be discriminated by your potential employer on the basis of your age, then strictly keep it off your CV. You might also want to remove your graduation year now.

This is also a minute detail that needs to be kept in mind while writing your CV. While choosing a CV format make sure it eliminates the need to add obvious words like Phone and Email ID. It is pretty obvious that they are phone number and email ID.

Objectives are one of the major reasons that get you in trouble. The thing with writing objectives is that they are personal to every candidate and no matter how passionate they may be about their career objective; the hiring manager almost always reads them as overconfident and outlandish proclamations made by the candidates. A better idea would be to replace your Objective section with a ‘Career Summary’ highlighting what you can offer to the employers.

This is especially important for those who have some relevant experience and want to rise in their current career path. Once you have found your calling and decided upon the field you are going to stick to for the rest of your work life, it is important that you get rid of all the irrelevant work experience. Reading through it is a sheer waste of time for the employers and there is also a fear of you getting perceived as somebody who is very uncertain about his / her career choices.

Until and unless your hobbies are related to the type of work you are into, there is no point adding them to your CV. It is a sheer waste of valuable space on your CV and a waste of time for the employers.

There is a simple rule that job seekers need to follow and that is if your employer wants to speak to your references, he / she will directly ask you for their contact details. This will also give you time to intimate your references beforehand about them receiving a reference check call for you. With that said, there is absolutely no need to add the line ‘References available upon request’ at the end of the CV.

We all have funny and immature sounding email addresses. That’s because we made them when we were quiet young and didn’t had to share it with someone for professional purposes. But all that has changed now. You are a mature person and so should be your email address. Use a professional email address at least, when you are applying for jobs with potential employers.

Never use words like ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ or ‘he/she’. If it is your resume, it is evident that everything written on it is about you. Use bullet points to explain about your work, skills and responsibilities held.

Mentioning your salary in the CV does the most damage to your possibilities of landing that dream job as it gives out a very negative impression about you. Salary can be discussed during an interview or when you have been offered a job. Don’t add it in your CV. Share it with the hiring manager only when he/she asks for it.

As job seekers, you want to add a lot of stuff to your CV but as discussed earlier also, it is better to stick to only the relevant information. Hope this piece helps you in getting a step closer to your dream job. All the best for your job search!