Are you in the middle of updating your CV but struggling to fit everything on 1-2 pages? Having a lengthy CV often results in hiring managers / recruiters missing your essential skills / experience so don’t jeopardise your chances of getting that dream job and Remove these 10 things from your CV today!
- Secondary Skills
You need to use your CV to emphasise your key skills / main career focus. By putting secondary skills / skills from a role you want to move away from you can end up pigeon-holing yourself for job roles that no longer interest you as well as wasting valuable page space!
- Part-time jobs
Obviously include these if you have only recently left high school, but if you are applying for senior roles you hardly need to mention the time you were a Saturday assistant in Topshop!
- Unprofessional emails
If your email doesn’t scream ‘professional employee’ then now is the time to change it! Believe me an application from [email protected] hardly gives the recruiter a good first impression, no matter how much you loved them on X Factor!
- Spelling / Grammar mistakes
Unless you want your CV to be rammed into the junk folder do yourself a favour and check your spelling!
- Hobbies
I know you have a black-belt in karate and enjoy cooking at home, but unless you’re applying for a role as a Chef / Martial Arts teacher then there’s really no reason to mention it on your CV! DELETE!
- Boring layouts
Use a concise and eye catching layout to help your CV stand out from the crowd. Get creative with fonts and even inject some colour into your subheadings so the recruiter can scan across the CV quickly!
- Personal Information
You don’t need to include things like your date of birth, religious beliefs or ethnicity on your CV so save some important space by removing these!
- Photos
It’s not Britain’s Next Top Model guys, leave the photo’s off.
- References
If the company needs references they will ask you for them, so don’t worry about including them on the bottom of your CV!
- Paragraphs
Don’t be too ‘wordy’. Break your responsibilities / experience for job roles down into concise bullet points. This saves space and increases the chance of someone actually reading your CV properly!
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)
