Many skilled candidates miss out on career opportunities because of minor mistakes they have made when writing CVs.

Keep in mind, that:

• your CV provides the first impression for prospective employers
• there is only a 17% chance that your cover letter will be read

Knowing this, it is vital that, when writing yours, you get it right. If your resume contains several common mistakes, you will have less success in being shortlisted by recruiters for interviews.

Now that you are aware, let’s take a look at some of the most common errors and how to avoid them.

Pro tips:

• Your CV needs to be adjusted for each position you apply for
• You have to show recruiters that you are the perfect candidate therefore, they need to find relevant information in your resume
• Research info about the employer and the role you are applying for in order to target your CV and make it suitable for the company you are interested in
• You don’t need to go through all of your previous experiences, just pick the ones that are pertinent to the job offer. Emphasise your experiences relating directly to the industry of the company you are applying to:
  For example, for a marketing role in a pharmaceutical company you will highlight your marketing experiences in the pharmaceutical industry, instead of your experiences in the retail industry for instance. While for a role in an IT company, you will describe your professional experience as a marketing assistant in a company selling computers.

Pro tips:

• Ask at least 2 people to read your CV to make sure there aren’t any mistakes
• Do not mix tenses: if you have written about your experience with past tense, ensure that all your experiences are described with past tense
• If you write your CV in english (to apply outside USA), make sure to use british english and not american english
• If your CV is not written in your native language, ask a native speaker to correct it before sending it to any recruiter