Careless CVs mean jobseekers miss out

UK jobseekers are missing out on their dream job because of easily avoided CV blunders. Research has shown that badly presented and written CVs are more of a turn-off to almost three quarters (73%) of employers than a candidate showing up late, wearing inappropriate clothes or swearing in an interview.

This is according to a poll of employers conducted by fish4jobs (www.fish4jobs.co.uk), the UKís leading recruitment website, and based on an analysis of thousands of CVs in the fish4 archive.

The most irritating mistakes for employers were in many cases the most easily avoided. These include misspelling key details such as the employerís (and even the candidateís) name or job title (reported by 67% of recruiters), grammatical errors (89%) and including irrelevant information (65%). An additional 63% reported seeing inappropriate personal email addresses ñ for example, bigboy@xxxx.com and hotstuff@xxx.com.

Just one misplaced letter can make a huge difference to a candidateís career prospects. fish4jobs has identified some of the most common errors that CVs are likely to contain:

ï Candidates claiming to have ìworked in a busty officeî
ï People looking for ìa job as a mangerî
ï Jobseekers after a position in ìpubic relationsî
Candidates are also likely to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to qualifications and skills ñ
ï Candidates often claim to be ìa good leederî
ï Many have been trained in ìfist aidî rather than first aid.

And it seems they still needed to practice their spelling skills even though:

ï Candidates ìattended collageî
ï Or went to ìa very good skoolî

To help save more CVs from being binned because of silly slip-ups, fish4jobs has compiled a helpful guide highlighting the top five tips to avoid the potential pitfalls for the UKís jobseekers. Further CV writing tips can be found at www.fish4tips.co.uk

1. Typos ñ print the document out and proof-read it slowly ñ and remember: running a spell check wonít pick up mistakes such as ìI worked as a mangerî. Reading it out loud also helps

2. Inappropriate email addresses ñ what may have seemed a funny or inventive email address when you thought it up will probably look unprofessional to a prospective employer. Donít fall into the same trap ñ go to Hotmail or GoogleMail and set up a new, free email account

3. Inappropriate interests or descriptions ñ no employer is interested in knowing that your friends describe you as ëgobbyí or that your interests include ìgoing to the pubî and ìgossipingî ñ if in doubt about its relevance ñ leave it out!

4. Hard to read ñ garish colours, messy layout, too long ñ will go straight in the bin. If you want your CV to stand out, keep it brief, stick to facts and put the qualifications and experience that youíre proud of nearest the top

5. Donít fall at the last hurdle! - Itís easy to miss mistakes when youíve read something several times ñ get a friend to look at it carefully with a fresh pair of eyes, and ask them to tell you honestly if they think itís too wordy, confusing or if they spot any errors.

fish4jobs.co.uk also includes a CV checker service that can help applicants fine-tune their job applications.

Joe Slavin, chief executive, at fish4jobs comments, ìEvery recruiter I speak to has anecdotes about the embarrassing mistakes that people donít spot in their CVs. Although many of these mistakes seem quite obvious with hindsight, they are very easy to make. Just one error can mean the difference between being invited to an interview and losing several opportunities. Candidates can find a host of useful tips ñ including CV writing and interview techniques ñ on the fish4jobs website.î