10 Common Things That Can Send Your CV Into The Trash Can

Forum 7 years ago

10 Common Things That Can Send Your CV Into The Trash Can

Your curriculum vitae and cover letter may be the perfect fit for a job in any organization in the world but a hiring manager may never find that out if he trashes your Curriculum Vitae after a mere glance. Below are few things you should take care of in writing a good Curriculum Vitae/Resume.

1. Objective statement: There was a time it was considered necessary to begin your resume with an objective statement, but those days are gone. You want a job – that’s the objective that matters.

2. Bad Format Of Resume: Looks matter. When choosing resume fonts, opt ones that are widely used and readable, such as Calibri or Arial, and use no more than two fonts with their associated bold and italic styles.

3. Your Resume is Immature: Segregate a professional CV from other mere childish resumes. Hiring managers are likely to trashed resumes with pictures on them, for example, of cartoon character Bart Simpson (except you are applying for a technical writing or related jobs). Professional CV should should be neat, concise and accurate.

4. Your Resume Is Too 'Templated: A resume with much template shows recruiters that you have only put less into the thought of your resume and reduce your limit of competition. This most of the time, automatically put you in the thrash category.

To prevent your resume from ending up in the trash for this reason, customize your resume for each job you apply for using the language of the job and highlighting your most relevant experience.

5. Don't Cut Corners In Your Resume: It is advisable for you to be straightforward on your resume, and use your cover letter (If applicable) to tell the story of your career's progress, including information about how you maximized your time away from the 9-to-5 routine. Short, accurate and precise Curriculum vitae does the magic for you at times.

6. References: If the objective statement is the outdated way to begin your resume, then the statement “References available upon request” is the ending counterpart. These days, it’s assumed that you will provide references if needed.

7. Negativity: Your resume should be about what skills and qualifications you can bring to the position that you are applying for. The impact that you want your resume to have is a positive one, so it makes sense that you should leave out any negative comments about the following:


Your inabilities


Your weaknesses


Previous employers


Former co-workers


Past supervisors


Policies at other companies

Along the same lines, your resume is not the place to disclose negative information about your credit or criminal background. Certainly you need to be honest about those things, but wait until you are specifically asked during your interview.

8. Irrelevant History: You might feel as though every educational or professional experience you have had in your life has shaped you into the perfectly qualified candidate that you are today. You should only include relevant positions on your job history. Here are a few pieces of information that most recruiters feel are irrelevant:

Where you attended junior high


High school education (unless that is your only education)


Short term positions


Experience with no transferrable skills to the position you’re applying for
9. Lies: This is pretty simple: don’t fake your credentials. When it comes to your education and work history, be honest. Most of the time, lies can be discovered with a simple phone call, and recruiters and Human Resource department personnel check your facts more often than you might think. Besides, obtaining a position that you are not qualified to handle is setting yourself up for failure. So, honesty is the best policy.

10. Spelling Errors: Spelling errors and grammatical blunders are trash triggers and these simple mistakes have top many recruiters’ lists of resume pet peeves in Nigeria.