Looking to improve your resume to land that dream job of yours? You’ve come to the right place! I’ll be taking you through the top 5 most common CV mistakes, which might be standing in the way of you getting interviews. Because your experience and having great skills won’t get you an interview, having an awesome CV does. Believe me, we know a good CV when we see one.
Moyyn is a reverse job platform for companies which have a lack of skilled professionals. We are working towards bridging the skill gaps in companies by providing highly skilled professionals faster and supporting them in all stages of recruitment. Our Talent Managers will perform active sourcing for open positions to get the perfect candidate, so trust me when I say we know a thing or two about a great CV.
So here are our top 5 most common CV mistakes. Feel free to use it as a checklist when going through your resume. If your CV passes the Awesome CV Test, great! If not, this article will help you fix it. Make sure you upload your CV to our platform afterwards, and we’ll match you to your dream job. And once you start getting interviews, make sure to check out our other blog post about acing your online interview.
Here are the top 5 most common CV mistakes you need to avoid:
1. The order of your CV
You need to put your most recent work experience on the top of your CV. This mistake is definitely one of the most common ones people tend to make, and also the most damaging. Trust me, we’ve seen it all. From putting your education first, to your freaking language skills. Don’t! Not only is your experience what’s most relevant to your application, but it’s also the very first (and sometimes the only) thing recruiters read. That’s right, they don’t read further than that. Just like making a good first impression only gives you about 3 seconds, your CV is no different. The first 1/3 of you CV is therefore the absolute most important part. The recruiter should not have to look for it, so show it off the best you can.
2. Bad formatting
Recruiters don’t have the time to really read resumes, they just skim through them. Which means that you need a good formatting. Having paragraphs and avoiding too dense text will make it easier when they look for keywords, titles, and other important facts. Use headers which are clear to the recruiter, and whenever possible avoid longer paragraphs. Instead, use bullet points or short statements, preferably only 1-2 lines. Between each line should be at least 0.5 spacing, making it easier to read through and nicer to look at. Even though you want your CV to stand out from the crowd, having 3 different fonts and asymmetrical bullet points is not making it look fancy. You will only end up making it hard to read, which is never a good thing.
3. Accomplishments vs. Responsibilities
When writing about your experience, make sure you don’t sell yourself short. In the end, it’s all about how you market yourself. So instead of writing about what duties or responsibilities you had, instead write about your achievements. When writing about previous jobs, add examples of how you completed the work, and also what results that made. For example, the number of employees you have trained, or how you exceeded your goal by 30%. Simply think about what your proudest moments in each role were, and write that. Back it up with figures or data, making sure it’s there to impress the reader. This will make your CV stand out, giving you a higher chance of being recognized as a valuable candidate.
4. Not adapting your CV to the position
For every position you apply for, I guarantee you that they are looking for something different. I understand that adapting your CV can be a lot of work, not to mention time consuming. But would you rather apply for 20 jobs with a general CV and get no interviews, or apply for 5 positions with a specific application and get 5 interviews? Because in the end, recruiters don’t need to know that you are a hard-working individual. They will determine that in the interview. Instead, they want to know if your past experience is going to contribute to the position. So the best thing you can do is look for keywords and required skills, and then adapt your CV to show your past experience in those areas.
5. Long resumes
As I already mentioned, you only have a few seconds to make a good first impression. Having a long resume is not going to help that. I know what you might think, having a long resume means you have a lot of experience. But in reality, it will only increase the chances of it getting skimmed. Because when it’s too long, all the important facts will be hidden, and recruiters has a harder time seeing if you’re a good fit for the job.
If you’re new to the workforce, one page is enough. The same goes if you’ve been in similar roles most of your career, or in one role for a very long time. If it’s more experience than that, 2 pages is ideal. If you happen to have 35 years of experience in numerous roles, sometimes it’s enough to list down the roles most important to the position you’re applying for. That, or the last 12-15 years is enough. Whatever you feel is the most relevant.
I hope these 5 common mistakes could help you to improve your resume, or simply check that it’s already as awesome as it can be. Looking for a job in Germany? Check out this blog post on how to write a CV for German companies. Moyyn is an AI based recruiting platform that will match companies to highly skilled professionals across the globe. Join our talent pool for free and let our AI find you the perfect job! Candidates apply once to the platform, submit their CV and get verified. No cover letter needed! Selected candidates will be shared with the partner companies and they contact the candidates for interviews directly.
If you need further help writing your resume, there are several services with templates offered online. https://www.lebenslauf.de/ and https://europa.eu/europass/en for example have templates for writing a CV or cover letter. And for more graphical jobs, https://www.format.com/website-templates offer website templates so that you can easily create your own portfolio.