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8 CV mistakes that will kill your job applications | Fix them now — Transcript

by StandOut CV · 2,944 words · 409 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00in this video I'm going to show you
0:01eight common cv mistakes that you might
0:03be making that are causing your cv to
0:04get overlooked by recruiters meaning
0:06that you're missing out on jobs that you
0:07really should be getting and also going
0:09to show you how you can fix these
0:10mistakes so that you can improve your CV
0:12start to get more responses from your
0:14job applications which will mean more
0:15job interviews and better job offers so
0:24as you may well know your CV is a really
0:26really important document when it comes
0:27to job searching it is the first
0:29impression that you will be making on
0:30recruiters and employers and it's often
0:32what will stand in the way of you
0:33getting an interview or not so if
0:35there's mistakes in your CV that I'm
0:36making you look unprofessional or
0:38unsuitable for the roles you're applying
0:40for then you know that's going to
0:42greatly reduce your chances of getting
0:43callbacks interviews and obviously job
0:45offers so it's really important to stamp
0:47those mistakes out so what I want to do
0:49in this video is one through eight of
0:50the most common cv mistakes that I see
0:52candidates making and just show you how
0:54you can fix them it'll just improve your
0:55CV and start getting a better response
0:57in the job market and of course if you
0:58are new to the channel and you're
0:59currently searching for a job or looking
1:01for ways to increase your earnings and
1:02don't forget to subscribe to the channel
1:03because I make lots of videos to help
1:05with both of those topics and of course
1:07don't forget to hit the like button on
1:08this video so that you can store it if
1:09you need to come back and watch you
1:10later
1:10so the first CV mistake on this list is
1:13probably the most damaging one and he
1:15actually happens well before you start
1:16writing your CV and that is failing to
1:18do your research and what I mean by
1:20failings do your research is that you do
1:22not research your target jobs before you
1:24start writing your CV now if you write
1:27your CV without doing that then you have
1:29no way of knowing what your target
1:31employers are looking for in a candidate
1:32so you've got no basis for what to put
1:34into the CV so what I would suggest is
1:36before you even type one word on the CV
1:38you head out to the big job sites and
1:40you run a search for the types of jobs
1:41that you're looking for you scroll
1:43through them and you build up a good
1:44picture of the type of Canada they're
1:45looking for for those jobs so if you
1:47take the time to do that research and
1:48find out what skill was what knowledge
1:50what experienced what qualifications
1:52your target employers are looking for in
1:54the jobs that you're going for then
1:56you're going to have a much better
1:57understanding of what you need to put in
1:58your own CV and when you're writing the
2:00CV you just try and reflect those skills
2:02and experiences as much as you can to
2:04closely match the job adverts and that
2:06way you'll find you'll get a lot more
2:07responses because your CV will look a
2:08lot more suitable than if you just
2:10written the CV without bothering to do
2:12that research number two on the list
2:13is poor readability and what I mean by
2:15that is that the CV is difficult for
2:17recruiters and hiring managers to read
2:19so you have to remember that when you're
2:21applying for jobs you're one of many
2:22possibly hundreds of people that are
2:24applying for the same role and that
2:25recruiter or that hiring manager their
2:27inbox is going to be full with other
2:29candidates applications so they don't
2:31often have the time to read the CVS and
2:33for generally what they'll tend to do is
2:34have a quick skim for each one and then
2:36build a shortlist which they'll then go
2:37back to later so to make sure that you
2:39get past that initial skim read you need
2:41to make sure that the CV is very easy to
2:43read so a lot of mistakes that I see
2:45people make are not structuring the page
2:47properly not having the correct sections
2:49not breaking the text start using big
2:52chunky paragraphs and all of those
2:53things just make it very hard for
2:55anybody to scan through the CV and pick
2:58out the information they're looking for
2:59so if you're looking at your CV right
3:00now and you're thinking it might be a
3:01little bit difficult for people to read
3:03there are a few things you can do to fix
3:04it so firstly I would say to divide the
3:07page up into very clear sections and use
3:09bold headings and borders even to break
3:11the page up so that recruiters and
3:12hiring managers can navigate it easily
3:14and find the sections they want and
3:16secondly need to break up the text
3:18within that as well so you need to use
3:19short sharp sentences very short
3:21paragraphs and make good use of bullet
3:23points bullet points make it very very
3:25easy for recruiters to skim through and
3:26pick out the things they need and if you
3:28do one of those things you'll find the
3:29recruiters and hiring managers will find
3:31it much easier to read your CV so
3:33they'll be able to spot your suitability
3:34a lot easier you'll make it into more
3:36short lists and you'll get more calls
3:37for interviews and if you need any more
3:39help with the structuring and laying out
3:40your CV then what I've done is I've put
3:42a link in the description below to a
3:44page on the standard CV website which
3:46has some examples CVS where you can see
3:47how a good CV is is laid out in
3:49structured number three on the list is
3:51having a ridiculous email at the top of
3:53the CV so if you have an email address
3:56that might have been cool when you were
3:57back in school that you're still using
3:58now on your CV something silly like bad
4:01boys forever 2005 at gmail.com and that
4:04may have been very cool when you were
4:05younger but your CV is a professional
4:07document that is gonna be seen by
4:08company directors recruiters hiring
4:10managers so it's really important that
4:12you look as professional as possible and
4:14if you've got a synonym or a dressing at
4:15the very top of the CV one of the first
4:17things that people see it may cause
4:19people to start doubting your
4:20credibility and just make you look
4:22be unprofessional if you do have an
4:23email address that looks a bit
4:24unprofessional what I would suggest is
4:25simply setting up a new account solely
4:27for your job search and just using
4:29something like your first name and
4:30surname or close variation of that
4:33that's really all you need to do and
4:35also be a nice way to split up your
4:36normal emails from your job search
4:38emails number four of the list is not
4:40proving your impact now what I mean by
4:42that is when people normally write their
4:43CV they have a tendency just to list out
4:45the things that they've done in their
4:46role so for example if you're a sales
4:48person you might write attending
4:50meetings cold calling making
4:52presentations to clients and other
4:54things like that but what's missing from
4:56that is what was the impact on the
4:57business so when you're writing your
4:59responsibilities for your roles you
5:01always want to make sure that you try
5:02and time in with what the impacts were
5:04on the business so for example in that
5:06particular sales role that person may
5:07have made cold calls that may have gone
5:09on meetings but made presentations
5:11that's all very well and good but they
5:12should have added the results to say
5:14that they were generating leads or they
5:16were generating sales or revenue for the
5:17business and it's not just sales jobs
5:19that have achievements you know there
5:21could be a number of different things
5:22that you could achieve for your business
5:23it could be saving money saving time it
5:26could be bringing on new clients there
5:28are lots of different things so try and
5:29think about when you're writing your
5:31roles don't just write what you're doing
5:32try and tie those into what the impacts
5:35you made on the business were and
5:37another good tip is to try and use
5:39numbers where possible to quantify the
5:41impact you've made so for example if
5:42you're in a customer service role and
5:44one of the things you did was you
5:45resolve complaints to keep customers
5:47coming back then instead of just writing
5:49that you resolved a lot of complaints
5:51and you kept a lot of customers on board
5:52you could say something like you
5:54resolved 90% of all complaints within a
5:56two-hour time period and you retained 8%
5:59of customers now that's obviously just a
6:00hypothetical example anywhere where you
6:02can add numbers like that gives
6:04recruiters and hiring managers a real
6:06sense of the kind of impact that you
6:08could possibly bring to their
6:09organization mistake number five is
6:11using too many cliches within your CV
6:13and when I say cliches what I mean is
6:15things like I'm a hard-working team
6:17player or I go the extra mile or I'm a
6:19strong communicator now those things are
6:21all very well and good but they're
6:23generally applicable to most jobs
6:24whereas in your CV what you need to be
6:26doing is selling yourself as an expert
6:28or professional within your particular
6:29field
6:30really selling your hard skills so
6:32you're interested specific skills your
6:34software knowledge languages you know
6:37anything that actually relates to the
6:39jobs you're applying and if you fill up
6:40the CV with too many generic cliches it
6:43takes away all the space that you need
6:44to actually put in the important hard
6:46skills and also those cliches and
6:48generic soft skills are overused time
6:50and time again in CV so they tend to not
6:53go down too well with recruiters or
6:54hiring managers so it's best to leave
6:55them at the CV but what if you want to
6:57prove that you're a hard-working team
6:58player well what you need to do is you
7:00need to imply that rather than the state
7:02it so rather than just writing I'm a
7:04hard-working team player which people
7:05might not believe if you just write it
7:07what you need to do is when you're
7:09talking about your roles when you're
7:10writing your role descriptions you need
7:12to give examples of where you have been
7:14a hard-working team player so for
7:15example you might write that you work
7:17within a team of five and mention some
7:19of the goals that you work towards and
7:20achieve within that team that shows
7:22people that you're a hard-working team
7:23player but you haven't had to write it
7:24and you've also had the chance to show
7:26some industry specific skills that
7:28you've used within that role the mistake
7:30number six on the list is having a CV
7:32that is too long having too many pages
7:33now as I've mentioned previously
7:35recruiters and hiring managers tend to
7:37be very very busy people and when they
7:39are looking for candidates they will
7:40generally have hundreds of applications
7:42to deal with on top of working towards
7:44deadlines and lots of other stuff going
7:46on in their jobs so for that reason it
7:48means that when your CV is first of you
7:50by recruits or a hiring manager they
7:53don't have much time to look at it now I
7:54know that's a bit of frustrating but
7:55unfortunately that's just the way it is
7:57so you need to adapt for that situation
8:00and generally speaking if you've got a
8:02CV that's five pages long and you've got
8:03really important information tucked down
8:05on the bottom of page five the chances
8:07are when a recruiter does the first skim
8:08read of your CV they might miss the
8:10important information think you're not
8:12suitable and skip past you so in order
8:14to rectify this you need to adapt your
8:16CV for the attention spans in the modern
8:19recruitment world so generally speaking
8:20a CV of around about two pages is just
8:23about the sweet spot this means that
8:25you'll be able to put enough information
8:26in to actually persuade people that
8:28you're suitable for the job and it's in
8:29a format that can be quickly skim read
8:31so that when it recruiter first opens on
8:32your CV they can get an idea of your
8:34suitability within the first few seconds
8:36so my advice on CV length would be to
8:38keep the CV around about two pages or
8:39less if you don't have much experience
8:41then you can probably get away over one
8:43page CV but if
8:44an experienced candidate with to a free
8:46years experience and you probably need
8:47to max out those two pages but try not
8:49to spill onto the third page because
8:51once you start going onto page three
8:52four you're looking at pages that
8:54probably aren't going to get read and
8:55information is going to be missed
8:56mistake number seven is over
8:57complicating the design of the CV now a
9:00CV really only needs to be a very simple
9:02document but a lot of times I see people
9:04putting crazy design features skills
9:06graphs photographs of themselves and
9:08lots of a weird and wacky things in now
9:10generally speaking these things just
9:12overcrowd the page and make it difficult
9:14to read and they actually distract
9:15people from the content that you're
9:17trying to get across all your CV really
9:19needs to do is show people that you can
9:20do the job that they're advertising for
9:22so it just needs to be a plain document
9:25white background black text very simple
9:27font so it's easy to read and that's
9:29really what needs to be if you start
9:30trying to cram all of these have a weird
9:32and wonderful design features in and
9:33more often than not it's just gonna have
9:35a negative effect on your applications
9:36because if people can't see the content
9:38within the CV and you're wasting lots of
9:40space of all these crazy features and
9:42people might actually be missing the
9:43important things in your CV your skills
9:45your knowledge your qualifications your
9:46experience which means you're not going
9:48to get callbacks which ultimately means
9:49you're not going to get interviews and
9:50you're not going to get job offers and
9:51just a quick note on the photographs and
9:53skills graphs these things are
9:55definitely not needed in your CV because
9:57they won't have any impacts on most job
9:59applications so firstly a photograph is
10:01not necessary unless you are a model or
10:03an actor or something like that where
10:05your face is it's needed to be seen but
10:07generally speaking people don't really
10:08care too much about how you look they
10:10just want to know if you can do the job
10:11and skills graphs are generally a huge
10:13waste of space because they don't offer
10:14a real scale to people so for example if
10:17you put in a skills graph in your CV
10:18where you say that you're a four out of
10:20five and Microsoft Excel that really
10:23means nothing to the person reading it
10:24what you're better off doing is just
10:26writing for example how good you are
10:28Excel so that you consider yourself to
10:29be an expert do you have three years
10:31experience that way you give people a
10:33real picture of how good you are Excel
10:34rather than just using a school's graph
10:36that they won't understand and the final
10:38CV mistake on this list is failing to
10:40optimize the top of culture of your CV
10:42and what I mean by the top quarter of
10:44the CV is this part here it is the part
10:47of the CV that is first visible when a
10:49recruiter or Ohio manager first opens up
10:51the CV so as you can imagine this
10:54to be really impactful because often if
10:56a recruiter or a hiring manager doesn't
10:57see what they want and they first open
10:59up that CV they might just shut it
11:00straight down and move on to the next
11:02one in their inbox so what you need to
11:04do is really pack this section full of
11:06the most relevant skills and knowledge
11:08qualifications and experience that you
11:10have the closely match the jobs that
11:12you're applying for so if you cram this
11:13section full of the skills and
11:15experience that recruiters are looking
11:17for then it stands to reason that
11:18they're going to take notice they're
11:20probably going to read further and
11:21that's going to mean that you've got
11:22more chance of getting into short lists
11:24and getting callbacks and interviews so
11:25that brings me to the end of the video I
11:27hope you found it helpful and you're
11:29gonna go away with some ways that you
11:30can actually improve your own CV and
11:31start to get some better results in the
11:33job market if you have found the video
11:34helpful it'd be great if you could drop
11:35us a like below and if you need more
11:37advice on CV writing and job search
11:39we've got lots on the centre CV website
11:41and also on the YouTube channel I'll put
11:43some links in the description to some
11:45example CV CV writing guides and other
11:47resources that you might find helpful so
11:49thanks very much for watching and best
11:50of luck with your job search
11:52[Music]

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