Training Bulletin Issue 28

“We stole a pig, but it was a really small pig,” and other things you shouldn’t put in your CV

“My sister once won a strawberry-eating contest.”
“I work well in the nude.”
“Organised the office lottery entry for five years.”
“Was sent on an anger management course.”

Other bad ideas include printing your CV on blue paper with teddy bears round the edge, pink paper with a Hello Kitty watermark or indeed, almost anything except plain white or buff paper.

How bad can CVs really be?

A recent survey by fish4jobs reported that 73 per cent of employers were more irritated by badly written CVs than by applicants who arrived late, wore inappropriate clothes or swore during an interview.

And what constituted badly written CVs?

• 89% cited grammatical errors
• 67% hated bad spelling, especially of key words such as their company names
• 65% were annoyed by irrelevant information
• 63% mentioned inappropriate email addresses.

Simply by avoiding these problems, you will have an advantage over other job seekers.

• For a quick overview of some of the most common grammatical errors and how to avoid them, refer back to our previous newsletter
• Regarding spelling, too many people rely on the spell checker–it’s no good for words like their/they’re/there or manger/manager. All our course handbooks have a list at the back of many of the most frequently confused words and their meanings.
• What not to include?
  • Secondary school results if you’ve been to university
  • Negative opinions of current or former employers
  • A letter from your mum (no, we’re not kidding)
  • The intensity of your religious views
  • ‘References available on request’–this is assumed and just sounds old-fashioned.
• And what’s an inappropriate email address anyway? Well, how would you feel about hiring lazydaisy@anymail.com, minesapint@somethingmail.com or toughnut@whatevermail.com?
  You’re much better off using your name: FredBloggs@anymail.com. If necessary, create an email address just for your job search and if your name is already taken, use a variation such as FredBloggs123@anymail.com

Be specific about what you’ve done and include details

Include any statistics you can:
saved company money by reducing expenditure on widgets
reduced widget expenditure by 14% over eight months
Account Manager, Sept 05–present
Managed company's key accounts
Account Manager, Sept 05–present
Managing key accounts worth 3.7m

Relate your experience to the job you’re applying for

Read the advert carefully and tailor your CV using the terms, definitions and descriptions the employer uses. Remember that the first sorting of CVs may be done by somebody who is not familiar with the job. They may simply go through a pile of applications and select those that match key terms. If you refer to an essential skill or experience using different words, they may not know enough to realise you’re talking about the same thing.

Don’t lie, even by omission

At time of writing, a council is suing a former manager for over a million pounds. The manager had put on her CV that she was in good health, but then took a lot of time off work for a pre-existing condition and eventually retired on the grounds of ill-health, with a generous pension. The court case is on the grounds of ‘fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation’ in answers to questions about the manager’s medical history, and, if the council wins, may have far-reaching repercussions for other job applicants.

Although we hope neither you nor anyone you know will be needing to brush up your CV any time soon, it never hurts to be prepared. All the suggestions above, and more — including interview skills —, are included in our new, specialist course, Get That Job

Doing our bit

We know that times are hard at the moment so we'd like to do our bit by offering this course at a special price of £249 + VAT per delegate if you attend a public course.
Follow this link for the dates of our public courses.

We are also offering a special price if we run this course at your premises. Call us on 01235 60 30 22 for details.

Editor recommends

There are a lot of books on writing CVs, but the one we like is Killer CVs & Hidden Approaches by Graham Perkins

It is aimed at more senior job hunters and so goes into much detail about networking, but it includes a lot of very sensible advice on CV writing and avoiding gimmicks.

Public course schedule

Follow this link for the dates of our public courses.

How to book

To book, call Julia on 01235 60 30 22 ext 28, or use the booking form.

Kind Regards
The Plain Words Training Team