12 things recruiters hate about CVs

After all the effort of creating your CV, will it pass the first five-second glance from a recruiter? These are some of the things that can really irritate someone who has a lot of CVs to go through.

  1. A strange, quirky or inappropriate email address, e.g. Sashafunchick83@yahoo.co.uk

  2. A very long CV

  3. Long paragraphs of dense text which makes it hard to read

  4. Failing to use keywords

  5. Listing every single job you’ve ever had since the age of 15

  6. Using strange fonts or mixed fonts making it hard to read

  7. Listing 'Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint' as core skills

  8. Cliches and buzzwords e.g. team player, dynamic go-getter

  9. Spelling errors

  10. Lists (and lists) of responsibilities

  11. Missing information - confusing the reader

  12. Unexplained gaps

Most of these are very easy to remedy. When you’ve finished writing your CV, imagine you are picking it up for the first time. What jumps out at you? Is that as you intended? What changes do you need to make to pass the five-second glance?