My CV Keeps Getting Rejected- Help!
Why Does My CV Keep Getting Rejected? A question a lot of people ask but don’t get any answers to. Of course you could phone and ask why you didn’t get an interview but the chances of you getting any information from the company that is useful are slim to none.
Everyone likes to think of themselves as being unique and different. On a CV however, this can be disastrous. Different fonts, funky colours and paper are but some of the rookie errors that will get your CV rejected. Traditional standards of good quality white or beige paper, black ink and clean printing are all important. The stories you hear about people being taken on due to their non traditional approach are just that- stories
Having 20 seconds to impress with your CV, a strong personal profile or career objective is absolutely essential. Omitting this important information means that the reader has to work harder to find the information that they are looking for. You job is to make it easy for the reader. Your personal profile should show what you can do, in what sector, in what geographical area
Responsibilities are boring but achievements show what you can do for an organisation. Recruiters expect people to carry out their responsibilities anyway- achievements separate out the ordinary from the extra ordinary. Look through your career history and start to pull out the things that you did well- what did you achieve? How much did you add to the organisation and why? Show an employer this sort of information and they will want to talk with you
Email addresses are there for a simple purpose- for an employer to get in touch with you. Avoid at all costs stupid names and nicknames in your email. Get yourself a new email address if you need to and make sure that you check it regularly
Your hobbies are there to show how engaging you are as an individual, to add a little spice to your CV. Avoid inclusion of any hobbies or interests that could prejudice your application. Political party membership, membership of activist organisations and the like should be avoided. Enough spice to be interesting, sober enough to tell your grandmother perhaps brackets the accepted limits
Failure to read a job description thoroughly will get you rejected. The reason is that your cover letter should sell your experience and achievements to make sure that you tick all the boxes. If you want to, adapt your CV to the job in hand, perhaps a better way is to get a great cover letter written that gets you through the door. It makes all the difference in the world
People rely on spell checking all the time nowadays. This makes people a little lazy. Spell checkers won’t get a persons name spelled correctly. This is such a common mistake that I thought that people would have learned by now. Spell the recruiters name wrong and watch a stream of rejection letters come through your letterbox- if you get anything back at all!