You’ve spent a lot of time pouring over your CV, ensuring all the relevant content is present and correct, and that the layout is eye catching, you’re happy with the result and it’s time to start sending out applications! Not so fast, before making the leap, double check that you haven’t made any of these mistakes that, although small, could negatively impact your chances of getting called in for an interview.
Using an inappropriate email address
You may not think that your email address matters, after all it’s just a mode of transportation for your application to reach companies. This may not be the case however, as an inappropriate email address could put you out of the running for the job.
You have to ensure that your email address is appropriate for professional use, which generally implies something that looks like the following; firstnamesurname@email.com. You may find that someone with the same name has beaten you to the punch for this address, but not to worry, there are numerous variations you can use such as the inclusions of dashes, underscores, or numbers, that will still be deemed professional by recruiters. When it comes down to your email address, just be sensible, and avoid using the handle you registered when you were 15 because punkr0cker98@email.com or h0tch1ck101@email.com, cool though they are, aren’t appropriate for a professional setting.
Including your address on your CV
There are many CV templates and career advice articles out there that will suggest appending your full address to your CV. Although this practice was standard years ago, nowadays it is a dated idea, and may even cost you the job.
Whether consciously or not, some recruiters might be biased against you in regards to your location. This is predominant in the case where you are applying for a position in another town or city, even though you may have included ‘Looking to relocate’ on your CV, some recruiters are more likely to entertain candidates that live closer to the location of the company’s offices. In the past your address may have been an important source of information for companies to contact you, but in today’s internet focused society, your email is the only address you need to worry about.
Failing to make your CV ATS friendly
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are now widely used in the hiring process, especially by larger companies, to filter out applicants that don’t meet the requirements for each specific role. The system crawls through your CV picking out keywords from your skills and experience to see if they match the job description, and if they don’t, your application may not even make it to a human recruiter for consideration.
If your CV doesn’t follow a standardised format; prior experience listed first by company name, date, title, and then description, for example, the ATS may struggle to read it, and as such, your CV may not make it through the process. Furthermore, the file format for your CV should be something standard that can be opened on any computer, a .doc or .pdf file for example, otherwise, once again, the ATS may fail to process it, and you will be out of the running before the race has even begun.
The job search and application process is complicated at the best of times, and you wouldn’t want to spend all that time crafting the perfect CV, only to be held back by minutia. Give your CV another once over before sending off applications to make sure you haven’t made any of the mistakes above, and then you should be ready to apply with confidence. Good Luck!
