The no’s and no’s of a Well Crafted CV

I recently went through the CV of a top manager in a multinational firm and to say I was shocked is an understatement. I went through his CV with shock, dismay and surprise. You may ask, doesn’t a manager know how to write his own CV? Isn’t he learned and skilled enough to keep a few words in his CV in order? The answer to the above is NO.

I noted a few things which eventually I came to learn was a problem many job seekers tend to make and even those in the Human Resource profession continue to make even with warnings pasted in neon lights being sent to them.

1.   Marital Status: Most people give the number of kids and even names of these little angels. Frankly the HR needs to only know up to married and that is it. All other details of married with 10 kids and a list of first born and second born should be left to your uncles wedding or even NHIF or NSSF documents.

2.   Irrelevant experience: Are you a fresh graduate/professional or executive? This must be addressed to all those who place irrelevant experience in their CV’s. I have no problem with being an electoral clerk; my main problem is having it in your experience part and prominently placing it where all can see. We all know what electoral clerks do and it doesn’t fit into the professional world. Always put experience that is easily transferable into the working world.

3.   Passwords: I have had the unfortunate experience of trying to open locked CV’s. If you want a position in a certain company or if you are applying for a certain position and yet to put a password on your CV, how do you expect me as a HR to view it. I understand basic information security issues and that you do not want your CV tampered with but seriously, you want a job and yet you are making it difficult for me to open. This also applies to saving your document in unopenable formats. Send your CV through Word 97-2003 if you want it to be viewed. 

4.   Spelling mistakes: Human is to error but there is a limit. We all understand sometimes that English is not our language but when it comes to the CV, you must get a few basic spelling mistakes right. The most important thing is to make sure that you proofread your CV a few times before sending it. Ask friends or even family to read it through and possibly they could see a few grevious mistakes that you have made. This goes also for tenses as well, commas, and the right addresses especially when referring to women as ‘he’ or men as ‘her’.

5.   References: I have had quite a few problems with this part of the CV. Most people tend to think that no one will be looking at the referees. Any HR manager worth his/her salt will take an in depth look at the referees and I must say most don’t. I was amazed one day when a regional manager listed his junior as a referee. The problem with this is that, the junior will have two options

- To make you lose the job through saying something unflattering about you or
- Say everything nice about you which begs the question, what do they really know about you?

I always have a few rules about referees; never put a family member, a junior person in terms of position at the work place or someone too high above you in terms of position. Can you imagine working for a corporation as big as Coca Cola and putting the Managing Director as your referees and he probably doesn’t even know there was a member of staff with your name? How embarrassing is that.

We all make the above mistakes, even I with my experience I strive to make my CV better. It is a learning process. My question today is what other serious mistakes have you noted in CV’s that should be corrected?

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