When writing you’re CV I strongly advice you check thoroughly that their are no grammar or spelling mistakes before senign it anywhere! (Yikes)
Who would take the time to write their CV and not make sure that it is 100% perfect in every aspect? You would be surprised…
But we all now have the luxury of CV templates, spell and grammar checkers on our computers so there are absolutely no excuses! For a long time, Word has helped with spelling and grammar, yet we still receive CV’s that are littered with red ‘squiggly’ lines suggesting the candidate has simply ignored them! You also have colleagues, friends or family that might have time to read over it for you.
It is true, not an urban myth, that if an employer spots a blatant spelling or grammatical mistake in your personal profile or job history, they are likely to discard your CV immediately. Particularly those vacancies requiring ‘High attention to detail’ or if you’re applying to become a copywriter. (Yikes)
Take your time.
Employment history is so important, and its best practice to put your current role at the top of your CV and work backwards. Occasionally we come across applications that are three pages long and the most recent and therefore relevant stuff is right at the bottom! Pointless.
When I moved back from Spain seeking a totally new life in London, I spent a whole week composing and perfecting my CV. I did an initial draft, left it, went back to it, re-drafted it and so on. Why? Because those two pages were my gateway to my future. I was about to send these precious pages to recruiters who were experts in my field, and they knew nothing about me; all they had were two pages of written words that I constructed.
Those two pages needed to catch their attention, to demonstrate my capabilities, my experience and ultimately needed to persuade them to pick up the phone and call me to get to know more and to discuss my future employment options.
For me, after taking the time to achieve perfection, the result was lining up 6 job interviews in London which resulted in 5 job offers and the rest is history. I know, unequivocally, that the week I spent fine tuning my CV was without doubt instrumental in what followed afterwards. Never has a week been better spent.
You know your skill set, your experience, your personal qualities and attributes. No doubt in person you will be able to demonstrate and prove how good you are. However, if your CV is rushed, has errors or is poorly constructed it may well end up on the discarded pile and your lifeline to these jobs will be missed before you get that far. You miss out, potential employers miss out on you and all you have to give. Don’t let that happen, don’t end up on the discarded pile.
