What not to put in your CV

There are literally hundreds of thousands of sites out there that will tell you what you need to put in your CV. If you choose to ignore your common sense that is. What not to put however is an altogether different matter.

1. Falsehood
Avoid needlessly embellishing your CV. State the facts, preferably verifiable facts. Be especially careful with dates, targets and remuneration figures.

2. Spelling and grammatical errors
Nothing irks anyone (leave alone recruiters) more than poorly formatted CV's with loads of spelling and grammatical errors. Don't depend on spell check alone. Use your common sense. (There's a whole load of difference between a 'Public Relations Professional' and a 'Pubic Relations Professional'. Believe me, although the spell check function won't highlight any errors, you would much rather be the former!)

3. Key phrases from the job description
Use key words and phrases from the job description i your covering letter. Restrict their usage in your CV. Your CV needs to highlight your experience, relevant to the job description. An almost exact sounding description of your previous job is not only suspicious, it also smacks of laziness on your part.

4. Useless references
Don't provide references for references sake. If they are not relevant to the job, avoid them altogether. If you must and you haven't touched base with them in a while, at least have the decency to call them and ask for their permission.

5. Too much educational information
It is advisable to start with your latest qualification. However, draw the line at presenting your junior college, secondary school and primary school information. Any moron knows that you could not have possibly acquired an advanced degree without going through the whole process. You should too.

6. Too much personal information
Avoid replacing lack of experience with too much personal information. Your objective is to get the job. Your keen interest in Star Wars trivia or your enviable collection of Hello Kitty (or worse Happy Meal) toys are not deal clinchers. Believe me, once you get the job, your colleagues will soon discover enough compelling reasons to hate you!

Here is a link to a website that has (in their own words) '...put together what could just be the most awful CV you've ever seen.' Fortunately, they have included a link on how to get things right as well!