What are common mistakes made while preparing Curriculum Vitae

Hi Safa,

This is a good question. There are a few areas I would suggest you consider:
1) Typos and grammar - Be sure to proofread your CV carefully, and have a friend or mentor read through it as well. When an applicant's resume has typos, this is a very negative factor, and often the reason that we don't continue with a candidate.
2) Clarity of formatting and layout - If you're applying for jobs that require visual skills (such as graphic design, or something artistic), the overall appearance of your CV is particularly important. However, I would suggest you consider this factor no matter what the job. You want the CV to be easy to read, so that people are more likely to spend time looking at it. Think about consistency of fonts, spacing, bolding text, etc.
3) Tailor your CV to each job - You'll want to make sure that the experience you highlight is relevant to the particular employer who reads the CV. Of course, list all of your experience (especially if you haven't had very many jobs), but be sure to note specific tasks or skills that relate to the specific job you're applying for.
4) Length - I would recommend you keep it to one page, unless you have a situation where you need to list a lot of additional information and it just won't fit (such as if you had published a lot of articles and needed to cite all of them).

If you're making a resume for the first time, I'd recommend you start with brainstorming all of your experience (including volunteer or school activities) and listing it in chronological order. Then you can work on formatting and writing about your jobs with "resume language." If you have a teacher or mentor who can help you with this step, or edit your draft, that might be a good idea.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Kate

When I review CVs there are a few things that stand out to me as negatives.

First, it should be well edited. Spelling mistakes, sloppy layout, confusing organization, etc are unexcusable. Why are they unexcusable? Because you have plenty of time to prepare your CV, and you should know it is important, so doing a sloppy job at that is a bad sign for future work. I'm much more forgiving for similar mistakes in email or more regular communications, because those are written in a short amount of time and there is less opportunity to carefully edit them.

Second, it should be written with the audience in mind. That is, don't assume the person reading it knows about your specific situation. Some examples are using acronyms or project names that are unique to your current company. The reader from another company won't understand them. Also, if you're applying for a job at a distant location, they may not even know of the company where you previously worked, so a short description of that company can be helpful. E.g., "Project manager at XYZ (a local software contract company)". Also, don't say that you have experience when you don't. Or, if you have limited experience, make that clear. You don't want to be in the situation that you get to an interview and they ask you detailed questions about something you wrote on your CV and you can't answer them.

Finally, there is a lot of guidance about how long to make the CV, but that guidance is not consistent. One thing that does seem true is that most people who review CVs do it very quickly, often spending less than 30 seconds reading it. Given that, keep the most important parts at the top, so at least they see those. If you feel it is important to add more details, consider a structure that allows you to do that lower in the document. Also, if you have the opportunity to speak with the person who reviews your CV, ask them for feedback. Most interviews, even if they're just initial phone interviews, give you a chance to ask questions. Make one of those questions, "What did you think of my CV and do you have any advice to improve it?"

I would say making a long CV. It's best to have 1 to 1/2 pages. Spelling mistakes are a no-no and outdated information.

1) A very dry CV:

An employer friendly and attractive CV is required and very significant. The framework of the resume should be kept very simple and must include sub-headings and should have a good flow. A grammatical error or a silly typo will reduce the value of your CV and will throw it in the bin and therefore proofread your resume several times to find mistakes.

2) Create your CV with respect to the position

There is no global format for CV rather it should vary with respect to each position, exhibit your experience with respect to the job you are applying for.

3) Do not depend on the online CV templates

Most of the candidates use the online CV templates and you will not be different from the crowd apart from that most of the online CV templates have complex or layouts which are difficult to read and are outdated. Thus you may lose the chance of getting hired.

4) Not targeting your achievements

In this tough competitive world you need to list a lot more than duties and responsibilities with respect to your previous experience like your previous achievements and you need to use the terminology with respect to the job description and must attract the future employer.

5) Your CV is too long

Nobody follows one page CV now a days and people are extending it two or three. Long pages are not acceptable but yes it is good to project all the experiences. So only two pages are sufficient Thus the career advice for engineering jobs has come to an end.