We all have
something where we have zero tolerance.
For me, it’s poor spelling Poor
punctuation gets me down too but it’s a while since I read Eats, Shoots and
Leaves so I’m not going to go on about that.
It’s
spelling, particularly with relation to CVs.
Ultimately, it’s unacceptable to have any spelling mistakes on a
CV. Ever. Interestingly it’s often the
more senior candidates who will email over a CV riddled with typos.
Consider
this from the employer’s perspective.
They’re assessing five different CVs.
Candidates all qualified for the role.
If there are typos in the mix, that’s instantly going to make them judge
you, and not in a positive way either.
The biggest
problem is when a candidate says they are going to ‘just quickly update’ their
CV. I’ll guarantee that I’ll get
something sub standard. I appreciate
that we’re all busy BUT your CV is hugely important and any sloppiness will
count against you. It’s always the
obvious typos too, I frequently get asked if I’ve got any rolls. No kidding.
Other specials include a BDM who was consistently ‘tanked as top
biller’, an AM who had a career break to ‘renovate her horse’, a Creative who
was responsible for ‘ruining a number of client advertising campaigns’ and an
AD who spelled Curriculum Vitae wrongly (In large bold capitals!). Fortunately I do check CVs before I send them
onto clients….
So anyway,
this isn’t a big preachy missive. Just a
note to say check, check and check again.
Get a fresh pair of eyes to look things over. If you’re using a covering letter, don’t
forget to check that too. Anything that
we do at speed generally suffers in terms of quality so be aware of it. Use spell checker too. Most clients prefer not to see US spellings
so try and stick to the UK
standard.
If updating
a CV quickly. Do please check
dates…..often I’ll receive CVs that say 1999-Present, 2005 – Present etc. And the role responsibilities will all be in
the present tense. Even for the jobs they were doing 10 years ago!
In summary,
if you’re updating your CV. It’s worth
doing it properly. Please ensure that
the dates, the tenses, the spelling and the punctuation are all spot on. A sloppy CV implies that you’re generally
careless with poor attention to detail. Not really the first impression that
you want to make to a potential employer!