CV Writing. 4 Things You Should Remove From Your CV Right Now

CV Writing Tips. By Dorcas Karuana,

It only takes and employer or a recruiter about 30 seconds to scan through your CV before deciding whether it is worth keeping aside or taking a longer and closer look at. Apart from the design and layout (degree to which your CV is arranged and pleasing to the eye) the most important thing that attracts the glancing employer to take a closer look at your CV is the content.

During that 30 seconds you don’t want the employer seeing things that will mostly kill off your chances of getting a deeper look-in and possible consideration. You don’t want irrelevant messages and content in your CV because the more irrelevant information you leave there the more unlikely it is that your CV will hold the attention of the employer.

Ideally your goal should be the employer/recruiter to be held by your CV and make him shortlist your application for possible future interviews. To make your CV achieve its mission here are things you should set about removing from your CV now.

1. Photos – Attaching a photo on your CV has no great importance unless you are applying for a job where physical attractiveness is of high importance or applying for a modelling gig or where the employer has asked you attach a photo on the CV.

It profits you nothing and depending on whom you sent your CV to might even cost you a chance to be considered. What you want is for the employer to see your work accomplishments and compelling information on why you are a good fit for the job not for him to admire your looks on your CV!

2. Unnecessary Personal Information- People include all sort of unnecessary information such as: religious affiliation (who cares what you worship), languages spoken including mother tongue, nationality even when its not an international job, and even personal passions that have no bearing whatsoever to your professional/career goals or even to the job you are pursuing. Revealing too much personal information will open the doors of discrimination against you even as many of the information do not have any relation to your ability on the job.

The key is to think through each information before including it. Does it make any improvement for your case? Will including that personal information (possibly about your religion, political affiliation etc) open up discriminatory doors against you?

3. Reasons for Leaving Your Former Job – If you have worked before there are chances that you may have left your one or two former jobs in a way you’d prefer not to have happened.

You are under no obligation to reveal why you left a previous job. If it comes up in an interview, address the question honestly. But you certainly don’t have to volunteer this information up front. You should never include ‘reasons for leaving your former job’ on your CV. You only tackle the issue when asked during interviews.

4. Irrelevant Work Experiences – Many CVs have a lot of irrelevant work experience. Instead of trying to impress the employer by including all and any non-relevant experience you have had at working on anything carefully try to project the work experience you have that are relevant to what the employer needs.

You should include your most current three work experiences while the other appears in significance work experience.

Your CV should showcase the relevant experience you have garnered in the past that will prove useful and relevant for the job.