15 Simple but Most Common Reasons Why a Potential Employer Will Not Read Your CV

For potential recruiters and employers engaged in a recruiting drive the influx of CVs that hit their hiring desks is almost impossible to believe, especially in this climate.

How then do you ensure that you stand out from the competitors and that your CV which is the first thing they see is given the attention it rightly deserves? By knowing exactly why CVs don’t get read in the first place and by avoiding these common pit-falls is the simple answer.

These are many of the most common criticisms levelled at CVs:

Too long

1. Lack of focus – not targeted
2. Too much solid wordy text
3. Poor layout – ineffective use of space
4. Lack of power words
5. Too much waffling or over-hyping
6. Boring and very average
7. Too many different typefaces
8. Inadequate information supplied
9. Unexplained gaps
10. Poor quality
11. Tired, looks like one for all
12. Spelling mistakes
13. Printed on cheap or coloured paper
14. Ambiguity

We could go on and on but we think you already get the picture. Without a doubt the first one is the most common. It is not uncommon for people to send in a CV that is 4 pages in length, and worse each page is merely repetitious of the previous one.

Remember the primary intentions of CV writing are to create an immediate impact and impart concise but valuable information that promotes you, your skills and attributes as a serious and capable candidate.

Before you even grab a pen to put your thoughts on paper, take all the fifteen reasons above into account so that you know the simple things that you must not do early in the process of writing it. Remember, always get other people, especially a professional mentor, colleague, job agency employee, any HR personnel etc. to take a second look for you and be prepared for their feedback.

Want to know how to make a good impression on your CV?

Then, read some of these articles:

CV
View Free Sample CVs
Free Job Based CV Templates
10 CV Clangers
Countdown: 20 Reasons Why Your CV Will Annoy Potential Recruiters
12 Tips for Writing a Winning CV
Free Classic Combination CV
3 Types of CVs, their Advantages and Disadvantages
Free Job Based CV Templates
Templates for Skills Based CV
CV: The Basics
More CV Keywords to Get You Noticed
5 Power Words to make Your CV Get Noticed
Top 3 CV Formats: Which one is right for you?
Honesty is the best policy on CVs
How to write a resume