10 Things Candidates Need to Remove From Their CV's

Receiving a CV laden with unnecessarily long words, career history including a two month stint of work at a local bakery, or links to their Twitter page, displaying their political stance is enough to warrant a game of paper toss.

According to research by CV-library, who surveyed 900 recruitment professionals – school grades, photos, and hobbies should also be omitted from CVs.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) still rate basic skills such as Microsoft Office on CVs; however, they advised candidates against listing irrelevant ‘soft skills’ including leadership and creativity.

98% of those surveyed believe that traditional CVs are still relevant in today’s recruitment process.

The top ten things candidates should remove from their CVs can be seen below:

1. Photos – 25.8%
2. Jargon – 18.6%
3. Hobbies – 10.8%
4. Outdated employment history – 9.9%
5. Unnecessarily big words – 7%
6. School grades – 5.3%
7. Personal interests – 4.3%
8. Acronyms – 3.1%
9. Objectives and aims – 2.7%
10. Social media links – 2.5%

Lee Biggins, Founder of CV-Library, comments: “While some employers now place more importance on broader experience and niche skills, it’s important that job hunters really shout about their soft skills, and highlight transferable qualities that they can apply to the role in question.

"Only the best CVs make the cut, so it’s important that they contain only the most relevant, enticing information for employers.”

Of the soft skills listed on CVs, communication (78%), attention to detail (57%), self-motivation (55%), and a strong work ethic (53%) were rated most highly.

The least favored soft skills to include were public speaking, creativity, leadership, conflict resolution, and research skills.

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Credit: Recruitment Grapevine