What Should I Keep Off My CV Application?

When it comes to putting our CV together there are just a few things that you just don’t need in it. Though this is never pointed out to people when they are submitting them, so we’ve taken the time to put together the main things that you can keep out of your resume that is going to help you get more attention from the potential employers reading it.

People think that putting more in is giving employers more reasons to hire you, but it is doing quite the opposite. By longing out the document you are only going to bore them, and they may never even get to the end of your CV. There is such a thing as too much information and when someone has 20-30 of these to read per day, you want to ensure that they are getting just the right information, in the context and quick enough to make a good impression and put you into the ‘let’s call them and find out more’ pile.

So here are our top three things that we think do not need to be in your resume:

Starting all sentences with ‘I’

A common theme and most people may be thinking ‘but how do I speak about myself if I do not use I in the sentences?’ Well, instead you can start your sentences with an action like “created” or maybe even a skill, even an accomplishment. Something that can lead into your topic of discussion without using the word I. Use words like “Reduced” “Engaged” “Analysed” to grip the reader instead of using nouns or pronouns. Remember we are showing the hiring player why you are right for the role, not just speaking about ourselves for the entire time.

Personal Information

We don't need to be adding things such as height, weight, age, sex, political affiliation or where we were born. These are all details that the person reading the resume is not going to care about, again, like above, we need to make sure we are keeping to the job role and not just making it sound like some cheesy dating application. Unless they are required in your job role then we suggest you just keep it off the CV in general, so you are not wasting the other person’s time.

Super long paragraphs without bullets

They may not want to admit it all the time but if someone has been sitting at a desk all day, looking at countless amounts of CVs and wants to go home, they are more likely to skim over a CV and not pay attention to it. Essentially, they will be looking for something to stand out to them, so if you are using long paragraphs, then this goal is not going to be achieved and you may lose your chance of getting an interview.

Now, the main takeaway from this is to keep in the back of your mind that hiring people need to be captured, their attention may only last for 30 seconds, so you want your CV to be concise and on-point to the objective to help increase your chances of success.

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