Curriculum Vitae is your own way of communicating your abilities, experiences, qualifications and the likes, to an employer and securing a job you desire.
Writing your CV, of course, require conscious effort and knowledge to bring out the best you can into a job interview of choice. Therefore, it is important you take note and avoid mistakes that can mar this opportunity.
Employers have also identified some flaws that hinder the chances of job seekers from job opportunities because they do not know or are careless about them.
For the purpose of this writing, we would list and discuss these ten mistakes you (job seekers) must refrain from in order to scale through your job interview and get the appointment afterwards:

Irrelevant information:
No employer has the whole of time to check through your CV. They scan through your CV within a minute or less, so do not fill in needless information that would only jeopardize your chances. Data like religion, height, weight, etc, should be excluded.

Hiding significant information:
What else does your CV do if not to sell your personality vis-à-vis the job you aspire for and this should be communicated right away to your employer in your CV. You can use highlights or bullet points to emphasize your strong areas and important information.

Ambiguous expressions:
On no condition should you use words or phrases like ‘several’, ‘a few’, ‘many’ in your CV, which are not definite enough. They can only make your CV unclear and hence, become unacceptable to your interviewer. Especially when you are meant to state the years of work experience, mention exactly the number of years, designation or role, and nothing more. Perhaps, you made significant sales in your previous employment, state precisely the figure or amount for your interviewer to know that you are sure of your responses, and that you are not faking it up.

Wide or close gap between employment dates:
The onus lies on you to explain the reasons you were out of employment for such a long time maybe due to a professional course, travel, or any other necessities, etc. In case it is a close gap in date, which some employers frown at, you should let them know the reason too. You may offer that the close dates or short stay in an employment is occasioned by a job opportunity in your professional field or interest, necessitating the shift, other than one you are doing to while away time, etc.

Being economical with the truth:
Know that your CV is representative of your worth. However, do not include a qualification and work title that you know nothing about. Saying exactly what you are or have (qualities, previous salary, grade level, skills, etc) other than the opposite, presents you as an honest person and that could be just what the interviewer or employer needs to approve you as the best fit for the job.

Too lengthy expressions:
Describe yourself or ability in the shortest possible way because it will help you keep your employer interested in going through your CV, other than a wordy or lengthy material, which they may not be able to cope with. Adopting a short but precise CV help keep your material to a maximum of two pages, which is acceptable for the so busy employers who sometimes have a bulky applications to attend to.


Heavy graphics design
The most important are your experience, qualification and skills, which sells you better other than a CV with heavy graphics designs. Employers are interested in what you have got to offer other than mundane add-ons (though they may cite it in the course of interview). Let your CV be typed in a screen friendly fonts or faces like Ariel, Times New Roman, etc. and with a size not exceeding 10 or 12 for the body text, while the heading and subheading take a larger size.

A clueless introduction
Instead of a vague introduction, we recommend a direct expression of your ability or experience with words like “A sales representative with 10 years of work experience in the financial sector”. This is acceptable than saying ‘results-oriented, team player, achiever,’ etc. Mind you, the interviewer’s first port of call might be your introduction and if you can get the required attention there, you will be good for it.

Enlisting Referees
Except it is called for, do not, for any reason, list a number of referees, which takes up a lot of space in your CV. Better state that ‘References will be presented on request’. Preferably too, list your references on another sheet of paper for evaluation by the employer.

Grammatical error
This is termed a character killer by some people and we say here do not allow your chances of getting a job be ruined by any error in grammar, spelling, or expression. Therefore, make effort to check through your CV draft for possible errors and get someone else to do this bit with or for you.