I have noticed that from the start some jobseekers say "Dont hire me" in their approach to vacancies.
If you have been wondering why you are still sending your cv's when others are being hired check yourself on the following simple mistakes.

1. Use of big and impressive word which even you do not have a full meaning of E.g.

, environment that places premium on potentials and strives to ensure maximization, so as to achieve mutual benefit and a result oriented organization

2. List of embellished personal values E.g.

PERSONAL PROFILE
Initiative, Innovative, Confident, Ambitious, Analytic, Impressive, Pro-active, Teachable, Self-driven, Team player and Extreme result oriented.

3. Sending CV as an attachment when the notice clearly states that CV's should be in the body of the mail.

4. Obvious spelling mistakes. E.g

Greetings sir,
I am interested in the [b]jog [/b]vacancy in your company,

5. Sending to mulptiple recipients- e.g.

To: Jos@xyz.com;vacancy@abcltd.co.biz;cv@bankontherun.biz;funmi@bigoilcompany.com

6. Sending out generic CV.-Saved in their box and forwarded at every vacancy e.g.

Sir

I wish to submit it my application in your company,and hope to join you soon.
Note: forwarded message attached.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.

7. No introduction in the email sent to employers, or an empty message E.g.

Note: forwarded message attached.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music Unlimited.

8. Sending a scanned CV

attachment: myCV.jpg

9. Sending a CV with 4 or more pages _{what is that a biography?}

10. Including all forms of training whether relevant to the job or not

Proficient in computer appreciation certificate, MS word and excel application

Please add any one you have seen or written

Good point there,sweetheart. by d way,are u behind d concept of "mind juice"?

@diyobw
you are right. I have been privileged to audit applications for employment and I can say it is that BAD. Even graduates that with First Class degree certificates commit these faux pas.

There was this guy that applied for the job of a MARKETING MANAGER, going through his CV, the guy read Biochemistry and has worked for a pharmaceutical company all his life.

There is nothing that reflects he has ever been into marketing professionally in his CV and the SHOCKER is his career objective: HE WANTS TO BE THE BEST BIOCHEMIST IN THE WORLD. Yet he is applying for the job of a marketing manager in an IT Firm.

Thanks for this. you wont beliv I've made the same mistake before. now knowing this it wont repeat it self. Thanks give more tips

The very babe.

I agree with u, i do send cv's for graduates damn, u need to see a lot of  grammatical errors nd when i try to correct it for them, they don't agree. Nobody is perfect am not a degree holder yet, but with wat have seen so far it's really annoying.

I guess each any post u're applying for u have to create a cv that will meet up with their requirements,  that's just it, and in de case of forwarded cv's i see it everyday 2 bad, graduates should wake up from their slumber when it comes to sending of cv's

@ notchi
Am glad to hear that! that's why we are here

@ G-reycells
Thats another good example. later he wld complian that there are no jobs in nigeria.

@ cream well said
Degree no mean say you sabi !
Ask bill gate!

Just to add,
The big words is certainly a huge NO-NO, also grammatical errors (use your spellcheck!!)
However, I'don't even get as far as looking at the cv if the cover letter does not catch me, Use your cover letter as an intro to whet the recruiters appetite, ie, tell her in a few lines, why your cv would be of any interest. I expect to see:
where you saw the job advertised or how you heard of it(mention the specific role, I may have advertised 10!)
Summarize your qualifications in 1 or 2 lines, if they don't exactly match what I want, tell me why I should still consider you. Do same for experiences, summarize/distill whats in your cv-could be just mentioning the roles you worked in and tell me how they relate to my requirements. All in all, your cover letter should not be more than about 400-500 words(It is an intro)
You don't even need to have a brand new cv for every role applied for but at the least, tweak it to reflect the requirements, emphasize the bits or your experience that reflect these,
HTH

I agree with you. But your posts read like what secondary school pupils would have written.

English grammar is more than writing a sentence.

See the picture below. The picture came from the HR department of a big bank in Nigeria.

No, it’s not a political rally, neither is it a Refugee Camp nor did it happen in Rwanda .
It is very much a “Nigerian Thing”.

It's a picture of applicants scrambling to write an Employment Test (Intercontinental bank)@ Fototek Plaza, Opebi Ikeja, Lagos. Nigeria .
Police had to disperse the mammoth crowd with teargas!

I love this. Thanks 4 your effort. Other things are 1. Bad way of dressing to the interview. Applicants for the post of accountant must dress as such while a sales rep. Applicant must dress as a sales rep.

Thanks for those tips, it will realy help many applicants. But talking about grammar, what about all those unusual antonyms, analogies and the rest we come across in aptitude tests. I guess that just as companies use them to prone down the number of applicants, applicants are now using grammar as an edge over one another not bearing in mind the other side of it.
ALL WE NEED IS JOB, may God see us through. Amen.

I wrote a couple of articles on this a while back.

that picture dere ! na wa oooooo haaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaa damn blame our foolish leaders haaaa

hahahahahahahaha did someone in here "AUDIT" applications. and did the applicants commit application "FAUX PAX". hey seun!!!!!!!! where is the smiley/emoticon that suggest rolling on the ground with laughter i need it now!!!

as the poster said: reconcile yourself with words you know the meaning of, if you do not, strangely enough, it will be assumed that you are imbecilic.

In my own view, i think why Nigerians dont get jobs is that Most of them cant even claim their Certificate apart from there is no Job oppurtunity in this country, we rather see some graduate who cant even speak fluent and correct english Some can speak and cant even put them in writing, Some will come out in Upper class Lower Class but can never defend their Result.

and besides every thing base on corruption, U have nothing on ur head u have money and know people forget it u are on the line,
and at the same time u have somethibg in ur brain no money at the same time u can still have more chances to get a job.

I think only God can intervain in this country.

good post

solajacobs:

I love this. Thanks 4 your effort. Other things are 1. Bad way of dressing to the interview. Applicants for the post of accountant must dress as such while a sales rep. Applicant must dress as a sales rep.

 

jammin:


as the poster said: reconcile yourself with words you know the meaning of, if you do not, strangely enough, it will be assumed that you are imbecilic.

oh the irony

Orikinla:

I agree with you. But your posts read like what secondary school pupils would have written.

I wish i could upload some up here but it wont be fair ^{because some of them are here too!}

That picture shows that People's expectation is in the wrong direction. Everyone wants to work in the bank, oil coy or telcos no one want to start small. If you ask how many people that bank need they can't be more than 20 and see the thouands out there

eolutosin:

I think the title should have read "Why people don't get Jobs when They apply". This is not peculiar to Nigerians alone.

thats intresting to know

@birdman you DAAARE challenge my use of the word "Reconcile", and how i used it in that particular text? the use of the word is suggesting to the person to"be at peace" "settle" or "reach agreement" with himself, and not to extend himself to words he's not sure about.

Indeed i am convince that you are a Birdman, as a result, you have a birdbrain!!

Orikinla:

I agree with you. But your posts read like what secondary school pupils would have written.

English grammar is more than writing a sentence.

Maybe Orikinla, but what's your suggestion?I think the OP meant this to be helpful criticism?And you really shouldn't be throwing stones,
Moi, I like the use of "reconcile" and will be borrowing it at some point

at Orikinola,
thanks for the pics---NA WA O EVERYBODY WANTS TO WORK IN A BANK---

@ Orikinla,

Thanks a million for the pix, I'm speechless!

The internet is available if a person needs help fixing up their resumes. There are a million sites which have useful tips. I think pple are just plain lazy, lack knowledge, or just don't care. The only place one may give out generic cv's are at a career fair, otherwise if you know what company you want to interview for you might as well put in the company's name!

there are a lot of stuff they are not teaching us in Nigerian Universities, When I make money i'm going to send peeps overseas to American and European universities!.

thanx orikinla 4 d pix,it got me speechless and to the starter of the thread,thank you very much cos i've learnt a lot

Wao,

I am glad to know that people would
have started realising their mistakes
about applying for a job now.

I once wrote a series of free reports that
talks about getting a job because I discovered
that most people think having a good grade is
the only criteria to get a job.

Getting a job requires very reasonable preparation
which most people do not do.

The free report I mentioned above is titled

"Important things to know to get a good job
faster and easier."

To get access to it, send an email to jobs4u@freeautobot.com

Send me a mail if you think it is great.

Check my blog for more
http://job-employment..com
============
Oluwatoyin.

be a while but i still see this mistake so i decided to wake up this sleeping thread.
Please anyone with wonder why that are not getting jobs or with advice jion in here!

be a while but i still see this mistake so i decided to wake up this sleeping thread.

Like someone sent in a CV apprently with the wrong Telephone no. Then instead of sending in the an edited CV.He sent this:
subject: pls edit for me
Body of the mail:my phone number to hIS NAMe Mentioned's c.v is 0802********* pls edit

My question? who will stress themselve to manually change that?!
The applicant even if shortlist'd will not see the light of interview.

Please anyone wonder'g why they are not getting jobs or with advice join in here!
You will be amazed!

@poster: Wow!!This is a nice piece, one every job seeker should go thru. Though I wish I saw it a day before but its neva too late to improve one's self. I've learnt how to present a better cover page from ur post and how to be more careful in sending CV's. Thanks.
The most common mistake is that of forwarding cv's, listing too many skills and stating too many objectives. Remember, a CV is like an undergrad project which each student would be called to defend individually.

I look after all our recruitment. Laast time we had 60 applicants for one job.

How to get your application thrown away:

1) Dont bother to check your CV for spelling mistakes and silly errors. You should always do a spell and grammar check. For some of our jobs we don't need perfect English, so we don't mind a little bit of mixed up grammar from someone who isn't English, but you can do basic checks. Another thing to check is your work history dates -so many people get these muddled up (2 full-time jobs with overlapping dates, for example).

2) think you are emailing one of your friends when you email your application. We want to see you can write a business email and that we can trust you to communicate properly with our client. Emailing 'Hi, pls see my CV, I want to work 4u' will get you nowhere.

3) think we are here to do you a favour. Don't tell me you want the job because 'it would be good experience for me and I can learn a lot at your firm for my career'. Who cares? We want to know how we will benefit from you, not the other way round. I am not your auntie who just wants to help you.

How to fail an interview with me:

1) Don't look smart and professional. We are a firm of accountants. We wear business suits. Turn up for an interview in an open necked shirt, no tie, lots of gold jewellery and a big grin - you are not trying to pick up a woman in a club here, we don't want you if you don't understand how to dress for work.

2) Be late.

3) Tell us you are expert in all computer programmes we need, then be unable to do the simple IT test we give you.

4) Misbehave on your way to the interview. You never know who will see you. At out last interviews, we ended up with 3 good people short-listed and would give the job to one of them. The best person was then discounted because I'd seen him spitting in a really disgusting way on the pavement outside our offices.