As a recruiter with almost 15 years experience recruiting for top multinationals and local companies across Africa, I find that many good candidates shoot themselves in the foot with some very avoidable mistakes they make when applying for job openings.

I will focus on young graduates (in the 0-2 years experience range) in this post. I will write about more experienced candidates in subsequent posts (if I find the time to write).

(1) Not following simple instructions: When a recruiter tells you to send your CV in a particular format, or send an email with a particular subject heading or write a short essay etc, he/she must have a reason for those instructions. Primarily, it is to filter out candidates and also make his/her job easy when shortlisting candidates.

If you have to shortlist maybe 10 candidates from a pool of like 5000 CVs sent via email or even a recruitment portal, you would want to do this in the easiest way possible.

When a recruiter includes very simple instructions and you choose not to comply, you are telling the recruiter that (1) You are unable to follow instructions and/or (2) You are a lazy person who does not pay attention to details. Either way, you would hardly be contacted because the software would either filter you out or in the case where the shortlisting is done manually, the recruiter will not even look at your CV.

So instead of just praying for divine favour (which is not a bad thing), also favour yourself by complying with simple instructions

(2) Sending CVs as picture files or in-line text: This is truly a very ignorant practice by job applicants/candidates. Many candidates in 2016 still send a scanned or camera-snapped picture of their CVs to recruiters. Just recently, my firm was helping a big healthcare group find highly specialized doctors. Amazingly, one of the candidates simply snapped pictures of his printed CV and sent it as an attachment.

Another related practice is where a candidate pastes the content of his CV inside the body of the email instead of attaching it. These are wrong practices. Unless a recruiter requests for your CV in any other format, the professional formats for sending CVs are Microsoft Word or PDF.

(3) Inappropriate File Names for CVs : The recruiter often lives a very stressed life. Don't make it harder for him or her. The recruiter is typically meant to send your CV to either the client or the hiring manager. The more work you make him/her do on your CV, the less likely it would be sent to the client/hiring manager especially if there are other suitable candidates with less issues.

When sending your CV as an attachment, please name the file as your name. If your name is Abdul Okoro, then name the file as Abdul Okoro or Abdul Okoro CV. Don't name it as My CV or CV1 or something like that. It makes the recruiter's life a little more difficult especially for volume roles.

(4) Having just one version of your CV/Cover Letter : It is always amazing to find candidates send the same CV or Cover letter to ALL jobs they apply for. This is just sheer laziness. If you are too lazy to review and edit your CV each time, you are probably too lazy to work. It is very unfortunate to find a candidate send a cover letter stating he is applying for a Sales executive role when the role advertised is probably a customer service role. It shows unseriousness on your part.

(5) Not Reading the Job Descriptions: Most of the information you require to apply for a job would often be in the job description. Many times, applicants only focus on the email address or website they should apply through. Key instructions and information about the role or application process that would ordinarily be stated in the job description or other parts of the advert are missed and this often leads to doing something wrong while applying.

I will stop here for now. But please take your job search seriously. Sending CVs all over the place may seem like effort but it helps to make your efforts smarter by doing the above and more.

All the best.

Thanks Bro......so educating

Quite Instructive

Thank U

Tnx........seems most topics now are about CV or employment

TalentSearchNg:
As a recruiter with almost 15 years experience recruiting for top multinationals and local companies across Africa, I find that many good candidates shoot themselves in the foot with some very avoidable mistakes they make when applying for job openings.
I will focus on young graduates (in the 0-2 years experience range) in this post. I will write about more experienced candidates in subsequent posts (if I find the time to write).
(1) Not following simple instructions: When a recruiter tells you to send your CV in a particular format, or send an email with a particular subject heading or write a short essay etc, he/she must have a reason for those instructions. Primarily, it is to filter out candidates and also make his/her job easy when shortlisting candidates.
If you have to shortlist maybe 10 candidates from a pool of like 5000 CVs sent via email or even a recruitment portal, you would want to do this in the easiest way possible.
When a recruiter includes very simple instructions and you choose not to comply, you are telling the recruiter that (1) You are unable to follow instructions and/or (2) You are a lazy person who does not pay attention to details. Either way, you would hardly be contacted because the software would either filter you out or in the case where the shortlisting is done manually, the recruiter will not even look at your CV.
So instead of just praying for divine favour (which is not a bad thing), also favour yourself by complying with simple instructions
(2) Sending CVs as picture files or in-line text: This is truly a very ignorant practice by job applicants/candidates. Many candidates in 2016 still send a scanned or camera-snapped picture of their CVs to recruiters. Just recently, my firm was helping a big healthcare group find highly specialized doctors. Amazingly, one of the candidates simply snapped pictures of his printed CV and sent it as an attachment.
Another related practice is where a candidate pastes the content of his CV inside the body of the email instead of attaching it. These are wrong practices. Unless a recruiter requests for your CV in any other format, the professional formats for sending CVs are Microsoft Word or PDF.
(3) Inappropriate File Names for CVs : The recruiter often lives a very stressed life. Don't make it harder for him or her. The recruiter is typically meant to send your CV to either the client or the hiring manager. The more work you make him/her do on your CV, the less likely it would be sent to the client/hiring manager especially if there are other suitable candidates with less issues.
When sending your CV as an attachment, please name the file as your name. If your name is Abdul Okoro, then name the file as Abdul Okoro or Abdul Okoro CV. Don't name it as My CV or CV1 or something like that. It makes the recruiter's life a little more difficult especially for volume roles.
(4) Having just one version of your CV/Cover Letter : It is always amazing to find candidates send the same CV or Cover letter to ALL jobs they apply for. This is just sheer laziness. If you are too lazy to review and edit your CV each time, you are probably too lazy to work. It is very unfortunate to find a candidate send a cover letter stating he is applying for a Sales executive role when the role advertised is probably a customer service role. It shows unseriousness on your part.
(5) Not Reading the Job Descriptions: Most of the information you require to apply for a job would often be in the job description. Many times, applicants only focus on the email address or website they should apply through. Key instructions and information about the role or application process that would ordinarily be stated in the job description or other parts of the advert are missed and this often leads to doing something wrong while applying.
I will stop here for now. But please take your job search seriously. Sending CVs all over the place may seem like effort but it helps to make your efforts smarter by doing the above and more.
All the best.

True and accurate