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Things NOT to include in your CV

Published on: 30 Jan 2020

So you think you've got your CV up to date, and filled with lots of juicy relevant experience and qualifications. Have you thought about the the things you shouldn't include?

Too Much Personal Information

You don't need to put your age or date of birth,  your marital status, your photo. You're opening up yourself to possible discrimination, so leave them off.

Social Media Links

Unless you're applying for a job where these are relevant, leave them off.

Clichés

Remove any obvious Clichés like team player, innovative, results orientated. These are so over used that they mean nothing. Leave them out.

References

You don't need to say “references available on request”. It's not 1980 and you're not applying for your first job in a bank.

Old or irrelevant experience

Take out anything that's not relevant, or more than 10 years old - it only serves to clutter up your CV. Use the space to provide more recent  / relevant experience and achievements. 

Objectives

Your objective is to get a job, so there’s no point in saying that - Employers are not interested in what YOU want anyway. Think instead about what you will bring to the employer.  A professional profile can be OK, as long as it's no more than a few words.

Responsible for

This is just fluff, and doesn't mean you were any good at your job. It makes you look average at best. Focus on achievements, or say nothing.

Qualitative words

Why say experienced? when you can say "10 years’ experience", it means so much more. Leave out dynamic, seasoned, creative, innovative etc. etc, unless you can quantify it.

Full Address

No employer is going to write to you. So just include your town. Then all you need is email address (make sure it’s a sensible one like Gmail) and mobile number. They don’t need anything else.

If you follow these tips, your CV will be a whole lot clearer and present you in a better light.