I’m a careers expert and these are the five mistakes you’re making when writing your CV

Britain has received much-needed relief as figures show wages are outpacing inflation by the largest margin in two and a half years.

And regular wages rose by 2.1 percent year on year in real terms in the three months to February. That was the highest figure since September 2021, reflecting the easing of prices.

The bad news? The latest official figures also indicate that the labor market is cooling down: unemployment is rising to 4.2% and the number of vacancies is falling.

Following news of rising unemployment in Britain, career and education expert Robbie Bryant from the Open Study College shared five things job seekers can do wrong when submitting a CV.

Read on below for his top tips to ensure you don’t miss out on your dream job:

Share a photo

Careers expert Robbie gives his first tip, saying it’s crucial not to share an image with a CV.

He advises that unless personally requested by the employer, this is not recommended and should therefore be avoided as standard practice.

Commenting on why this is the case, Robbie said: ‘The candidate should only focus on presenting their skills, work experience and relevance to the role.

“The employer won’t hire the candidate based on their appearance, so sharing an image doesn’t add any real value to the resume.”

Too many qualifications

Robbie’s next tip is about how to display qualifications on your CV. This means that this advice is slightly more nuanced and depends on the age of the applicant.

If you’re applying for a job and don’t have qualifications from every level of education, he says it’s helpful to include them.

He states: ‘If candidates have higher education, the most recent qualifications are sufficient for the employer.

‘Unless the candidate has achieved additional qualifications relevant to the position, the employer only needs to know the candidate’s highest qualification.’

Unprofessional email

The CV guru said it is essential that candidates include an email address so that the employer can contact them.

However, including an email address that was created a long time ago, with a descriptive name, can give the wrong impression to the employer as it lacks professionalism.

Instead, he said to create a new email address since it takes less than five minutes.

In the early stages of the application, the expert says a professional-looking email address can be the difference between making it to the next stage or not.

Too many irrelevant skills

While Robbie admits there is no one-size-fits-all approach to correctly wording a resume, it should be used as a working document and tailored to the position you are applying for.

With this in mind, the expert says that it is of course important to include skills on a CV, but some candidates will often include skills that are not relevant to the role.

He says candidates should instead name four to five key skills that reflect the skills the recruiter is looking for, something that will help them gain key examples of relevant experience.

Pointless personal details

Robbie shared his latest advice, saying that applicants should avoid unnecessarily including personal details that are not related to the job itself.

While he encouraged people to share the best versions of themselves, he cautioned that the interviewer doesn’t need to know your exact address or date of birth.

He pointed out that while hobbies help express an interest outside of work, they won’t help you stand out against a competitor’s skills or qualifications.

Robbie concluded by saying that because a CV is a small document, every point on it should be relevant to the role you’re applying for in the first place.