“What are the 3 most common reasons you chuck a CV in the bin – or tell your client that it will be chucked in the bin, if you are a CV writer rather than a recruiter?

In other words, what are the biggest no-nos on a CV?

It’s a very good question. There’s so much advice on how to write a good CV, and pretty much all of it is consistent.

- your CV has to be on no more than two pages of A4
- you must have a clear layout allowing vital information to be prominent
- include lots of white space
- be consistent with your fonts etc, etc

Otherwise your CV probably won’t make it to a second reading.

In my experience, all that advice is great. It helps you to stand out as a candidate, as clearly you know what your major selling features are, and how to present these most effectively.

But, but…

If you break these rules, does it mean your CV automatically gets chucked in the bin?

Not necessarily.

In a straw poll of three, the biggest CV no-no’s were these:

- poor grammar and spelling
- too generic (not relevant or tailored to the role)
- too long (over three pages)

(You can read Rowan’s incisive thoughts here.)

As long as you avoid the three biggest (and most common) CV mistakes, you’re in with a better-than-average chance of making it to the “maybe” pile.

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Read the full article on the Guardian Careers blog here.

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It’s relatively straightforward to write your CV if you’re pursuing a similar role in the same sector. But if your employment timeline looks “messy”, with a number of false starts, survival jobs, or “career drift” from one sector to another, making sense of it all can be a headache. Add to this the preference of both hiring managers and recruiters for a focussed. chronologically formatted CV, and it’s even harder to create clarity out of chaos.

Six steps for refocussing your CV.

1. Be ruthless about what you include
You need to be absolutely clear about what you’re targeting. Don’t try to keep all your options open by having one CV do the job of many. If you have more than one current career direction, have a different CV for each job function. (i.e one for sales, one for marketing, one for customer service etc.)

On your “sales CV”, devote most of the space to your skills, achievements and employment history relating to sales. Trim the rest.

2. Pull the themes together
Go through your work history to find examples of recurring themes. Have you always been the person responsible for computer troubleshooting, for example – even if this wasn’t a part of your official job duties?

Identifying common patterns helps you look beyond the semantics of job titles and might prompt you to re-categorise some of those “hard-to-classify” jobs.

3. Group similar areas together
A neat trick to divert your reader’s attention from a series of short-term jobs or an inconsistent work history is to have two sections to your professional experience.

The first is an experience section in a functional format (separating it into broad areas such as marketing, sales, or customer services) and highlight relevant achievements in each area; then a second employment history section gives dates, job titles, a brief overview of the company and your most relevant responsibilities.

Other ways you can organise work history is to group jobs by function or industry, and list job titles under each theme. You could also put everything before a certain cut-off date in an “Early Career” section.

4. Play to your strengths
Draw attention away from an unconventional career history by clearly demonstrating you have the right skills or qualifications for the role. Make sure you include skills required by the role, and make relevant qualifications prominent on your CV.

The aim is to sell your reader on your overall capabilities, before they get to your work history.

5. Position yourself for the role
Use personal branding techniques to position yourself. Right underneath the headline of your CV (the job title itself) make sure you have three to five sentences that paint a picture of you as the ideal candidate. Think about your outstanding qualities and achievements, and how they bring value to the organisation.

6. Don’t forget a covering letter
A well-written, brief letter helps relate your background even more closely to the job. Make it clear why you’re interested, and what you can offer in the role.

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Specifically: how do you write a CV when you have a wide background, and you’re not limiting yourself to one specific role?

Standard CV writing advice is to tailor your CV to the role you’re applying for. If you don’t, your CV risks looking unfocussed, and disconnected from what the hiring manager wants to see. If a hiring manager gets 100+ CVs, the ones that stand out are those which connect what you offer to the challenges of the role.

But how far should you tailor your CV if you’re applying for a variety of jobs?

If you’re applying for a similar role in the same sector as your current job
You probably already have a CV for this sort of role. Update it with your most recent experience, achievements, new skills etc gained from your current position. Beyond this, it’s difficult to tweak your CV much further.

Kerry Scott of Cluewagon points out: “… to change the resume for each opening seems unnecessary. Your experience is your experience, so how can you change it that much? That’s what the cover letter is for — to draw out how your experience applies to this particular position.

Your resume should present your experience in the best possible light, not in a light you think they might want to see. Even if you happen to guess right (unlikely), it’s creepy to receive a resume that looks like a copy-and-paste of the job description. I always wonder about the authenticity of the ones that look like such a direct match that they can’t be real.”

If you’re applying for a promotion
You’ll probably have to consider how to position yourself for this. At the next step in your career, what additional skills or experience are necessary to carry out the role effectively – and how will you need to present these on your CV?

If you’re applying for different roles, or in different sectors
It you’ve had a career in two different fields, it makes sense to have two different CVs that broadly focus on each field. Depending on the specifics of the job you apply for, it might also be possible to tweak your CV further for the particular role.

Don’t just rely on the wording of the job ad for hints. Research the industry, company and role, and use your network of contacts to find out more. The more you know, the less you risk double-guessing the hiring manager.

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James Innes – Founder and Managing Director of The CV Centre
Steve Szita – Director of Dazzling CVs
Elizabeth Bacchus – Founder of The Successful CV Co

Who’s your typical client
There’s no such thing as a typical client. Professional CV writers work with a huge range of job seekers: grads, school leavers, the over-50’s, career changers, mothers returning to work, and those made redundant. Job seekers most often cite insecurity with their grammar, spelling, CV structure or word choice, or lack of success at getting an interview, as reasons for using CV writers.

How and where does a CV writer add value?
“A professional whose job it is to design and write CVs every day is able to produce a much more effective end product,” says James.

CV writers add “strategic” value. Steve says that very often job seekers want a new CV, but they don’t know where they want it to take them, so a CV writer helps to focus their mind on what they want to do next. Elizabeth also stresses the importance of getting to know a job seeker’s aims before actually starting the writing process.

CV writers provide crucial objectivity, strip out irrelevant or outdated material, identify achievements, and write them “in marketable form”, says Elizabeth.

It’s often hard for job seekers to take a step back and assess their own CV with a critical eye. Steve explains that many people write their CVs autobiographically without really selling themselves or aiming the CV at a potential employer. They also tend to overlook key skills and experience, which is why the consultation phase is so important for “teasing out” relevant details.

What tend to be the biggest problems with the original CVs?
All three CV writers agreed that the biggest problems they see are poor spelling and grammar; and badly written copy. Often there’s not enough detail in the career history (such as absence of key achievements) or too much detail, resulting in over-long CVs. Another major problem is cluttered or confusing presentation and layout, with font sizes too small and not enough space in the page headers, footers and margins.

What are the price ranges?
Expect to pay from about £30 to £180 depending on how much experience you have. For this price you should also get email or phone consultation, and edits.

Professional CV writers can offer other career-related services, from generic / specific covering letters, completion of job application forms; career coaching, interview coaching, or follow-ups.

What makes a CV writer good at their job?
Unanimous agreement here: the ability to write in a convincing and compelling way. Being a “word freak” according to Elizabeth, and having relevant writing skills (experience in recruitment advertising for Steve.) Elizabeth also uses professional copywriters and editors to finely tune CVs.

Other vital skills include being a good listener to fully understand what the client wants to achieve; having a clear understanding of what recruiters are looking for; a strong sense of aesthetics so that the CV is “attractive, eye-catching and maximises readability; and (according to Elizabeth) being passionate about career development.

What makes you stand out as a CV writer?
Elizabeth: “A 100% commitment to doing whatever it takes to get someone back to work or reach their career goals. The fact that I listen and I’m not afraid to disagree with the client if I think it is in their best interests.”

Steve: “No hard sell. There are one or two CV companies who mercilessly chase customers and resort to cold calling people. I won’t do that. I want my customer to willingly use my service, not be hassled like they’re standing in a bazaar!”

James “My key talent is knowing exactly how to help people to sell their skills and experience to a prospective employer. Most people sell themselves short. My job is to make sure that they don’t.”

James Innes is the Founder and Managing Director of The CV Centre – the UK’s leading CV consultancy. He is also the author of a trilogy of best-selling careers books: ‘The CV Book’, ‘The Interview Book’ and ‘Brilliant Cover Letters’.

Elizabeth Bacchus is a career coach, change management consultant and founder of The Successful CV Company — provider of interview winning CVs and cover letters.

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Why you left previous jobs
Some application forms require you to give a reason for leaving each job, but you don’t need to volunteer this information on your CV. You might want to explain a redundancy (write something like “Position terminated due to redundancy”) next to the dates of the job if you think that otherwise your tenure looks suspiciously short.

It’s especially unwise to explain that you didn’t get on with the boss, hated your co-workers or the atmosphere, or that you are still involved in legal battles with a previous employer. But be ready to address questions about why you left a particular job at interview stage.

Special requirements
Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by mentioning specific problems such as limited availability, tele-working requirements etc on your CV. Give yourself a chance to shine first, by writing a great CV that showcases your talents and abilities. If you get to interview stage, particular requirements can be discussed then. (Or leave them until you’ve had a chance to prove yourself in the job first.)

Health problems
This is a thorny area. As far as mental health is concerned, widespread prejudice and ignorance could mean that disclosing a previous history of mental illness puts you out of the running for a job. If you’re specifically asked to disclose mental health problems in an application form, you risk dismissal if you withhold information. However, make sure you include a sentence to say you have now fully recovered, if this is the case.

But on your CV, you can choose to not mention any previous mental or physical health problems. If they’re so far back in your past that they are just not relevant any more, unlikely to reoccur, or don’t affect your ability to do the job, they can safely be left off your CV.

For more information on how to deal with mental health issues, visit the mental health anti-discrimination Time To Challenge campaign.

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What you do online should also be consistent with what you say or write offline. Here are four pointers for maintaining a consistent image.

- Be scrupulously careful with dates and titles.
Make sure that your employment or education facts are consistent on both your CV and in online profiles, such as LinkedIn or Visual CV. If you’ve embellished the truth on your CV, it may well be discovered by a social media-savvy recruiter or hiring manager doing some candidate research.

- Use excerpts from LinkedIn recommendations on your CV as testimonials.
Adding endorsements to your CV (particularly to your Professional profile or Key Achievements sections) adds a touch of third-party objectivity to your CV.

- Consider merging your Twitter and LinkedIn updates.
Update your LinkedIn profile with all or some of your Twitter updates. (The edit profile settings on LinkedIn allow you to add your Twitter username, then choose whether to automatically update your LI profile with all your Twitter updates, or only those where you add the hashtag #in to the end of your tweet.)

This has the advantage not only of keeping your LI profile fresh with regular updates, but also of helping you send out the same information (links to your blog posts, comments on forums etc) on two different networks.

- Be careful about what you post.
An obvious point, but there’s not much – if any – real privacy online. What you post today is likely to be publicly available years into the future, so make sure your posts, comments and tweets reflect the type of professional image you want to portray.

How to manage your online reputation (my recent Guardian careers blog post) has more tips for creating a professional online image.

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Your CV must impress a potential hiring manager in a short period of time. Your aim is not only to show you can do the job, but also that you will be an asset to the organisation.

As well as good content and appropriate format, the wording of your CV is crucial.

1. Speak to the hiring manager’s needs.
Research the organisation and the challenges of the role so you can put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes. What problems do they need you to solve? Where will you be expected to make a difference? Then work out what career accomplishments, skills and talents you’ll need to demonstrate to perform well in the role.

It must be clear to the person reading your CV what benefits you offer, so make sure that what you write is as relevant as possible to their specific needs. Relevance is much more appealing than generic.

Write a strong career summary or professional profile highlighting your talents. You can make a great initial impact in a few sentences which summarise your unique value: your greatest achievement, how you contributed to a company, or any special skills that are vital to the role.

If you’re replying to a job ad, make sure you address each key requirement in your CV. Be careful with your choice of words.

- Use keywords that are specific to your industry. It’s especially important if you are changing career that you use terminology that’s suitable to the industry you’re applying to.

- Choose keywords that reflect the seniority of the role. For example, if applying for high-level positions, make sure you describe your leadership or management skills over lower-level skill sets.

- Review other job ads for similar positions to find out what companies typically ask for, and how they word their requirements. This will help you decide which skills to prioritise if you’re writing speculatively.

- Use the keywords in strategic places in your CV: in your career summary, key strengths and career highlights sections.

2. Be credible
Rather than just making claims for yourself, give the context of selected work history events and achievements.

Where possible, quantify your achievements. @LindaNoland says that there are three categories you can use to quantify your achievements: revenue, personal or staff productivity, and process efficiency. Use £ and % to quantify the impact of what you did; for example, increasing revenue or productivity, cutting costs or delivery times, improving processes, etc

Provide some background to your key successes. One way to do this is to use a “CAR” framework (challenge – action – result) to give the context. Briefly describe the problem / challenge; the action you took to solve it; and finally the result of what you did.

Choose success stories which are relevant to the role you’re applying for. You can organise your stories into different themed groups, such as by skill-set, or by the key requirements mentioned in the job ad.

3. Overcome any doubts
If some of your experience or skills come from a different sector, you’ll need to demonstrate how they apply to the role and are relevant.

In the case of transferable skills, give specific instances of what it is you can do, and quantify these examples. If your skills are technical or role-specific, identify what it is about the skill which makes it transferable or applicable. For example, if you’ve customised Wordpress themes for different clients, your skill lies in being able to bend technology to make custom applications / sites.

To find the real impact of your skills, consider what they mean to the company. How does applying your skills improve efficiency, productivity or customer retention, for example?

4. Keep it concise
In most cases, CVs beyond two pages in length will not get read. Keep your CV concise and focussed on the job you’re applying for. Trim excess information and delete all irrelevancies, such as experience dating back more than 15 years, unimportant or obsolete skills, and puff – meaningless cliche phrases such as “team player”. (See How to avoid the red flag words for examples of this.)

Instead of a “I was responsible for…” style of writing, use strong action verbs such as “streamlined” or “slashed costs” to give a more vivid picture of what you did.

Aim to write in small, easily digestible chunks of information, rather than in dense paragraphs. This makes it easier for your reader to find (and remember) key information.

See Make every word count for more tips on writing a concise CV.

5. Let your enthusiasm shine through
Although your covering letter is a good place to explain why you particularly want the job or to work for that company, your CV should also reflect your excitement about the opportunity. Make sure that the language you use conveys a genuine interest in the job, as well as pride in your previous accomplishments. Use a range of vocabulary to stress, rather than obscure, your unique value and past achievements.

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CV writing trends change, so make sure your CV format reflects current best practices.

Which format?
Up until recently, job seekers lacking relevant experience or with work history gaps were advised to write a functional (or skills) CV. The reasoning was that because functional CVs are organised around skills rather than around a chronological work history, they deflect attention away from a sketchy work history.

But hiring managers and recruiters don’t want to have to hunt for your career information. They like to see how you’ve progressed in your career; what you’ve achieved and where. If you try to obscure this information in a functional format, you’re making it more difficult for them to find the details they need to assess whether you’re a good candidate – and you risk them just giving up on you. So provide them with the details clearly and upfront in a chronological format.

A chronological CV is flexible: you can choose what information to highlight and in what order, depending on the requirements of the job you’re applying for. For example, most people would prioritise career history over education, but if you’re applying for an academic post, or you’re a recent grad with impressive educational achievements but little work experience, you might decide to put this section first. You can move information around in a chronological CV too: extract key, relevant accomplishments from all areas of your background for your professional profile / career summary section, where you know it’s going to be seen.

With this level of customisation from a chronological CV – the ability to select and present your most attractive achievements, skills and qualities – there’s no need to hide your weaker points behind a functional format.

Include the following sections in your CV:

Name and contact details
Put these details across the top of your CV. There’s no need to write “Curriculum Vitae” – it’s obvious what it is. Give your phone numbers, email address, postal address, and a link to a professional website if you have one, to your LinkedIn profile, if you don’t.

Job title, followed by a short branding statement underneath
The title can be either the role you are applying for, or one you aspire to if you’re writing a speculative CV.

Including a job title means you can avoid writing a career objective. Objective have recently fallen out of fashion, as they focus on you and your career goals, rather than on what you can offer a company. Stating the job title also shows your confidence in your ability to do the job.

A short positioning, or brand statement under the job title gives you even more credibility. In one sentence, sum up the unique value you can bring to the role. What do you do best? What are you known for? For more information on how to use personal branding in your CV; see How focussing your CV helps you stand out and Why having a personal brand is important.

You can also use the space under your job title to list key personal characteristics. These should also reflect what will be useful for the role you apply for.

Professional profile / summary section
This section is where you really sell your value to an employer. Write about three sentences which succinctly demonstrate why you are an ideal candidate. You can include the length and range of relevant experience, the impact of your work, including one or two key accomplishments, and any other details which are crucial in positioning you for the job.

It’s worth spending time on your summary. As it’s at the beginning of your CV, it’s the part most likely to get read in its entirety, so make sure you construct a solid, compelling argument for why you’re a good candidate. You can then use the rest of your CV to fill in the background details of your achievements and expertise.

One way to add third-party objectivity to your profile is to include a one or two sentence testimonial or reference from a boss or satisfied customer illustrating your qualities or abilities. Put it in quotation marks, along with the name of the person making the quote.

For the best impact, make your summary as concise and relevant as possible to the role, and use powerful vocabulary: action verbs, with no passive forms.

Key skills / Key Strengths / Core Competencies
Group your skills in one place, rather than listing them for each job in your career history section. Tie in your skills to those required for the job.

Key achievements / Career highlights
Quantify your achievements where possible by stating what they meant to the company. Use £ or % to show how you increased company revenue or process efficiency, reduced costs or staff turnover, etc. Numbers back up your claims, and allow the hiring manager to visualise you creating the same sort of impact in the new role.

Make sure that whatever achievements you choose are relevant. As you’re focussing on what you did, rather than on when you did it, you don’t need to include dates. This means you can include career highlights from further back in your career- especially useful if you’re returning to work after a gap.

Career history
Work backwards in reverse chronological order. You don’t need to include all your work experience, so you can omit anything older than ten or fifteen years.

One of the keys to writing an effective career history section is to work out what’s relevant, and what’s not. Broadly speaking, put anything irrelevant in an Additional Experience section, after your main career history section. Whatever is relevant to the role (including internships, voluntary work, short-term projects etc) can go in the main section.

Give years of employment for each main role listed, but group together temp agency or very short-term roles. If you’ve had the same employer for a long period of time, show how you progressed in the company.

Rather than focussing on a list of responsibilities, show how what you did added value to the role and to the company.

Education and training
Only include the most recent or relevant education, such as professional training, or your degree. You don’t need to include secondary school education or GCSE grades.

First impressions can make or break your CV. If yours is packed with small, dense text without enough white space to break it up, it’s going to look uninviting. Create a visually attractive and well laid-out CV, and your reader is going to be more inclined to read on.

How long should your CV be

Expert opinions vary on ideal CV length. A good rule of thumb is one page for people with five years’ or so working experience, while those with ten or more will probably need to go to two pages. Medical or academic CVs can be much longer, with appendices for lists of publications.

But the key is to make sure your CV doesn’t look cramped. Resist the temptation to squash in as much as you can. You can either extend your CV to an extra page, or concentrate on making it more concise.

How to keep your CV concise

- avoid repetition
Consolidate your key skills at the beginning of your CV. You can title this section “Core competencies” or “Key skills” or “Key areas of expertise”. Doing this means you can avoid writing similar lists of responsibilities for each job.

- group by theme
If you’ve had a number of temp agency jobs, these can go under one heading (making the agency name the heading). You can also group skills and accomplishment by theme.

- stay focussed
You don’t need to include everything you’ve ever done on your CV. Focus on the most relevant skills, accomplishments and work history, and delete anything which is now obsolete or too far back to be of much interest. Ten to fifteen years back is generally far enough.

How to make your CV visually attractive

- avoid dense text
Don’t use long paragraphs, as it’s more difficult for your reader to scan for key information. Paragraphs should generally be no longer than two or three lines. Use double spacing to break these up. Use headings and subheadings to draw your reader’s eye down the page.

- avoid long bullet-point lists
These are just as difficult to read as dense text. Find ways of breaking up long lists, by using headings and sub-headings, or boxes with two columns, rather than just one.

- use a sensible font size
Your name should stand out, so use a larger font size for this and your contact details. The rest of your CV should be in a font size that is easy to read.

- use white space
Make sure there’s enough white space around major section headings, and between chunks of information to make the most important information stand out.

- add visual interest
Bold your headings, lightly shade boxes, include some colour to emphasise key information. Text inserts, charts and graphs can also be effective when you want to present numerical information in a striking way. See how to write a CV with impact for examples from professional resume writers

If you’ve used special design elements, consider sending your CV as a PDF, rather than as an email attachment, to make sure it displays as you intended.

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