Spelling and grammatical errors still abound on CVs according to a recent survey.
Despite the fact that deficient spelling in a CV is not acceptable, 63% of employers and clients looking for umbrella company contractors say they regularly encounter considerable mistakes.
Staffbay.com surveyed 1,000 employers and discovered that as well as poor English, 25% of employers said applicants included too much irrelevant information.
Tony Wilmot, the founder of the website, explained that the biggest down-fall used to be not tailoring a CV for the role being applied for. Candidates now appreciate that they must personalise their application but they have done this at the expense of grammatically correct English. To a prospective employer, this looks careless.
Among the common mistakes discovered in CVs, applicants frequently confuse it’s and its; you’re and your; and accept and except.
CV Writers recently conducted research into the future of covering letters. 89 HR professionals and managers with responsibility for recruitment were surveyed and more than 20% admitted that they don’t look at a covering letter.
However, 28% do look at the covering letter first and will not look at the accompanying CV unless the letter impressed them. A further 37% will review a CV even if the covering letter does not impress.
Despite these findings, 63% of recruiters still rely on CVs and covering letters to help them decide who to interview. But interestingly covering letters often don’t make it past the first recipient.
Although CV advice services advise that a CV should be no longer than two pages, the study found that this is not necessarily the case. Three quarters of respondents said the length of the CV should depend on the nature of the position applied for.
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Image: Curriculum Vitae by the Italian voice
