What should and should not be written in your CV

For someone who has worked within the Recruitment field for more than 6 years, I pretty much receive CVs about more than 50 on a daily basis. This does not include those who just sends me their CV asking if any of my roles fit their profiles. These CVs are written in different fonts, colors, designs and even layouts.

Each CV has different contents and this makes me wonder if people know what should and should not be included in an applicant's CV that can catch the attention of any HR Recruiters. This prompts me to write an article that can help any individual in enhancing their CV from a recruiters perspective.

• Objectives - if you applied to a particular position it is obvious that you want the job so you do not need to put an objective on why you like to apply for the role especially if you are in the same industry. If you are in a different industry, it may be useful to include a brief summary.
• Irrelevant Work Experiences - experiences that has nothing to do with your current role needs to be taken off and should not be included.

Per Alyssa Gelbard, career expert and founder of career-consulting firm Resume Strategist points out: Past work experience that might not appear to be directly relevant to the job at hand might show another dimension, depth, ability or skill that actually is relevant or applicable. Only include experiences that will showcase additional skills that will translate to the position you are applying for.

• Personal Details - do not include religious preferences, social security number, passport number and marital status. This might have been a standard in the past, but all this information could lead to discrimination, which is illegal, so there is no need to include it.
• Full mailing address - nobody needs to put this in their CVs anymore as it is as a security concern.
• More than one phone number - candidates should only put 1 phone number and that should be the mobile number so that nobody will answer apart from the candidate and you can control your incoming phone calls. Also, please do not put your business phone numbers - do you really want employers calling you at work?
• Blatant lies - posting positions like CEO of the company and winning awards that cannot be proven are most of the lies that we see in the CV.

Rosemary Haefner, Chief Human Resources Officer at CareerBuilder, says these lies may be "misguided attempts to compensate for lacking 100% of the qualifications specified in the job posting..."

• Too much text and too many bullets - my recommendation is a lot of white space with no more than 0.8 margin. Too many bullets can also overload your CV - I call this "death by bullets". Bullets should only be used to draw attention to the most important information.
• Details that show your age - many candidates put their date of birth in their CV, my opinion is, if you do not want to be "discriminated" against for a position because of your age, it is time to remove your date of birth or year of graduation. Also, double spacing after a period could give away your age :)
• References - if the employers request for your references, they will ask for it.
• Inconsistent formatting - the best format is the format that will make it easiest for any hiring managers to scan your CV and still be able to pick out your key qualifications and career goals.

TIP: Once you pick a format, stick with it. If you write the day, month and year for one date, then use that same format throughout the rest of the CV.

• Present tense on your past job - never describe your past work experiences using the present tense. Only your current job should be written in the present tense. FORMULA - Past tense for past job and present tense for current job. :)
• A not-so-professional email address - if you are one of those who still use their first-ever email addresses that they have created during elementary or high school days like [email protected] or [email protected], then it's time to pick a new one - it only takes a minute or two and it is free anyway :)
• Fancy headers, footers, tables, images and charts - while a well-formatted header and footer may look professional, and some cool tables, images and charts may boost your credibility, they also confuse the applicant-tracking systems that companies use nowadays. The system reacts by scrambling up your CV that may no longer include your header or charts. Even if you were an ideal candidate for the position, now the hiring manager has no way to contact you for an interview.
• More than 17 years of experience - when you start including jobs from before 2000, you start to lose the hiring manager's interest. Your most relevant experience should be from the past 17 years, so hiring mangers only need to see that.
• Fonts - be aware of the font size, the goal is to make it look nice and sleek. Curly-tailed fonts are also a turn-off.

"People try to make their CV look classier with a fancy font, but studies show that they are harder to read and the recruiter absorbs less about you..."

• Reasons you left a company or position - listing why you left is irrelevant on the CV. It is not the time or place to bring up transitions from one company to another. The interview is the best avenue for this.
• GPA - if you are a new college graduate and your GPA was 3.7 or higher then it is OK to leave it. But, if you have graduated more than 3 years and your GPA is not 3.7 and above, then DITCH IT! :)
• Explanation on why you want the job - that is what the cover letter and interviews are for.
• Opinions, not facts - I always see candidates describing themselves such as "I am an excellent communicator" or "highly organized and motivated you are" -- please note that these are not facts but opinions of yourself and may or may not be necessarily true.

NOTE: Recruiters want facts only. Let us be the judge if you are those things after we have met you.

• Generic explanations of accomplishments - do not just say you have accomplished x, y, or z - show it by quantifying the facts. Example: "grew revenue from x to y"
• Short-term employment - avoid including a job on your CV if you only held the position for a short period of time as you comes across jumpy.

Sources: Business Insider, Jacquelyn Smith and Rachel Gillett