Creating a winning CV takes time and needs real focus and careful wording, design and content selection. To achieve a CV (your job and career marketing document) that secures interviews, all areas of the strategy must be spot-on and consciously used in the most effective way. One of the most common mistakes job searches candidates make when writing their CVs is not paying attention to strategy and word selection.
There are actually words that can have a detrimental impact on the effectiveness of your CV. When most job searches write their CV, they don’t consider word choice because they are principally worried about getting down the main information. We believe that wording is critical and the wrong words can effectively sabotage your CV.
Why is this important? The average recruitment agent and/or hiring manager sees hundreds of CVs from qualified candidates. As a result CVs begin to look and sound the same to them.
Here are some words and phrases to avoid:
Soft-skill descriptions
Job seekers feel they need to communicate their soft-skills to the employer because they believe they are the traits that make them unique, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Soft-skills are so common that recruiters pay no attention to them.
Phrases to avoid or severely limit:
Excellent communication skills
Strong work ethic
Personable presenter
Detail-oriented
Do not bore the reader with these overused and tired phrases. After all, we don’t write that we take long lunches, are lazy and argue a lot with work colleagues. It is much more effective to write a description that is action-based and demonstrates these abilities rather than just laying claim to them. For example, rather than just stating you are an “excellent presenter,” it is better to say “Developed and presented 50+ multi-media presentations to prospects resulting in 35 new accounts, totalling £300,000 in new revenues.”
Age, health, appearance
Many seasoned job searches are facing that scary time known as pre-retirement and fear age discrimination. They feel they can get round this perceived hurdle by giving a description of their age or health. Avoid this like the plague.
Phrases to avoid:
Youthful
Athletic
Fit
Healthy
Mature
Also, unless specifically requested, do not include personal details such as date of birth, marital status or whether you have children. This information is typically used to exclude candidates from consideration in the hiring process rather than include them. Unless an employer specifically asks, keep this information confidential.
Passive voice
Do not write in the passive way. Your CV needs to be punchy and have impact and communicate an active, assertive candidate. Being passive does not accomplish that.
Some of the indicators of being passive in your CV are using words like:
“Responsible for”, “Duties included”, “Served as”, “Action encompassed,
Instead of saying “Responsible for management of three direct reports” change it to say “Managed 3 direct reports.” It is a shorter, more direct mode of writing and adds impact to the way your CV reads. On the other side, whilst action verbs are good, don’t overdo them.
Take your time
A CV is a marketing document for your career just as a brochure is a marketing document for a product or service. Companies put careful thought and consideration into each and every word that goes into marketing copy and you should do the same in your CV. These words stand in your place with the employer and need to showcase you in a powerful way. In a perfect world, these things would not matter, but in the reality of job search today, they matter a great deal. Be wise – stop and give some thought to the words you choose.
For more information contact Peter Wilford