CV blunders highlight candidates’ failings

Specialist recruitment consultancy IntaPeople has discovered more CV howlers from jobseekers, eager to impress but failing spectacularly.

After examining 600 CVs earlier this month, the company found that more than a quarter (29%) contained serious spelling or grammatical mistakes.

However, more alarming were the CVs where ‘sun tanning’ was listed as a favourite sport and the candidate who TYPED HER ENTIRE CV IN CAPITAL LETTERS – oops, sorry.

Here’s the top 10 in the Pick of the CV Howler Pops.

1. Under his ‘Key Attributes’, one jobseeker thought that it would be wise to put‘BMW owner’and‘steely blue eyes’.

2. One candidate chose to use an expanded picture of his face as the background for every page of his CV.

3. One individual submitted a CV spanning 20 pages. If that wasn’t worrying enough, 19 of the 20 pages included his top 10 favourite singles, albums, films and television shows for every decade since 1950.

4. One candidate observed: ‘Attention to detail is one of my key stremgths’.

5. One person described his favourite sport as ‘sun tanning’.

6. In a bold red font, one unfortunate finance manager put the words‘Went Bankrupt’next to her previous three employers.

7. One particularly loud candidate decided to submit her entire CV in capital letters.

8. One overly passionate individual said that he had ‘an extremely disgusting fetish’for print, packaging and creative design.

9. In applying for an IT vacancy, one individual opened his CV with‘I have a strong interest in Aerobics which I take part in every evening’. He went on to explain that his dream was to open up his very own aerobics studio.

10. Beneath the ‘Core Skills’section of her CV, one individual wrote: ‘I am great with animals as I have three cats of my own and a hamster.’

If you have found similar examples of CV sadness, don’t keep them to yourself — share the joy…!

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