We recently advertised for a Junior IT person for one of our clients and were completely amazed, and swamped, by the response! Over 400 applications came in and just one job – where do you start shortlisting asks Chimène Felton of Mercia Recruitment.

Here are some helpful hints and tips to make sure that your CV is in the ‘short-listed’ pile and not consigned to the ‘unfortunately your details aren’t suitable’ mound of responses.

Chimène Felton

The first thing to do is read the job advert properly – don’t just see what you want to see.

Put yourself in the shoes of the employer – if they read your CV, how relevant is your background? Do you have the necessary skills and qualifications? Can you get there?

One of the biggest problems though is when you read a CV or covering letter that is littered with mistakes – spelling, grammar, dates etc…

Whilst using a spell check is good practice, unfortunately it doesn’t ‘sense’ check.

You can spell a word correctly, but if it’s the ‘wrong’ word you won’t be alerted to it – for example, whether and weather or their and there.

You are not going to make a good impression if the employer has asked for someone who ‘prides themselves on the quality of their work and attention to detail’ when you’ve not actually bothered to check the one thing that is supposed to sell you!

Print it off and always get someone you trust to check it through for you – it isn’t always easy to spot your own errors.

Spotting errors is a quick and easy way for companies to weed out weaker candidates when faced with a mountain of CVs to read.

We have even had CVs sent in when candidates have actually spelt their name incorrectly – a simple typing error usually, but not a good way to impress!

Once you’re happy that your CV content is 100% correct (and don’t forget you should have many different versions of your CV depending on the role you are applying for), make sure you’ve used a sensible font. Arial is a pretty good option.

Whilst a fancy font and coloured paper might make your CV stand out, it could also do that for all the wrong reasons, so be careful.

Whilst it won’t actually prevent you from being considered for a role, if you have a risqué e-mail address then an employer might think twice before contacting you – with so many CVs they have to start shortlisting somewhere.

An e-mail address like that is fine for friends, but if you are serious about looking for work, then a more sensible address (such as your name) would be better!

Similarly, whilst having a hobby of ‘socialising with friends down the pub’ might be true, it’s not a very good first impression of you.

A prospective employer may wonder how many mornings you will come in with a hangover and worry that you might take ‘sickies’ during the week.

Finally, if you’re applying for a role with a covering e-mail make sure it’s ‘business like’ – an e-mail in ‘text speak’ doesn’t exactly encourage you to look at the CV.

Using terms like ‘LOL’ and signing off with ‘x’ are fine for friends but not if you are looking for work!

It may sound like common sense, but we’ve seen examples of all of these so make sure that your CV is not among them.

First impressions really do count.

Happy job hunting!

Image by the Italian voice on Flickr