Every professional worth their salt has at least a CV, Resume or a Portfolio. How else will organisations or potential employers know about you? Now, depending on where you stand, your CV offers an opportunity to leave a lasting first impression. As a Human Resource professional and resume writer, I have seen over a 1000 resumes/CVs. There have been some exemplary ones that have left me feeling like my own resume wasn’t up to par and then there have been those that have left me wondering ‘huh?’.
Below are a couple of reoccurring issues I have seen in the latter type:
Your Photo
Unless you are applying for a modelling job, recruiters/employers don’t need to see a photo of you on your CV. If anyone asks, please direct them to your LinkedIn profile which should have a nice professional photo of you. (More on that topic later)
Your Primary School/Your Local Government Area/State of Origin
There is such a thing known as TMI (Too Much Information). No recruiter or employer needs to know where you are from to determine if you can do the job. If anything, telling us where you are from leaves room for prejudice and bias. What if the recruiter’s horrible mother in law is from your local government? It is important to remember that recruiters/hiring managers are human beings with lives and experiences. As much as we HR folks claim to be unbiased, we are all human and everyone has a bias. (At least most of us.) Don’t get caught up in that drama.
Spelling/Grammar mistakes
This is a major peeve for recruiters/hiring managers. With spell check and other ways to make sure your resume measures up to standard, there shouldn’t be all that many mistakes on your resume. It says to us that you are not intentional or deliberate about your success or how you present yourselves to others. One way I avoid this since we all are prone to mistakes is to get a friend or two to look over my resume –a second or third set of eyes on my resume is always helpful as they are able to find an error or two, I missed.
Unprofessional Email Addresses
You know those fun email address you have that your friends love? madaboutsola@yahoo.com? sexyngozi@gmail.com? adiospecial@aol.com? loveboatabdul@yahoo.com? Yes, those ones? Please keep them out of your CV. Everything about your CV should be as professional as possible. I always advise people to use a combination of their first, middle and last names or initials when creating an email address. For example, someone named Bolatito S. Okoro could use one of the following – bolatokoro@gmail.com, okoro.bola@gmail.com, bolatitokoro@yahoo.com, bolasokoro@gmail.com.
Next time, we will discuss those things that you absolutely need to have on your resume.