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Common CV Pitfalls:
There are a number of common mistakes often made when writing a CV; these mistakes can have varying negative impacts. They may score you minus points before you get to the interview or cost you an interview altogether!
Spelling & Grammar
This may seem like an obvious one, and well…. It is! Spelling & grammatical errors are often overlooked when writing a CV. A CV with spelling and grammatical errors will make you look very unprofessional to the reader, so ensure you cut out these before sending your CV. The best way to check for these errors is to read you CV out loud, amend anything that doesn’t sound correct.
Too much content
An employer doesn’t want to know about every aspect of your previous jobs. You should only include information that is relevant to the teaching position you are applying to. It is often better to use bullet points rather than a long paragraph, this way you will remove temptation to go into too much detail.
One size fits all approach
Each teaching role will be different in some way or another, even if it is the same job title! Don’t under any circumstances adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach for your CV. An employer will have outlined certain skills & qualities in their job advert, tailor your CV for each job so these skills & qualities are expressed clearly. This rule also applies when writing a covering letter for a teaching job.
Lengthy CV’s
As you might imagine people who interview are often very busy people, so they need to be able to view CV’s as quick as possible. This means that they often only scan over the CV for key skills, attributes etc. If your CV is too long, they may not even consider it! You should do all you can to ensure that your CV is no more than two pages in length.
Omitting Information
Although it’s important to try to adhere to the two page rule, equally important is not omitting key information. If you have had several jobs and don’t consider some of them relevant, you should still allude to them. You should also ensure you explain any gaps in employment.
No Evidence
Try not to list your skills & attributes without providing solid examples, e.g. if you wish to convey yourself as being a good communicator you may write: “I utilised my communication skills to serve customers while working as a part time barman/barmaid”.
Clean and simple
Your CV has no need to be “all singing & dancing”; the value of a CV is in the content not the design. Keeping your CV clean and simple will ensure that the content is easy to read and isn’t over powered by unnecessary borders and images. You should keep the font black on a white page, unless you have a valid reason not to do so!
Keeping your CV up to date
You must make sure that you keep your CV up to date, especially your contact details. Remember the details you supply on your CV are the only ones the employer has to contact you. It is also worth noting that your email address should be as professional as possible. If the only email address you have is not suitable, create a suitable one! Many web mail accounts are free, so why not create yourname@hotmail.co.uk and use it only for job applications?