Critiquing Your CV: 4 Simple Mistakes You Need To STOP Making Today

By Tabitha Makumi,

After job searching for a while without getting your lucky break, you start to wonder, is my CV the problem and in most cases as Joyce Kang’ethe the regional Human Resource Coordinator at Help Age International confirms, it usually is.

She says, “The CV, mainly its structure or what you’ve included or what you’ve not included are the most common hindrances to that job which you’ve been hoping to get.”

One Rose Kwamboka* wrote to us saying “I am desperately looking for your advice on cv writing in order to help me land upcoming jobs. Please tell me where I normally go wrong. Attached is my CV….”

1.Having a “By the way Kind of CV”
One look at the attached CV and it throws you off a bit. June Njoroge a Career Advisor specializing in CV writing has one word for it, “bogus,” she adds that, “How is a HR Officer supposed to take such a person seriously?”

For starters, allow me to paint a picture of the nature of the CV. It starts off well with the candidate listing their name, marital status, physical and email addresses but after that, things start to go haywire. The problem starts with the alignment of the CV where the “EDUCATION BACKGROUND” appears on the left side of the page and mark you it’s not even underlined.

Ms Kang’ethe says, “It’s common to find such mistakes on CVs and one thing that pops to mind when you come across such is that the applicant was in a hurry and wrote the CV as a by the way and didn’t give it much thought.

Mr Githaiga a HR Officer adds that, “It’s important to draw emphasis on important issues by underlining, putting bullet points and boldening the font where necessary.

2. Being Totally Vague With Duties & Responsibilities
Moving on, Ms Kwamboka is among many Kenyans who continue to commit one grave mistake. On her CV she lists her responsibilities in a previous company with one word and moves on to list another For example she writes, ‘Dispatching, Reconciliation. Record Keeping Records and the list just goes on and on. (Again no underlining or use of bullet points here)

Ms Kang’ethe opines that, “Your duties and responsibilities should be a bit more detailed. At least have a short clear sentence such as “performed bookkeeping for all financial transactions…,” instead of just writing “bookkeeping.”

3.Listing the obvious
She commits the same mistake by having a section dubbed “PERSONAL PROFILE” where she goes on to list things such as Time conscious, Honest, High integrity. According to Ms Kang’ethe, she terms this as vague and doesn’t give you an edge as a job candidate.

She explains that, “Anyone can write are they are organized, or have good communication skills so what you should address here is answering the question ‘how’ by looking at how you can incorporate such qualities in the duties and responsibilities segment.

But Ms June Njoroge is quick to add that, “The mentioned qualities should be aligned to your profession where for example for Ms Kwamboka she can write, ‘Demonstrated ability to organize merchandise efficiently,’ which go in hand with her procurement profession.

4. Not Being Keen With Your Referees
Finally, Ms Kwamboka, lists three referees. Two are from the places she has worked before and the other you can’t begin to tell since she has not indicated their place of work, their job titles nor their email addresses.

Mr Githaiga advises that, “A well written reference section contains at least 3 referees and at most five. Each referee should have his/her full names, position they hold their daytime telephone number and an email address.” He adds that, “One should have at least two referees who are from their previous places of work and were their supervisors.”

Ms Kange’the concludes by adding that, “A cv needs to flow from start to end. One font style and font size really help to make a CV organized because it’s such things that end up speaking volumes about the kind of individual you are.”

Dont Miss any Job Or Article Subscribe to Career Point Kenya by Email FOR FREE CLICK HERE