5 Things To Leave Off Your CV!

The image features a central logo with the text ‘Mexa Solutions’ in a stylized font, flanked by colourful abstract splashes of paint on either side. Below the logo, there is a title that reads ‘5 things to leave off your CV’ with an image of a CV with a red X over the top.
Posted 2 years ago

​Writing a CV can be a difficult task.

If you’ve never put one together before, it can be hard to know where to start.

It may be that you have a CV but it’s years out of date, and you have no idea how to go about updating it.

Before you get started, there are some things that you want to avoid altogether.

Here are 5 things to leave off your CV:

  1. Photo– unless you need to provide a headshot for your latest movie audition, don’t add your photo to a CV. This just opens you up to discrimination and can take away from the good content on your CV.
  2. Really old jobs – no one needs to know detailed job descriptions about your first paper round, or the part-time job you did whilst at college/uni. If you want to include jobs from many years ago, make sure you limit it to job title, company, and dates under a “Previous Employment” section, rather than detailing all of the tasks/responsibilities.
  3. Out-of-date qualifications – these are no longer relevant if they’ve expired years ago, or focus on your old scouting badges from your younger days… Just keep it focused on what qualifications you’ve achieved recently, that will add to the company or job.
  4. Date-of-birth – you do not need to display this on your CV. Again, this could open you up to discrimination, and isn’t necessary. Let your experience speak for itself.
  5. Poor grammar/spelling/formatting – your CV is your first impression, so having lots of mistakes can send the wrong message. Once written, read your CV aloud – often you’ll pick up on mistakes you might have missed. Also, get someone else to read through it for you – they may find errors you wouldn’t or give insight on how to rephrase parts.

If you’re struggling at all with your CV, do feel free to get in touch – we are happy to help!

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