An overview of “not to do” things while making your first CV

1. My First CV
An overview of “not to do” things while making your first CV
By
Muhammad Bilal

2. Be Organized
• Your resume is the first
impression an employer makes
about you. Make sure it
structured and organized
properly, with the information
the employer needs mentioned
prominently. Your name, age and
contact information (email
address and cell phone number)
should easily accessible and
formatting should be proper with
uniform font size and Color.

3. The Objective Statement
• “I would like to contribute
to the best of my ability and
leverage my knowledge….”
– an objective statement
like this is not going to
make you stand out.
• Don’t bother with big
words and jargon to sound
professional. Be simple,
straightforward and honest
– limit your objective
statement to 15 words or a
one liner.

4. Be Grammatically Sane
• Leave ‘SMS or Chat Syntax’
aside. It is a complete no-no
in resumes and professional
emails, “This is the
document which is going to
sell you; if you are not
serious about it, there is
little else you will be serious
about in life.”
• Do not forget to make full
use of spell check and
grammar check available in
most text editing software’s
like Microsoft Word before
submitting your CV for any
Job.

5. Email Address
• It is not easy to find an email
address with only your name,
but that doesn’t mean you
shouldn’t upgrade from the
account you made in seventh
class!
• Sending a job application with
an email address that has your
childhood nickname, or your
cast, or some self created
attribute like “cute”, “lonely”,
“pretty”, “mad”, your bike’s
registration no, or combination
of your cell network code with
your crush’s initials are just not
acceptable.

6. Avoid Junk
• So, you stood first in 8th grade?
Interesting, for you and me
maybe. But an employer really
doesn’t care.
• Very Important, No need of listing
down all the courses you took
during your graduation, The
employer might be interested in
learning about your strong skills
and achievements during your
study.
• Keep your resume compact, to the
point and no more than two page
long. Employer is not expecting
long work and experience history
from you.

7. Rectify the Confusion
• There is a clear
difference between
Cover Letter, CV, Job
Application and
Portfolio. If the
recruiter asked for
portfolio, add it or
attach it with your
CV as separate
document.

8. Be Yourself
• Be confident about what you
can, instead of pretending low
profile or over confident while
describing about yourself.
• Highlight your strengths and
natural talent, any confusion
can get you rejected for no
actual reason.
• Be honest about your skills and
experience, Any deception will
be very obvious to an
experienced interviewer and
will cost you the job.
• If you truly have no work
experience don’t try to
fabricate it in your CV

9. No Copy
• Do not copy, make your CV
on your own, its your
personal presentation, if
you copy your friend’s
information, both CVs
might end up in garbage
can.
• Employers are more
concerned to know about
YOU, no use of mentioning
your project team
members and their
achievements. If they are
better then you, refer
them.

10. No All in One
• You should not make an
All in One CV by adding
everything you found on
CV samples online or
inspired by some industry
seniors.
• If you are good in design,
incorporate your
designing skills, instead
of adding cooking classes
and 6 months airline
ticketing course as your
skill or experience.

11. Review
• Keep your CV updated with
your activities, either it’s on an
online portal or in shape of
document soft copy or hard
copy.
• Always review your CV before
applying for any job, you might
have forgotten to add your
latest achievements, courses or
experiences which are relevant
to job requirements, in your CV
document which you have
made 6 months ago.

12. 21 Reasons for getting Rejected
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A Ridiculous Email Address
Spelling & Grammar
The Picture
Inaccurate Dates
Formatting
Too Much Details of Experience
Too Much Personal Information
Misleading Information (Inflated salaries, Exaggerated job titles)
Silly Fonts
Long Paragraphs
Relevance of CV
Lack of Covering Letter
Wrong Chronological Order
Unexplained Career Gaps
Lack of Employer Information
Applying for so many positions in same organization
Meaningless Introduction
Weird Hobbies
Lack of Contact Details
Pretending, Writing CV as 3rd Person
Format of CV (WORD, PDF etc ) Using Zip/RAR Files, Image Files or sending a URL to your online CV/Portfolio

13. Thank You
Any Questions?
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