Have you mastered the art of building a great CV? We bet you have some doubts. Luckily, we are here to clear them for you. These are our top 7 mistakes to avoid when writing your CV.

1. Too many (and unnecessary) personal details

The golden rule is to show only what’s necessary. All that information that can be used as discrimination, such as nationality, religion, and age, can – and should – be hidden. You can disclose them later in the recruitment process when the company asks for it. Ah, and your address? You can keep it to yourself since nobody will send you a letter inviting you for an interview 🙂 #dataprivacy

2. Your photo

Unless it’s a super professional photo, our opinion is that you should avoid it. Your photo can work against you – and, bottom line, you can be judged by it (recruiters are humans, right). So, why risk being left out because of the way you look? Especially in IT, image is not a requirement for a job.

3. References and their contact details

There are some reasons why you should not include references on your CV, but protecting your referees’ privacy is the main one. You don’t know who will see it and what it will be used for, so just share this information when asked. We suggest you to simply include a line saying “References available upon request.”

4. Words and ideas with a negative connotation

When you read a flyer, do they tell you the bad things about the product or just the benefits? That’s the same with your CV. It works as a business card to the recruiter and demonstrates how good you are as a candidate for the job. At the interview, it’s normal to be asked about your weaknesses and moments when you’ve failed, and that’s when you should talk about what’s “not so good” about you. We suggest you to take some time before to prepare for this kind of questions.

5. Too short or too long descriptions of your professional experiences

It’s a matter of balance – you don’t want to be too brief or to bore the recruiter with long explanations. Our suggestion is that you describe the project in 2 or 3 lines and sum up your role in about 5 points. It should be something light that delivers a clear message of what you’ve been doing.

6. Spelling and grammatical errors

We felt the need to focus this point since many recruiters complain about this kind of “distractions” from their candidates. There are free online tools that can quickly check your writing and help you avoid some very basic mistakes.

7. Exaggerations and lies

Saying that you were a project manager with a 10-people team but, in reality, you were the only one on it can be tempting – and, believe us, this happens a lot. The IT industry is not that big and things get known very quickly, so why harm your image? Remember that your CV works like a sales pitch, but it needs to represent reality.

Sprint CV – Your ally building your CV and career

Do you know of more mistakes to avoid when writing your CV? Let us know!

Creating and updating your CV can be a huge challenge.

At Sprint CV, we aim to help IT consultants boosting their career with:

• A free CV generator tool – choose from multiple templates from European Institutions (DIGIT-TM, SITCO, ITS14, etc.), private companies and suggested by our community;
• A second opinion on your CV and advice on how to get a better job;
• Free connection with recruiters from top companies in Europe;

Feel free to reach out to our founder on Linkedin or via Email.