Over the years of working in recruitment I have seen all manner of CVs from students to Directors – one common mistake made on CVs is an inability to proof read the CV before making applications for jobs. Now it is hilariously funny seeing some of the mistakes but is catastrophic for the applicant as you are clearly demonstrating your lack of attention to detail, good writing skills and sometimes it just looks like you don’t care.

Here are some examples of where spellchecker is not your friend as it won’t pick up the wrong use of language:

• Dealing with customer queries and multi-tasting

Uh oh, you may enjoy tasting from the biscuit tin but that is not addressing the task in hand!

• Ruining corporate level strategy meetings

Ha ha well there may have been times where the meetings didn’t go to plan but running away from this gaff will leave you out in the cold with recruiters.

• Accruing anal reports for senior management

We’ve all had to work on very detailed reports however year end reporting is not to be picked at.

• Managing work odours

There may be a few nasty niffs in the office, I find that buying a plug-in air freshener usually puts things back in order 😉

• Career break – maturity leave

After writing this article I feel some maturity leave may well be in order – it has certainly given me some belly laughs.

• Responsible for coping, editing and print

A good coping mechanism can be to copy others maybe?

• Demonstrable track record of poof-reading

This one just needs to disappear in a poof and some serious proof reading is required.

• Pubic relations officer

Not to be made public I fear.

The lesson to be learned from this story is not to solely rely on spell/grammar checker when writing your CV. It is easy to make a mistake when you are trying to get down all your information and not re-reading the document several times before sending it out to employers and recruiters will be your biggest mistake of all.