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"Consistently tanked the top sales executive":
Spelling and typos

Various surveys have been published that reveal the extent of typos and spelling errors in CVs. Between them they report that somewhere between 50 to 80% of all CVs contain at least one typographical error. When you think about just how important a CV is this figure seems quite incredible.

Some people bemoan the fact that kids aren't taught the importance of spelling and grammar at school anymore. They are too busy learning about global warming, environmental degradation and the huge turnaround needed by the human race to prevent us wiping out mother earth. Hmm. But a CV is still important. After all, there may be some intelligent people with great ideas on how to change the world but they still need to get the right jobs to make it happen right?

It's an unfortunate aspect of human nature that when faced with a pile of CVs, recruiters generally look for reasons not to interview people. To recruiters, spelling mistakes literally leap off the page.

The main reason for mistakes is actually very human; most people check their CV themselves. Once you become familiar with a document you tend not to notice typos. And many errors are not picked up by computer spell checks anyway. The simple answer is to get someone else to check your CV for you. They are far more likely to spot those common mistakes like spelling driving 'license' when it should be 'licence'.

Funny isn't it? There are probably many job seekers with all the right qualifications and experience who are surprised at the lack of interviews they may be getting and the answer could be down to just one badly positioned spelling mistake.

This article is written by CV Writers who offer a professional writing service and can be contacted at www.cv-writers.org.uk