10 CV Mistakes That Quietly Cost You Interviews
The recurring errors recruiters see daily — and how to fix each one before your CV reaches the rejection pile.
Mistake 1: Treating your CV like an autobiography
Your CV is not a complete history of your career. It is a marketing document tailored to a specific role. Every line should answer the question: does this make me a better candidate for this job? If not, it does not belong on the page. Cut the high-school job, the irrelevant certification from 2009, and the responsibilities that are obvious for your role.
Mistake 2: Writing duties instead of impact
"Responsible for managing a team" is a sentence almost any candidate could write. Recruiters discount it instantly. Replace generic responsibilities with specific outcomes: how big was the team, what did they ship, what changed because you were there?
Mistake 3: A vague, generic summary
If your summary could fit any job ad in your industry, it is too vague. A strong summary names your role, your years of experience, your two or three sharpest strengths, and the type of role you want next. Three or four sentences, no fluff.
Mistake 4: Ignoring the ATS
Most mid-size and large companies use applicant tracking systems. Heavy graphics, multi-column PDFs created in design tools, text inside images, and exotic fonts can all break parsing. Use a clean single-text-flow layout, standard section names (Experience, Education, Skills), and submit as PDF unless instructed otherwise.
Mistake 5: Forgetting keywords
Mirror the language of the job description — within reason. If the ad asks for "stakeholder management" and you wrote "working with people," you have lost a keyword match. Do not stuff; restate the truth using their words.
Mistake 6: Inconsistent formatting
Dates in different formats, headers in different sizes, mixed bullet styles, italics that come and go. These small inconsistencies tell a recruiter you do not pay attention to detail. Set a style and apply it ruthlessly across the document.
Mistake 7: A two-page CV when one would do
If you have fewer than five years of experience, fight to keep it on one page. Recruiters are not impressed by length; they are impressed by signal density. Cut anything that is not pulling its weight.
Mistake 8: Hiding the most relevant work
Strict reverse-chronological order is the default — but you can subtly reorder bullets within a role to put the most relevant items first. Within Skills, lead with the technologies the ad mentions explicitly.
Mistake 9: Unprofessional contact details
A cute Hotmail address from 2008 quietly undermines you. Use a clean firstname.lastname email, include your LinkedIn URL (customized, not the random number version), and only include a portfolio or GitHub link if it is up to date and represents you well.
Mistake 10: Sending without proofreading
A typo in your job title or your own name is an instant rejection at competitive companies. Read your CV out loud, run it through a spell checker, and ask one trusted friend to look at it. The five minutes you spend here may be the highest-leverage five minutes of your job search.