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8 Fun Facts about CVs and How you Can Use these Facts to Improve your CV

Fun Facts about CVS

Did you know there are so many fun facts about CVs? Writing a CV is something people put off so much and they dread the thought of writing their CV. Here are some fun facts about CVs to, hopefully, make writing your CV a bit lighter!!

1. Did you know that the First CV was written by Leonardo Da Vinci?

It is thought the first person to have written a CV was none other than Leonardo Da Vinci!!! He wrote a detailed synopsis of his career to date in order to secure patronage from the wealthy Duke of Milan. Leonardo included his engineering and weaponry experience as well as his sculpting and artistic abilities.

2. Did you know that the average recruiter or hiring manager will only read a CV for 5-7 seconds?

Yep another amazing, fun facts about CVs, you have a really short time for your CV to impress a recruiter. Recruiters get so many CVs that they spend a very short time scan reading each CV. They are looking for some key things before they devote more of their time reading your CV more in-depth. Here are some of the things they are looking for in your CV:

  • Can you do the job?
  • Will you want to do the job?
  • Will your experience help you to do the job better?

Adding these will keep a recruiter reading your CV for longer and help your CV stand out from the rest of the resumes submitted:

  • Professional email address
  • Well formatted CV- lots of whitespace, clear headings, bullet points and focussing on your achievements instead of your duties.
  • A professional profile at the top of your CV explaining who you are i.e. how you are a perfect match for the job and what you can offer or do for the company.
  • No spelling or grammar errors

3. Did you know that CV (Curriculum Vitae) translates into “The course of my life”?

CV stands for the Latin phrase Curriculum Vitae. This translates to english as “the course of my life”. Which is a really good way to think of your CV. It is the course of your working life. It is also useful because it reminds you that a resume is telling your career story. Like any good story it is important when you are writing your CV to keep it brief, only include relevant details and to make it impactful. Here are some tips to help you write your career story:

  • When you are applying for a job, remember you only need to put in your experience that is relevant to the job.
  • Focus on your work experience from the past 10 years.
  • Use keywords from the job description that show how your career is relevant to this role.
  • Use numbers and percentages to show context to your career story.
  • Name drop- if you worked in a well known company or with well known companies let the reader know and if the companies are not well known, briefly explain who they are.

4. Did you know that in 2000, only 22% of all CVs were submitted online?

Times have changed so much in such a short time, it is such a fun facts about CVs, how much things in less than 25 years. In the year 2000 only 22% of all CVs were submitted online. Today, we would guess that figure is approximately, 99.9%

This also means that the expectations around your CV have changed. When people had to type their CV on a typewriter and physically print out a CV then they were not expected to tailor each CV for each job they applied for. But today, you are expected to tailor your CV for each and every job. It is really easy to tailor your resume for each job you apply for;

  • Use keywords from the job description and use them to describe your work experience and add them to your skills section
  • If you are not sure what the most important keywords from the job description are, use Chat GPT. Paste a job description into ChatGPT and then ask it to tell you the three to five most important responsibilities.
  • Bold the keywords.
  • Amend your Professional Profile section for each job you apply to highlighting your relevant experience, what you can do for that company and what type of company you would like to work (describe the company you are applying to!).
  • Or use this Chat GPT prompt to amend your professional profile: Act as a CV writer and create a compelling professional summary for a job application using my CV and the job description below as a reference, and keep it to 500 characters or less. [Copy/paste your existing CV and the job description.]

5. Did you know that 43% of CV’s are discarded because they are written in third person?

Don’t be that person who writes your CV in the 3rd person! Only the Queen can refer to herself as “one” and not sound strange. We see from the CV’s we are sent in a lot of people are confused what tense to write their CV in so here are our grammar tips for CV writing:

  • Use the past tense e.g. Achieved, Presented, Created, etc. Use the past tense all through your CV, keep it consistent.
  • Use bullet points. Start each bullet point with a power verb e.g. Transformed, Aligned etc.

6. Did you know that 76% of CV’s are ignored if you have an unprofessional email address?

Yes, fun facts about CVs, we look at your email address! 76% of CVs are discarded when they have an unprofessional email address. That means if your email address is JohnnyLovesDrinking@hotmail.com or MaryIsCrazy@gmail.com you are not getting an interview!

Another thing to be careful with in regards to your email address is do not open yourself to age bias with your email address. For example if your email address is margaret1957@gmail.com you should consider changing it.

7. Did you know that 29% of all CVs have a fake degrees on them?

We know people lie on their CVs but 29% of all CVs have fake degrees on them seems like a lot! If you are worried about not having the correct degree or a degree here are some tips to maximise your CV:

  • Put your work experience before your education on your CV.
  • Remember a job description is a wish list. You do not have to have everything on the list to apply for the job. On average you need to tick about 60% off the job description’s wish list.

8. Did you know that 70% of recruiters will not hire you if they spot a spelling or grammar error on your CV?!!

Spelling or grammar errors on your CV will cause 70% of recruiters to not put you forward for the next stage of the process. This is especially true with jobs where attention to detail, word processing and administration are key requirements for the job. Here are some tips for how to check your CV for spelling and grammar errors: 

  • Do a spell check.
  • Use Grammarly to check the grammar.
  • Read your CV out loud. You will be able to hear any strange sentences.
  • Ask a friend or family member to proof read your CV.

We hope you enjoyed our list of fun facts about CVs and you got some tips about how to improve your CV. We know that job hunting and writing CVs can be hard and it is difficult to keep your moral up. We promise it is worth it, did you know the average person spends hours at work? If you are interested in finding a new job, be sure to register your CV with us.

 

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