Monday 6 February 2012

What Not To Write When Applying For Graduate Jobs

It’s a very competitive market right now and your graduate CV has to stand out. There are a few simple rules you need to ensure you have followed in order to make sure your CV doesn’t turn off graduate recruiters.


Save room for important, factual information and don’t ramble. Listing basic skills everyone has is not beneficial, such as Microsoft and the internet. Only list specialist programme familiarity that will be relevant to the role you are applying too such as programming languages if applying for a software engineering role. There is also no need for ‘responsible for’, just list the responsibilities straight away rather than wasting valuable lines and space.

Avoid generalisations and unsupported statements. With your new found space ensure you back up your claims. Don’t say you are experienced without listing experience, a team worker with no evidence of team working or accomplished and results driven with no proof of achievements. Make a list of what you have been involved with and achieved and go from there, only detail things you can back up confidently in an interview or you’ll fail at the second hurdle.