Seven CV Mistakes That Send Your Application to the Reject Pile

Recruiters don't read CVs; they scan them, in about six seconds, before deciding whether to keep going. These are the seven mistakes that most reliably end the scan early.

1. Listing duties instead of achievements

“Responsible for social media” describes the job — any holder of that job could write it. “Grew Instagram engagement 3× in six months” describes you. Every bullet should survive the test: could anyone else in that role have written this line?

2. Burying the good stuff below the fold

The top third of page one is your entire first impression: name, current title, a sharp three-line profile, and your strongest recent achievement. If your best evidence is on page two, it may as well not exist.

3. Fancy two-column templates

They look lovely — and applicant tracking systems shred them, reading across columns and scrambling your history. A clean single-column layout with clear headings parses perfectly and still looks premium if the typography is disciplined.

4. The waffle profile

“Motivated, dynamic team player with excellent communication skills” contains no information. Replace adjectives with facts: what you are, your years of relevant experience, and the one thing you want to be known for.

5. No numbers anywhere

Numbers are what eyes snag on during a scan. Budgets, percentages, headcounts, timeframes, volumes — even honest approximations (“around 40 calls a day”) outperform adjectives every time.

6. One CV for every job

You don't need to rewrite your CV per application — you need to re-aim the top third: profile, headline achievements and skills, mirrored honestly to the advert's language. Twenty minutes, materially higher response rate.

7. Careless details

An outdated phone number, an unprofessional email address, inconsistent date formats, “Reference available upon request” filling your last line. None disqualifies you alone; together they whisper doesn't sweat the details — the opposite of what a CV exists to say.

Fix these seven and your CV moves from “fine” to the small pile that gets a longer look — which is the only job a CV has.