Your CV is often a employer’s first impression of you.

As is well known, first impressions are important. You should therefore make sure that the CV presents you in a beneficial way.

Get it right

And it’s not just about education and work experience. You should make sure to have some universal things in order.

This is the career website Monsters list of mistakes you must avoid:

1. Typos

The CV must be completely free of typos and grammatical errors. This is very important, as such errors signal that you are less competent and / or sloppy. If you are not fluent in Norwegian, you should get someone who is there to read proofreading for you.

2. Lack of details

Do not be too general. If you have recruited, trained and managed 20 employees in a company, you are doing yourself a disservice by only writing that you have “worked with 20 employees”.

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3. Using a standard template.

Are you among the many who have a completed CV laying in the drawer? Be careful when using it. Employers quickly see if you have used a standard template. They want a resume written especially for them and the job you are applying for. This way you can more easily explain why exactly you are suitable for the job in question.

4. To mention duties, not results.

Avoid listing your work tasks. What is important to bring out is what results you have achieved in the job. If you have been responsible for a field, you should tell what you have achieved while you had this responsibility.

5. To miss the length.

Five pages is definitely too long, half a page is too short. One page is suitable for many, but you can extend to two pages. Remember that the CV should be clear and straightforward, but it should not be so short that you are not told key things.

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6. Using standard phrases.

Steer clear of phrases such as “an exciting job in a developing area” or “I think I will be able to do a good job”. Employers turn more on what specifically focuses their needs. Are they looking for a person with experience in project management? For example, write that you are “looking for a job where you can use your years of experience in project management”. Feel free to be specific about how many years and size of the projects.

7. To forget verbs.

Avoid the noun disease. If you use verbs, you signal – in addition to good linguistic understanding – action and determination. Drop “responsible for completing the report”. Instead, write “finished and delivered the report by the deadline”.

8. Omitting information.

It can be tempting to avoid mentioning the part-time jobs you had as a student. Bring them. You have given yourself competence that an employer can appreciate. If you leave out something you are not proud of, you will get a temporal “hole” in your CV. Such holes should be avoided.