1) Typos/spelling/grammar: Pretty easy and straightforward one, but if the applicant hasn’t taken the time to go through and double check their CV or worse actually can’t spell, or their grasp of the English language is not at an acceptable standard, then don’t bother. There is the odd exception to this where the role itself does not require a high level of literacy, but generally this would be manual labour.

2) Unexplained gaps in their career: Often easy to miss, but a year’s gap can easily be disguised in a CV. Anyone who is out of work for a period of time – there needs to be a good reason why.

3) Bad formatting: Again similar to point one, if the applicant does not take the time to lay out their CV in a logical and easy to read manner or haven’t made the effort to ask someone else to assist them, then this can tell you a lot about the attitude of the candidate.

4) Why did they shift jobs so often? Candidates with multiple unexplained job changes are ones to be wary of. Non logical career choices, i.e. step down rather than up – questions marks should be asked.

5) Job ad spamming: A few interesting things to watch out for here:

• Addressed to Dear Sir/Madam (obviously just copied and paste from the previous 50 jobs applied for).
• Application received within 2-3 hours of the job being posted.
• Emailed to multiple jobs in the same email and not blind copied! Strange you might think but we get this all the time.
• International candidates with no obvious explanation of their relocation plans.

6) Arrogance: Probably a Kiwi thing, but I have seen a number of statements which have put me off from the beginning. A few examples to share with you: Every job finishes with “I was then headhunted for……”, “I answered only to the Managing Director”, “I require a package of $x, vehicle, relocation costs, medical insurance and 6 weeks leave” and over inflated achievements.

7) Current job and employer: Above all this is where I zero in on. For job/company fit, honesty and technical ability this is the first section I read and will give you a good initial understanding of skills and expertise.

Finally – what is the easiest way to read CV’s? Engage 180 Resource Solutions to manage your recruitment process, we do it everyday and are experts. That way you only have to read the CV’s worth reading.