I'm a careers expert and these are the five mistakes you're making when writing your CV

Brits have been offered some much-needed relief as figures showed wages are outstripping inflation by the biggest margin in two-and-a-half years.

And regular pay rose by 2.1 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the three months to February. That was the highest rate since September 2021, reflecting easing prices.

The bad news? The latest official figures also suggest that the jobs market is cooling, with unemployment increasing to 4.2% and vacancies dipping.

Following the news of the UK's increased unemployment rate, careers and education expert Robbie Bryant, from Open Study College, shared five things job hunters could be doing wrong when submitting a CV.

Read on below for his top tips to ensure you don't miss out on your dream job:

Following the news of the UK's increased unemployment rate, careers and education expert Robbie Bryant, from Open Study College, reveals five things you’re doing wrong with your CV

Sharing a photo

Imparting his first tip, careers expert Robbie says that it is key to steer clear of sharing an image with a CV. 

He advises that, unless the employer personally asks for one, it is not recommended and should therefore be avoided as a standard practice. 

Commenting on why this is the case, Robbie said: 'The candidate should only be focusing on presenting their skills, work experience and relevance to the role. 

'The employer is not hiring the candidate based on their appearance, so sharing an image will add no real value to the CV.'

Too many qualifications

Robbie's next tip concerns how to display qualifications on your CV, meaning this piece of advice is slightly more nuanced and depends on the age of a job applicant. 

If you are applying for a job and don't have qualifications from every level of education, then he says that it is beneficial to include them.

He stated: 'If candidates have been in higher education, then the most recent qualifications are going to be sufficient enough for the employer. 

'Unless the candidate has taken up extra qualifications that are relevant to the job role then the employer only needs to know the candidate's highest qualification.'

Unprofessional email

The CV guru said that it is essential for candidates include an email for the employer to contact them. 

However, including an email address that was made a long time ago, with a descriptive name, might give the wrong impression to the employer, as it lacks professionalism.

Instead, he said that you should create a new email address, given that it takes less than five minutes to do. 

In the early stages of the application, the expert says that a professional-looking email address could be the difference between whether or not you make it to the next stage.

Too many irrelevant skills

While Robbie admits that there are no universal approaches on how to correctly formulate a CV, it should be used as a working document and tailored to the job role you’re applying for.  

With this in mind, the expert says it is of course important to include skills on a CV, but that some candidates will often include skills that are irrelevant to the job role. 

He says that, instead, candidates should be listing out between four or five key skills that mirror the skills the recruiter is looking for, something that will help them establish important instances of relevant experience.

Pointless personal details

Sharing his final piece of advice, Robbie said that job applicant should steer clear of including unnecessarily personal details that do not link to the job itself. 

While he encouraged people to share the best version of themselves, he warned that the interviewer does not need to know your exact address or date of birth. 

He pointed out that, while hobbies do help showcase in an interest outside of work, they will not help you to stand out against a competitor's skills or qualifications. 

Robbie finished by advising that, because a CV is a small document, every point included on it should be pertinent to the role you have put yourself forward for in the first place.