Crucial elements that make or break your career –Know what employers look for in a CV

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A CV is the very first point of contact between a job-seeker and an employer; and making this first impression a good one is critical in getting ahead in one's career.

TimesJobs conducted a study to reveal the elements a CV must (and must not) have, to be able to grab the employer's attention and get shortlisted for an interview.

In a study of over 1,100 employers, TimesJobs highlights the most crucial elements that matter to recruiters when shortlisting a CV. Most employers prefer a two-page CV with no grammatical or spelling mistakes, while a CV with no specific details related to the job applied for gets a quick rejection, reveals the TimesJobs study.

According to the majority (55 percent) of employers surveyed, avoiding grammatical errors and spelling mistakes are essential in making a decent first impression, and these mistakes are also the first thing that recruiters notice in a CV.

Highlight What Matters to the Job Secondly, almost half of the employers feel a CV should reflect the candidate's competencies and skills in performing the functions that the job requires. As 46 percent employers say a CV which doesn't have details specific to the job role a candidate has applied for is the biggest let down for the recruiter.

Not More Than two Pages In addition, recruiters are simply not interested in a CV that is longer than two pages.

Nearly 43 percent say the length of CV matters the most. Almost 80 percent employers find a two-page to be the ideal length and 20 percent even preferred a single-page CV.

Over 35 percent also give extra points to the readability aspects of a CV. Bad formatting such as abrupt paragraph breaks, overuse/underuse of bolds and italics and too many fonts are other annoying elements in a CV, state 33 percent surveyed recruiters.