So you’ve rewritten your CV with all your recent experience in it, and put in the latest buzzwords. But before you send it out to prospective employers, check for these entirely avoidable mistakes – which Ireland’s financial services recruiters tell us are all too common.

1. Grammar / Typing errors

It’s of paramount importance to check your CV for basic mistakes that can make you appear unprofessional.

Elaine Liston from Hudson Banking & Finance Recruitment says bad spelling or grammar is a real no-no and that some candidates make really basic spelling mistakes, indicating a lack of attention to detail.

Liston says some people even spell their previous employer incorrectly. “A common mistake for Ernst and Young employees is to write “Ernest” and Young,” she tells us.

Ken Harbourne, from recruiters Wallace Myers International, says financial services clients are alert to CV errors such as changing bullet points from circles to squares half way through. He also recalls a CV that answered the question, “What remuneration are you looking for?” with the answer HIV (instead of VHI – Voluntary Health Insurance)

2. Irrelevance

Harbourne continues that although mistakes aren’t a CV-binning reason for him, relevance is. “I go straight for experience. If it’s not immediate, impactful and relevant to the market, I’m not interested,” he says.

Eoin Blake, from Lincoln Recruitment, reaffirms this. “We can be swamped by CVs. People need to be applying for the right job. Some people send out hundreds of CVs, all the same. We have often had the same person applying for 5 similar jobs, with exactly the same CV each time.

“Once we even had a Panel Beater, with no financial experience, apply for a job as an Accountant,” Blake adds.

3. Poor Photos

“It’s not a usual thing to send in a photo with a CV in Ireland or theUK, but it is common place for candidates from other jurisdictions to do so” says Harbourne.

If you do send a photograph with your CV, however, Liston says “don’t include a full head to toe photo, which someone did once.  It’s an unusual thing to include when you are applying for a role in Finance or Banking!”

Harbourne adds “be careful to attach the right photo if you do include one – we were once sent a picture with a man sitting on a sofa watching TV with his two kids, surrounded by ash trays and cigarette ends. It didn’t make a good impression.”

4. Unappealing hobbies

Hobbies can be a positive addition to your CV when they provide a more rounded view of your attributes.

If you’re a graduate, for example, it will help if you are able to detail hobbies such as volunteer work. However, Harbourne also suggests you might want to avoid. “Over the years some unusual hobbies that have stuck out are Dancing like John Travolta, Eating Fruit and Fantasizing,” he says.