To ask for the biggest CV fails you've come across?

This is why I title the employment section on my CV as 'Recent Employment' and include only the last ~15 years (unless its an application form specifically asking for full employment history).

But then if they were to try and work out my age via employment dates, first job + 15 years would put me in prime potential maternity leave category anyway, so I'm not sure that's any less likely to be discriminated against than 'we think she's past it' age if the employer is inclined toward discrimination.

It's a bloody minefield!

They may not actually invite you to come to an interview in person, but they could still give you the job if they believe that they've felt your presence anyway!

That's great for you; but other recruiters will be interested to see what hobbies potential employees have - even if it's just something like golf, so they can schmooze the boss/important clients on the golf course; or baking, in the hope that they will bring in regular Friday treats!

It's extremely unlikely that your hobby/interest alone will win you the job, but if you're one of several equally-good candidates with the same qualifications and experience and nothing else between you, sharing a passion with the boss might just tip it in your favour.

Years and years ago when I was in HR someone had written under ethnicity 'born in Scotland of Scottish parents'. I could feel the pride.

A friend once sent a Star Trek fanfic instead of her cv.

Maybe if the recruiter read it they might have been inspired to explore strange new worlds and boldly go where they had never thought of going before. Some fanfic goes to very strange places, and in sci fi almost anything goes.

I was advised not to put DOB on a CV but my first job was 1972 so it could easily be guessed

That is fantastic 😂

I don’t read hobbies on a cv - I couldn’t care less what you do as a hobby. I get why 16 year olds would put it in their CVs but I don’t interview 16 year olds.

I think this is what is blatantly overlooked by the people who chastise those who include hobbies and interests on their CVs.

It's all well and good when you're 55 and have years of solid, auditable experience under your belt, but everybody has to start somewhere. Knowing that a school-leaver has a keen passion for a productive pastime, or the discipline to attend regular training for a team activity, are very positive facts that shouldn't just be ignored, purely because a 16yo hasn't yet had the chance to become a chartered accountant or CEO of a SME.

It's all about the stage of life you're at, and absolutely not your fault or anything you can possibly change. It's why everybody so keenly wants to know a baby's sex, birth weight, birth time and name - because they obviously haven't yet had an opportunity to do anything groundbreakingly original or exciting.

To be honest, I wonder if this is the same message that makes the candidates on The Apprentice feel pressured to 'embellish' their workplace achievements, to the absurd extent that they claim 14 years in a senior management role when they're still only 25!

A friend once sent a Star Trek fanfic instead of her cv. The covering email said something like “I hope the attached will explain about my skills and experience will make me suitable for the job”. Unfortunately the job she was applying for didn’t involve piloting the Enterprise…

It is. It’s perfectly fine.

🤣

I'm feeling bad now as I just helped my DS do his first CV using my template. I was unaware everything changed. In fairness he is just 16 so hobbies are the only relevant information about him. He plays with a local team at a high level so it's usually well respected and he mentioned ability to follow direction and work as a team. I thought it was impressive.

I worked briefly for a recruitment agency and saw all sorts. My favourite was a guy who under hobbies and interests had written ‘bacon’.

It's not difficult to more or less know the age of most candidates, regardless of whether or not they explicitly tell you, if they've told you the years when they did their A-levels/GCSEs etc.

Just like they don't need to tell you that they're from a wealthy, privileged home background - if their CV includes their attendance at Harrow School.

To an extent, you can also hazard a guess based on their name. If they're a Keith or Linda, they're highly unlikely to be in their 20s. I presume racist recruiters probably also find a convenient 'reason' why Balwinder or Mohammed's qualifications or experience 'aren't quite what we were looking for'.

I didn't read his essay but I'd say sometimes factual information is required to back up an argument.
A PhD candidate once sent me a 5-page CV accompanied with a 5-page cover letter. It had taken them 8 years to complete their PhD - I was not in the least bit surprised. 😂

I am writing to apply for the position of (whatever), as seen in (where you saw the ad, you had to include this for some reason)

So that they'd know how to target their advertising. If no-one, or no-one suitable for that job, mentioned having seen it in the local paper, for example, they'd know not to bother with that in future. OTOH, most candidates for an office junior type role might have seen it in the local paper, so they'd stick with advertising those jobs there.

One of our colleagues did a degree on retiring at King College - one of his essays was marked down severely for having bullet points in it - he appealed and lost the argument but he was so incensed by the stupidity of not allowing bullets as a legitimate form of efficient communication he left and went to another Uni with more sense!

Bullet points were never acceptable in any academic essay I ever wrote. An essay is about developing an argument with supporting evidence. How do bullet points achieve that? They are for presenting factual information.

Do tell!

Was it 'Screw Flanders'?!

It was illegal at the time too. Didn't stop them asking me to do it!

I have a disability and they aren't allowed to discriminate on that but it goes nowhere near any applications because I know it can and will be used against me. Even if against equality law

Putting your date of birth on a CV would not bother me in the slightest, I wouldn't notice.
Weirdly I'm not too fond of a photo on a CV - yet I am always a little suspicious of a lack of photo on LinkedIn - which I do realise is contradictory - it wouldn't be the reason for a pass or fail.

I was once tasked with estimating the age of applicants for a stack of cvs and remove any that were above or below a specific age criteria. If a company are going to judge me on my age I would rather they did so on my actual age!

That's now illegal. Putting your date of birth on your CV suggests to the employer that you're not up to speed with equality legislation.

One of our colleagues did a degree on retiring at King College - one of his essays was marked down severely for having bullet points in it - he appealed and lost the argument but he was so incensed by the stupidity of not allowing bullets as a legitimate form of efficient communication he left and went to another Uni with more sense!
Anyway I'd say a few grads have to learn the hard way, some write their cover letter like it's a piece of poetic prose - this does not show me their mastery of the English language - it shows me they don't know how to write in business English - that is the most generous interpretation. What's more likely is the generic nature of the letter points to a letter written by someone else and the candidate's grasp of English is so poor they can't even tailor the letter.
And on cover letters - use them to tell an employer why you want to work in their industry, at their company and finally in the job you have applied for. Genuinely think about why, think about your journey and how it has led you to the job you are applying for - that's what I want to see in a cover letter and I only see it in maybe 10% of them and that's after we specifically asked for them to answer these questions.

I was more replying to the person that wasn't sure whether to remove the bullets in their cv.

Someone else mentioned academia Vs business and yes! In post doc level positions it definitely is frowned upon although in my actual day job our reports are PowerPoint - picture and bullet points rather than a written report!

I always put my dob on my CV

I was once tasked with estimating the age of applicants for a stack of cvs and remove any that were above or below a specific age criteria. If a company are going to judge me on my age I would rather they did so on my actual age!

There's so much bias in applications!
All the jobs I have got I have either known a mutual person or previously worked in the same companies never with the person. I don't think it particularly swayed their opinion but having the opening question of "I see you were at X in 2006 so was i, what a small world. Right shall we start the interview". The touch of small talk and familiarity put me at ease and I gave a better interview than when I applied places and had no connections

I recall telling a student a good 20 years ago not to use the email address for his hard rock band, EvilDeath@ provider.com.

I owe my career to an ex boyfriend telling me to remove two words from my cv.