Recruiters don't read CVs, not at first. Studies and hiring managers alike say the same thing: the average CV gets about six to ten seconds of attention before someone decides to read further or move on. That sounds unfair, but once you understand what happens in those ten seconds, you can design for it.
The first thing that kills a CV in those ten seconds is a cluttered, decorative layout. Icons, multiple columns, colour blocks, and creative fonts might look impressive to you, but to a recruiter scanning fast, and often to the software reading it before a human does, that design gets in the way of finding your name, your most recent role, and your key skills. A clean, single-column layout with clear section headings will outperform a "designed" CV almost every time outside creative fields.
The second CV killer is the generic objective statement at the top. "Hardworking, motivated recent graduate seeking an opportunity to grow and contribute to a dynamic organisation" says nothing a recruiter hasn't read five hundred times already. That space at the top of your CV is prime real estate; use it for a short, specific summary of who you are professionally and what you're best at, in a sentence or two that couldn't be copy-pasted onto anyone else's CV.
The third mistake is listing duties instead of achievements. Most CVs read like a job description: "responsible for handling customer enquiries," "assisted with data entry," "took part in team meetings." None of that tells a recruiter what you're capable of. Rewrite each line to show the outcome, what changed, what improved, what got delivered because of you being there. Numbers help enormously here, even estimated ones, because they're concrete in a way adjectives never are.
The fourth mistake is a CV with no clear focus. If your CV tries to show you'd be a great fit for marketing, operations, customer support, and data entry all at once, a recruiter reading it for one specific role can't tell if you're actually a fit for that one. Every CV you send should be shaped around the role you're applying for; keep a master CV with everything you've done, and trim it down for each application to highlight what's relevant.
The fifth mistake is one of the easiest to fix and one of the most damaging when missed: typos, inconsistent formatting, and outdated contact details. A single spelling mistake in the first few lines can end a recruiter's attention on the spot, not because the mistake itself is disqualifying, but because it signals a lack of attention to detail, which is exactly what most entry-level roles are testing for. Read your CV out loud before you send it, and get one other person to read it too.
The sixth mistake, tied closely to the software issue above, is missing the exact keywords from the job posting. If a job description asks for "stakeholder management" and your CV says "worked with different departments," an automated system may never connect the two. Mirror the language of the posting wherever it's honestly true of your experience; this isn't dishonesty, it's translation.
The seventh mistake is length without purpose. A CV doesn't need to be one page as a hard rule, but every line on it needs to earn its place. If you're two years out of school with a two-page CV padded with every small task from every small role, cut it down to what's actually relevant to the job you want next. Recruiters notice padding, and it works against you, not for you.
Fix these seven, and you're not just avoiding rejection; you're giving yourself a real shot at the ten seconds that decide everything. If you want to see exactly how your CV, interview readiness, and overall employability currently measure up, that's precisely what the TAS Employability Assessment is designed to show you.
