Way too much personal information. The typical CV should just show your name, address (e.g. either full address or ‘Resident of xxxxx’), mobile phone number, personal email (avoid using a current work email) and LinkedIn link if you want to promote that.

Your CV should not include any information that the Human Rights Act prevents the recruiters asking. Very often we see content such as age or date of birth, marital status, health status, religion, nationality etc. These details should never be shown on your CV Check as they can potentially be used to discriminate against you.


CV Nz
Overuse of capital letters in the middle of sentences. It is strangely common to see capitals used in all sorts of places where it is simply not required. We spend an hour a day removing capitals!

Attaching qualification certificates or reference letters. Some CV’s come to us with 20 documents as part of the CV, such as all courses ever done or written references. This is especially common for CV’s previously prepared for overseas use. The CV is not the place to attach these. Qualifications should be referred to in the CV but only as ‘qualification, institution and date’ other than where some extra course work being added may be helpful. You should just keep a hard copy of these documents in a folder and take with you to the interview if you want to share or think you may be asked for this.

Generally, too much content. In New Zealand, for 2022, the general expectation with most recruiters is for a brief CV. Three pages of relevant content is fine although if it can be shown on 2 pages then that is even better. About 90% of the CV’s our CV Writers prepare end up on 2 pages and we hear time and time that recruiters were appreciative if the information being shown clearly and concisely.

A personal statement / objective still be shown. More recently there has been a move away from including some sort of statement at the top of the CV. It was typically way too generic and just a duplication of the rest of the CV anyway. The reason the statement is no longer required is that the tailored cover, that should be attached with every application, effectively now replaces this. The letter becomes the statement now and even more detailed and appropriate to the role sought.

Skills being mixed up with the job tasks under each role. Your CV should show 3–6 main tasks per role. This content should be describing the actual work you are required to do, not how you do it. For example, you do not need to say ‘Completing tasks on time’, ‘working in the team’, ‘completing all tasks accurately’. This type of information is better placed in the skills section of your CV.

Photos being included. Unless it is some sort of promotion, beauty related or extreme people facing roles then a photo is just not needed in a CV. The vast number of photos we see included are less than ideal in terms of quality of style. If you do feel you want to include it in your CV (and it is totally a personal choice and you should feel free to do so if you want) just ensure it is a professional style headshot. Like a passport photo but with personality.