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How to proofread

6/20/2018

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In today's competitive job market, it’s vitally important that you make a positive impression at every stage of your job search. An application, with accompanying CV and cover letter, typically provides the first opportunity to impress a prospective employer. It’s therefore vital that all correspondence and documents are error free.

There are various approaches to proofreading: what may work well for one person, may not prove so effective for another. Finding your preferred method will help you routinely incorporate proofreading into your application process. Here are our top tips on how to proofread.

Never rely on spelling and grammar programs
Spell checking with Microsoft Word or similar programs can be useful. Never, however, depend solely on software to check for errors. Even advanced automated spelling and grammar programs have limitations and are unable to identify all mistakes. You will still need to personally examine your content for poor sentence structures, punctuation and syntax, regardless of employing the help of technology.

Take your time
Proofreading may seem a little tedious, especially when you are applying for several roles. However, all the hard work put into applications could be wasted, if they are littered with errors, or don’t meet expectations for business communication.

Attempting to identify and correct all errors in a document, after reading it once, isn’t recommended: this could lead to you missing some mistakes. Allow time away from your screen before going back to proofread and remove anything that could potentially be a distraction. Read each sentence slowly and focus on one small digestible section at a time. This will ensure that you’re giving every aspect of your application your full attention.

Read your application out loud
Reading your CV or cover letter aloud will allow you to hear how the text sounds when it‘s read. This can also help you spot any stylistic flaws, such as duplicate wording or unusual sentence structures. Always try to read at a steady pace; reading quickly can impact the relationship between eye movements and cognitive processing, causing you to skip words and make unconscious corrections.

Also remember to proofread with your target audience in mind. Ask yourself whether individual written statements and sections achieve your overall objective? If not, then change your draft. It’s important to keep a flexible mindset when critiquing your own copy.

Printing and Marking
One of the most effective ways to spot mistakes is to print and physically mark errors. Holding a printed copy gives you a new perspective compared with text on a screen.

Correct punctuation will enhance your message and make it more engaging, by directing the reader and providing them with beneficial pauses. Incorrect, or absent punctuation, will make your text appear disorganised and potentially hard to understand.

Make a note of your mistakes
Regularly proofreading your work can help you to identify any frequent mistakes that you make. Noting these will help you to look out for them whilst you’re writing. Eventually, it will lead to you avoiding them altogether.

Establish your own style guidelines, to ensure that your language and presentation of words is consistent; for example, use of capitalisation or representation of brand names.

Fact checking
Proofreading isn’t just about spelling and grammar, it’s also about fact checking. Make sure that all the details, such as dates, financial values and company names within your application, are correct. It’s worth remembering that references are likely to be taken in the later stages of a recruitment process. If then, information that your referee provides doesn’t correspond with the content a recruiter or hiring manager has read, your progression towards that coveted job offer may come to a sudden halt.

Check for relevance
When checking an application form, ensure your responses are concise and that you answered the questions asked! You may well have additional skills and experience to offer, however, if these aren’t listed as ‘essential or desirable’ in a job description, then don’t include them. Adding superfluous information will just dilute the impact of your relevant areas of expertise and work history.

​It’s also good practice to re-read and critique your CV against every role profile, before you submit your application. In addition to checking content relevance and bias of achievements, also ensure terminology within your application corresponds with the role description’s wording.

Use good formatting
Even a perfectly worded document needs good formatting to make a strong impression, or, at the very least, to meet business standards. Choose a font that looks professional and is easy to read. Calibri or Arial fonts, sized between 10 and 12 points, work well. We also recommend adding spacing to avoid a text-heavy application. Using spaces between sections will make it easier for recipients to read and help their assimilation of information.

Final words of advice
Everyone's approach to proofreading is different. However, once you establish and implement effective proofreading methods, your mistakes will start to disappear. Thoroughly reviewing application drafts and investing time in modifying content improves accuracy, clarity and quality of documents. Alternatively, you may wish to use a professional proofreading service that employs qualified professionals. Whatever your chosen approach, proofreading will prove an invaluable investment and strengthen your first impression. It could just give you that all important competitive advantage!

Guest post written by CV-Library. CV-Library boasts a range of vacancies, from retail and sales to teaching. It’s one of the UK’s leading job boards and also owns sector specific career sites, including Jobs Medical.


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CV advice: costly CV mistakes to avoid

4/1/2016

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Professional CV Writing and Proofreading service
A quickly corrected stumble in an interview can be put down to slight nerves. In a face-to-face meeting there's an opportunity to immediately address any minor mistake, regain composure and still achieve a positive outcome. The same however, is not true for a CV, cover letter or a job application document.
 
Spelling mistakes and bad grammar consistently top the lists of the most common mistakes. A survey of 500 UK employers by the National Citizen Service (The Independent) places them in first and second place for ‘fatal’ CV errors. Your CV cannot swiftly make amends and offer a winning smile to ensure a minor slip won’t damage an application. In the eyes of a hiring manager, an error on a prepared and consciously submitted document is unforgivable. First impressions count. Poor grammar and misspelt words give the perception of inadequate presentation and communication skills, and an unprofessional, even slapdash approach. Needless to say, it’s the quickest route to the reject pile. With built-in spell check tools in most software, there really is no excuse. One good piece of CV advice is not to rely on this completely, as these programmes don’t check contextual spelling mistakes. For example, it won’t pick up sales manger, when you meant to type sales manager!
 
Then there is grammar: it may be the unique format of a CV that leads some to adopt a slightly maverick approach. How an unfamiliar HR or hiring manager will regard this though, is unknown, until that is, you don’t get called for an interview. They may be a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society, or quite simply, somebody who appreciates good written skills. Will capitalisation of common nouns such as functional department or job titles be frowned upon or will your inclusion of an Oxford comma for stylistic reasons out-weigh grammatical correctness? It’s this attention to detail that could give you the edge.
 
Proofreading is essential for any personal marketing material, including LinkedIn profiles, cover letters, personal web pages, as well as that all important CV. This is, of course, included in a professional CV writing service that prepares a CV on your behalf. A proofreading service for a CV you have compiled yourself is well worth the small investment. If English is your second language, this is essential, due to contextual nuances. Translations are often too literal. Software such as Google Translate is a great tool for gaining a quick general understanding of text, but it should never be relied upon for your personal marketing documents. Some original content simply doesn’t translate; cultural differences and subtleties of language should never be underestimated. An appropriate tone on paper is as important as correct interview etiquette in a face-to-face meeting.
 
If any further endorsement was needed for carefully proofing your job search documents, these examples of unfortunate language choices and spelling mishaps, perfectly illustrate where it would have been invaluable!
 
“Please find the attached CV which lists all of my kills”
 
“I’m submitting the attached CV for your consumption”
 
“I’ve updated my CV so it’s more appalling to employers”
 
“I want to play a major part in watching a company advance”
 
“Thank you for your consideration, hope to hear from you shorty”
 
“Please overlook my CV”
 
No doubt their CV was duly overlooked…..
 
 
Interview Fit provides professional CV writing services and an additional proofreading service.
If you are writing a CV, contact us for a free CV review or CV advice, we would be delighted to assist.
 
Post by Jenny Hargrave
(source of quotation: author Jenny Crompton)
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First impressions count, what does your CV font say about you?

8/7/2015

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best CV font
When tasked with writing a CV, more often than not, many will turn to Google for help. The sheer amount of information and tips an online search throws out is overwhelming (yes, ours are there too). Various and conflicting opinions are offered, however, the good news is that there isn’t one definitive correct CV format or presentation style (albeit there are several best practices). One of the more personal decisions to make is CV font size and the choice of font. With a myriad of fonts now available, it could arguably be a prime opportunity to differentiate your application and help get you noticed. Anything that makes a CV more human and less like a job description is usually a good thing, however showing your fun personality through comic sans is ill advised. Your CV acts as a first impression to a prospective employer. The effect of font is subliminal, whole studies have been conducted on the psychology of typeface. Font is the sartorial correctness of the alphabet, just as dress code for an interview, font should be appropriate and convey the right image.

Font falls into two main categories, serif and sans serif. The first being a more traditional decorative style, the second is simpler version. The most well known serif is Times New Roman and whilst traditionally considered safe, it now feels antiquated. Garamond and Georgia are good alternatives as they are still classic, but not overused. Cambria, a Microsoft ClearType, is a newer traditional type also worth considering. For a far more modern professional statement, choose a sans serif. The most popular (some would say banal) font in this family is Arial. Calibri has a similar, yet less ubiquitous feel, Gill Sans says ‘classic British’, or you could opt for Helvetica, the designers’ choice. 

Having chosen your font, keep your CV presentation simple, consistent and avoid colour. Be selective with bold type, keep the body text to a font size 10 or 11, sub headings work well in a size 14 and size 22 is a good choice for your full name. CV font size is important, as it helps the reader review your details with ease.


Just remember though, however sharp your CV looks, it’s the content that really matters.

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