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"  It is a truth universally acknowledged that CVs are like Oreos. (Wait, before you click away, this will make sense, promise.) Their similarity lies in that there&amp;#039;s no one right way to approach them, and we&amp;#039;re all told different things. Should you twist and lick? (The Oreo, not your CV...). Do you shove it all in? Is nibbling through it, like you would a normal biscuit, frowned upon? While I don&amp;#039;t have a dead-set answer for how to eat your Oreo, I can share good advice I&amp;#039;ve picked up on what NOT to do when it comes to your CV. Try not to... Pose for the cameraWhile you look SMOKIN&amp;#039; hot in that photo from your hols in Tenerife, you don&amp;#039;t need to share it with your potential future employer. Nor do you need to provide them with a picture of you in your reading glasses, to show how clever you are. Photographs on CVs are a big, fat no-no. Employers don&amp;#039;t need to see what you look like - it shouldn&amp;#039;t give you an advantage over people who didn&amp;#039;t submit any &amp;#039;bathroom mirror&amp;#039; snaps - and it kind of makes you look like a noob. Be slick, and cut the pic. (Or just don&amp;#039;t do it, basically). Love yo&amp;#039;self a little too muchSelling yourself is key in the process of getting a job, from your CV to the interview, but there&amp;#039;s a fine line between self-promotion and just blowing your own, massive, honking trumpet. Stating that you&amp;#039;re punctual, reliable and enthusiastic is a great, quick sell. Boasting that you&amp;#039;re the best at what you do, EVS, and that you have too much raw talent for lowly jobs? Yeah, that doesn&amp;#039;t usually get you any brownie points. Go off on a tangentYour black belt in karate, distinction in tap dance and qualification in life guarding are all really impressive, but they don&amp;#039;t all need to make an appearance on your CV. Filter through what will be of interest or use to the employer, and the job. Got a basic understanding of Italian? Knowledge of languages is always admired so if there&amp;#039;s space, insert away. Your baking skills? Maybe not so relevant. Tell a porky Playing up your skills is one thing, lying about them is another. Remember when Joey from Friends wrote on his CV that he was a jazz dancer, and was then asked to teach a class? Imagine that fate for yourself, but with less hilarious results. OK, so your interviewer might not pull you up on your apparent &amp;#039;mastermind&amp;#039; knowledge of the print industry circa 1930s, but what if they do? Will you have to keep up the lie for a long time? Will it become impossible? Is it an inevitable pending disaster? Yes, yes and yes. Save yourself the red cheeks and frantic Google searches on your phone, and only big up what is real. Bruv. Let it get messyIt&amp;#039;s not all about looks, but a poorly organised CV is unnecessary. Choose a generic font that&amp;#039;s easy on the eye (so none of this Comic Sans or Impact malarkey) and keep the structure simple; your name and contact details at the top and a section on your experience, education, skills and any other relevant info if you have space. Big gripe for many employers: the words &amp;#039;Curriculum Vitae&amp;#039; written at the top of a CV. It&amp;#039;s likely that they&amp;#039;ll clock on to what it is as soon as it opens in Microsoft Word. Write an award-winning essayA few lines about why you&amp;#039;re right for the job and what you do is welcome, but any longer than two sentences and you&amp;#039;re wasting good space. Employers can decide whether they want to interview you or not from the skills, experience and overall feel of your CV, so a four par thesis on why you deserve this, and how you&amp;#039;ve worked your heiney off your whole, entire life, isn&amp;#039;t going to nail it for you. The best advice I&amp;#039;ve received though, is this: Write your CV with everything you find impressive about yourself, everything that&amp;#039;s sellable - you can even include your natural flare for customising old bits of tat. Yay! Then cut it down. Keep cutting until you have a page of clear, summarised points that will appeal, interest and impress the employer. Ta-da! Visit DirectGov for ace CV pointers. HOW TO WRITE A CV COSMO EDITOR LOUISE COURT&amp;#039;S BEST MAGAZINE JOURNALISM TIPS BAG YOURSELF A GRADUATE JOB "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/worklife/careers/a15677/how-to-avoid-common-cv-mistakes/>