What should you leave off your CV?

Here's our brief list of some of the things that we think you should really consider leaving off your CV.

Including the wrong things on your CV can put off employers and lead to you obtaining far fewer interviews than you should have done.

As a CV writing service, we've seen people make these same mistakes time and time again, costing the candidates innumerable interviews. Make sure that you aren't making any of them yourself, so you'll get more interviews.

Consider leaving the following things off your CV:

Photos - the only people who typically need to include these are models, actors, actresses and possibly air cabin crew. The photos that most people include are poor quality and don't represent them very well. If you do need to include a photo then you may want to consider getting it taken by a professional photographer.
Any sort of failure - whether this is exams, marriages (don't list that you are separated or divorced), businesses, etc. These have no place in your professional CV.
Reasons for leaving each job. This is not necessary and can be off-putting for employers.
Salary information - this can only be used to reject your application. If an advertisement specifically requests this information you can always include the information in your cover letter.
Fancy patterns or borders - as CV writers we don't recommend them, because they often detract from your presentation and can look poor when printed out.
Title pages, binders and folders are usually unnecessary and can be also be off-putting (though if you are doing a special presentation, enclosing your CV in a binder may look more impressive)
Do not include a list of publications if you are a scientist, unless they are asked for.
When you were taught how to write a CV, you may have be told to include personal information about yourself - we recommend you leave this out as it is irrelevant and can actually damage your interview chances. So leave out age, date of birth, weight, height, health, or any other personal information.
Do not use poor quality photocopies of your CV - they make it look as though you are sending off your CV to lots of companies and that you may not be too bothered who you work for. If you are going to hand someone your CV, print out a fresh copy on your printer and don't fold it, put it in a folder.