CV Mistakes That Have Nothing to Do With Your Experience

Written by Dan Williamson, Coach, Mentor, and Founder

Dan is a qualified coach and mentor with 20+ years of experience helping people unlock their potential by challenging perspectives and enhancing self-awareness. He founded Teach Lead Transform, an online platform for self-discovery, learning, and language growth.

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Your CV looks perfect. That might be the problem. When every bullet point is polished, every gap explained away, and every description sounds like it came from the same AI prompt, recruiters don’t really see anything at all, because the CV is generic.

I've reviewed hundreds of CVs over the past decade. The ones that work aren't the most polished, they're the most honest. The ones that fail aren't poorly formatted or badly written, instead they're so sanitized and are usually just a list of responsibilities, they could belong to anyone.

Your "perfect" CV is probably not even being noticed, and it’s nothing to do with your qualifications or experience.

The perfection problem

Recruiters are trained to spot inconsistencies such as employment gaps, regular job changes, career pivots, but also a CV that seems too ‘perfect’. When everything is grammatically correct, every achievement flawless, and the presentation unblemished, this sort of CV says nothing and raises more questions than it answers.

Perfect CVs signal a few things: You're pretending to be someone you’re not, you’ve hidden anything that might be controversial, or (shock horror) show a personality, or increasingly, you’ve just asked an AI to write it for you. Note: Whilst using AI is quicker, it’s a machine without the individual nuances we all have, take the time to write out your experience, it speaks volumes.

Also, think about it from a recruiter’s perspective. They're reading their hundredth CV of the week. Every single one claims to be a "results-driven professional with a proven track record" or lists "strategic initiatives," "cross-functional collaboration," and something they are “Known for…” In short, all of them sound the same, making them forgettable. Ironically, by trying to be perfect, you’ve eliminated every possible way to be memorable and authentic.

Five unintentional CV red flags 

Red flag 1: The language of generic achievement

"Increased efficiency by 30%" says nothing. What did you do? Remembering the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) methodology is very helpful here.

I see this mistake constantly. A CV packed with impressive-sounding percentages attached to vague achievements. "Drove 40% improvement in team performance." "Increased revenue by 25%." "Reduced costs by 35%." 

These statements say to me: "I know what a good CV bullet point is supposed to look like, so I created one." The percentages without context are meaningless. What process did you change? What problem were you solving? What did you learn that you'd apply differently next time? What was the metric at the start, and what was it at the end?

That's what reveals competence, not the number, but the thinking, the action, and the result.

Instead of: "Increased team efficiency by 30% through process improvements."

Try: "Reduced new hire onboarding from six weeks to four by identifying three steps that added no value. Required convincing department heads to change their approach, which taught me about organizational change."

The second version is longer and less polished, but now I’m interested, and I’m already thinking about questions to ask at an interview to understand more about how you think.

Red flag 2: Inconsistent timelines 

The CV that lists years without months to obscure a gap. Or, more common, the work history that stops 6 months or a year from the time you are making an application. Instantly, I’m asking, “What have you been doing since?” 

These gaps are so easy to spot, and when I see them, I’m assuming the worst, because if you're working this hard to hide something, it must be bad, right? Usually, it isn't. Usually it's something completely understandable, caregiving, illness, redundancy, taking time to figure out what you wanted. Things that make you human and often more capable, not less. Life experience complements work experience.

Remember, the explanation that comes later, if you get to an interview, must overcome the distrust you created by hiding it in the first place. Interview questions should be about what you included, not what’s missing.

Instead of hiding it:

"2018-2019: Stepped away from full-time work to care for a parent with declining health. During this time, I took on project work for three former clients and realized I wanted to pivot from corporate finance to financial planning for individuals.”

That's honest, human, and shows values with strategic thinking. It's also far less suspicious than carefully formatted dates that don't quite add up.

Red flag 3: Borrowed authority

Using industry jargon and buzzwords that sound impressive but say nothing:

"Leveraged synergies across cross-functional stakeholder groups to drive strategic initiatives and deliver value-added solutions in a dynamic environment." Hmmm. From experience, people who talk a lot, usually don’t really have anything of substance to say. This is a sentence that talks. A lot. 

This is borrowed authority, or realistically just BS. Language that sounds professional because it sounds like everyone else's professional language when it has no substance to it. I read this and my eyes glaze over, or I just laugh because it’s such an absurd statement. All this tells me is that you know what professional language is supposed to sound like. It doesn't tell me how you think, what you did, or why it mattered.

Instead of: "Leveraged cross-functional collaboration to drive strategic outcomes."

Try: "Convinced three department heads who rarely spoke to each other to jointly redesign our customer onboarding. They were sceptical until I showed them how much time we were wasting with handoff confusion."

The second version uses normal language to describe real work. It shows what you did, how you did it, and the challenges. 

Red flag 4: The invisible person

When everything is about the company or team, and nothing reveals who you are as a professional. If everything is about what the team achieved, the person who wrote the CV completely disappears.

Not wanting to take credit for team efforts or overstate your individual contribution is admirable. However, the reader needs to understand your specific contribution. Not because they want you to take credit from others, but because they're hiring you, not your former team.

Instead of: "Team delivered 40% improvement in customer satisfaction through process redesign."

Try: "I led the research phase for our customer satisfaction project, interviewing 30 customers to understand where our process was failing. Their feedback directly shaped three of the four changes we made. The hardest part was getting leadership to hear that our 'efficient' process was actually creating work for customers."

Now I know what you did, how you think, and what you learned. 

Red flag 5: Strategic omission

The memorable career moves and personal experiences omitted for fear they're "not professional enough." The year you spent teaching English abroad that taught you how to explain complex concepts simply. The volunteer work that made you realize you cared about mission-driven organizations. The "failed" startup that taught you more than any corporate role ever did.

You left all of that out because it doesn't fit the template of what a professional CV is supposed to look like. Those are often the most interesting parts of your story! The gold nuggets that make you different! They're what I’m going to remember after reading ninety identical CVs about strategic initiatives and cross-functional collaboration.

Instead of leaving it out:

Include it, shout about it, but show the professional relevance.

"2017: Taught English in Vietnam. This detour taught me that my ability to break down complex financial concepts for non-experts was a skill worth developing. Returning to client-facing work, it completely changed how I explained investment strategies."

That's interesting and shows self-awareness with the ability to leverage and learn from life experiences.

Writing an authentic CV

Authentic doesn't mean casual or unprofessional. It means real. Your CV should sound like you wrote it, not like you assembled it from templates. It should reveal how you think, not just what you did. It should show the person behind the credentials.

This requires different choices:

• Strategic disclosure instead of complete sanitization. Not every detail of your life belongs on your CV, but the parts that shaped your professional judgment probably do. Include what's relevant, frame it clearly without apologizing.

• Your language instead of buzzwords. If you wouldn't say "leveraged synergies" in conversation, don't write it on your CV.

• Context for achievements instead of percentages. The number matters less than what you did to get there and what you learned doing it.

• Your voice instead of generic professionalism. Professional doesn't mean personality-free. It means clear, respectful and appropriate. Your CV can be these things while still sounding like you wrote it.

The integration method for CV writing

Here's how to rewrite your CV with authenticity:

• Step 1: Identify what you've sanitized or omitted. Read your current CV with this question in mind: What parts of my career story are missing?

  The career gap you explained away, the pivot you didn't mention, the personal experience that shaped how you work or the failure that taught you something important. 

• Step 2: Find the professional relevance in your real story. The career gap? It shows values, resilience, strategic thinking. The pivot? It shows adaptability, clarity, courage. The unusual experience? It shows diverse thinking, cross-context learning. Your job isn't to hide these. It's to show why they matter professionally.

  Step 3: Practice language that's honest without being defensive. There's a difference between:

  "Unfortunately, I had to take time off due to personal circumstances."

  And:

  "Stepped away for eighteen months to manage a family health crisis. Returned with clarity about the kind of work environment I needed, now seeking mission-driven organizations."

  The first apologizes. The second frames. 

• Step 4: Test with people who will give honest feedback. Show your revised CV to someone who knows you professionally. Ask them: "Does this sound like me? Is it clear what I did and how I think?"

  If they say it could be anyone, you've sanitized too much. If they say it's too casual, you've overcorrected. If they say it's clearer and more compelling, you're on track.

When authentic actually means strategic

The fear is that authenticity will make you less competitive, that honesty about gaps or pivots will eliminate you from consideration, that personality will seem unprofessional. Sometimes, that will happen. Some organizations want conformity. Some recruiters want the template version.

Honestly? Those probably weren't the right opportunities for you anyway. The CV that's authentically you does something better than impressing everyone, it attracts the right opportunities. When you're clear about who you are, the roles that fit will respond. The roles that don't will pass you by. This feels risky until you realize that getting hired for being someone you are not is the actual risk.

The CV that sounds like you works as a filter. The organizations that respond positively to authenticity are the ones where you can sustain working. The ones that want the sanitized version were never going to be a good fit.

Your CV checklist

Before you send your next application, ask yourself:

• Could someone who knows me professionally recognize this as mine?

• Am I using phrases I'd never say out loud?

• Does my description sound generic?

• Have I included context for my achievements, or just numbers?

• Are there career choices I'm hiding rather than framing?

• If I read this as a recruiter, would I remember it?

• Does this show how I think, or just what I did?
  

If you're answering no to most of these, your CV isn't working as hard as it could. The goal isn't to create a perfect CV. It's to create an honest one that makes the right people want to talk to you. What I've learned after years of this work and from personal experience: The most forgettable CVs are the perfect ones; the most memorable ones tell the truth strategically.

Your career path is more interesting than your CV currently suggests, that's exactly what's making you forgettable. So, stop trying to eliminate every objection. Start showing who you really are, and the right opportunities will respond. If you are interested in an independent assessment of your CV with some observations for improvement, at TLT, we offer a free 20-minute consultation to understand more and identify how we can help. 

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Read more from Dan Williamson

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Dan Williamson, Coach, Mentor, and Founder

Dan is passionate about continuous growth to positively impact others. As a qualified coach and mentor, he empowers people to deepen their self-awareness, strengthen their personal identity, and unlock their true potential. Using his own self-discovery experiences as a foundation, he helps individuals develop bespoke strategies to enable them to live as their authentic selves. Through his writing on Teach, Lead, Transform, his online learning, language, and self-discovery platform, his aim is to stimulate thinking and awareness to empower self-directed personal growth.