Work well as part of a team as well as on your own initiative? You and everyone else I'm afraid.

06/14/2016 - 11:18

We're recruiting across the board here at Umbrella Accountants and consequently I'm getting to read a lot of CV's. Some of them are clearly refined by efficient recruiters and then there are others telling me about how they spent 2 weeks on a paper round in 1983 as part of their 20 year career in accounting.

One thing that does appear on both direct CV's and those from a recruiter are those boilerplate phrases that are repeated so often they mean absolutely nothing. You know, just like the most standard one that appears in almost every CV and is in the title of this post. Others you may see far too often are "I am conscientious, hardworking and trustworthy", the amazing revelation that someone "Works well under pressure" or posesses that most rarest of skills - "can communicate at all levels".

None of the above actually mean anything and they are just waffle that take up space on a CV where candidates have a limited opportunity to impress. Speaking as someone that has recruited a lot of people in my time I want to see demonstrable achievements. I want to read about how candidates increased sales from x to y or decreased costs from y to x. I want to see project costs and how it was delivered under budget.

If you're an isolationist who crumbles under pressure because you can't communicate on any level then you're more than likely not going to have a CV worth reading anyway, so there's no point writing any of the usual nonsense down. Use the space better and save us all playing CV catchphrase bingo.

If you're interested in any of the jobs we've got on offer then head on over to our careers page or find out more about working for Umbrella Accountants.