Most IT jobseekers are shooting themselves in the foot, survey says

IT jobseekers should take greater care over their CVs and brush up their interview skills, according to IT recruitment web site CWJobs.co.uk, a subsidiary of the Totaljobs Group.

Research from the web site shows that 88 per cent of recruiters often see mistakes on IT jobseeker CVs while 46 per cent said that IT professionals do not present themselves well on traditional CVs. Some 74 per cent of IT professionals agree that they present themselves better in person than on paper.

There also seems to be a disconnect in how IT professionals are perceived at the interview stage. Some 82 per cent of those surveyed said they felt confident that they present themselves well in an interview situation. However, 66 per cent of IT recruiters say they regularly experience poor communication skills during the interview process.

"Selling skills on paper doesn't necessarily come naturally to IT jobseekers," said Rob Grimsey, director of Harvey Nash.

"We often come across CVs where people haven't explained the full extent of their achievements, preferring instead to just list skills. In addition to spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, it is also quite common for jobseekers to get the syntax of how they name technologies and products wrong. A capital letter or hyphen in the wrong place can leave recruiters questioning whether they truly know the technology they are writing about."

According to the research, the five most common mistakes recruiters see on a typical IT jobseeker's CV are:

1. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors (70 per cent)
2. No clear demonstration of technical skills (64 per cent)
3. Too lengthy (43 per cent)
4. Rambling (41 per cent)
5. Listing irrelevant skills (30 per cent)

"IT jobseekers must appreciate that they aren't necessarily going to be interviewed by people who fully understand both technology and the technical language they use," commented Dawn Campion, managing director of IT recruitment firm Ellen Webb.

"IT roles are increasingly client-facing now and if IT professionals want to present themselves well in a job interview situation, they must be able to show that they are able to communicate with non-technical as well as technical people competently."