According to a new study, these common spelling mistakes could affect your job outcome. Photo / 123rf
According to a new study, these common spelling mistakes could affect your job outcome. Photo / 123rf
An impressive CV is key to making a good first impression in a job interview - but your spelling can affect whether you get the job, according to a new study.
Netherlands-based company Resume.io analysed over 2000 CVs to find out which words are most likely to cause issues forjob-seekers, according to the Daily Mail.
The word "initiative" was at the top of the list, and was spelled wrong on nearly a third of the CVs examined by researchers.
The most common misspellings were "inchitive" and "intative".
Ironically, the word "perfectionist" was another common pitfall, spelled incorrectly on a quarter of CVs as "perfactionist" and "perfectonist".
The research also showed that words such as "management" and "professional" proved difficult to spell due to their repeated letters. The word "achieved" had people confused over the placement on the "i", with many writing "acheived" or "acheved" instead.
Longer words like "corresponding" and "implemented" were spelled incorrectly on 14 per cent of the CVs examined in the study.
"Accurate" and "succeeded" also caused issues over their double consonants.
These ten words are the most common stumbling blocks for job seekers. Photo / 123rf
Resume.io then surveyed 1248 people from across the world to get a feel for common CV mistakes.
Around 41 per cent of job-hunters said they've had to guess how to spell words on their job applications. Almost a quarter of UK people believe their job application was the one thing that prevented them from getting a job.
Unsurprisingly, 73 per cent of managers said that spelling mistakes would indeed make them less likely to hire someone, or even interview them.
Resume.io spokesperson Menno Olsthoorn revealed that several people even misspelled the name of their potential employer.
"For example, MacDonald's instead of McDonald's," he said.
"Curriculum vitae was also misspelled regularly, while 'professional' and 'accurate' are two words that you really want to spell correctly."
The 10 most commonly misspelled words on CVs
1. Initiative 2. Detail-orientated 3. Perfectionist 4. Management 5. Professional 6. Implemented 7. Corresponding 8. Achieved 9. Accurate 10. Succeeded
So, how can you avoid these errors?
Read through your CV closely before sending it off to potential employers - a second pair of eyes from a family member or friend will be invaluable.
Make sure your spell check is set to the right language - i.e. New Zealand English instead of US English.
