First impressions - These really matter! Your CV is a marketing document and must attract the reader's attention in the first 20-30 seconds; otherwise your chances of getting an interview are greatly reduced. A recruitment consultancy or an employer may have a hundred or more CVs to look through and probably only a couple of hours in which to select for interview. So put your work experience at the start of your CV, not personal or educational details, unless you have only just left education.

Poor visual layout - The visual layout of your CV is very important. Even though the wording you use may be correct, if people cannot find the information they want quickly they will move on to someone else's CV. You should use plenty of 'white' space in your CV and appropriate headings and section breaks.

Email Your CV - If you can! Sending your details electronically gives the recruiter a faster response and allows them to use and respond to your application more easily, so always email if you can. Then follow through with a 'hard copy', this confirms your interest and gives you a second chance during the selection process.

Always use a printer - Use good quality A4 paper, preferably 90-100gram for both your CV and cover letter. Selective and very careful use of colour can be useful if a CV is to be sent in by email.

Length of CV - Two pages of A4 are ideal, although four pages of 'interesting' will beat two pages of 'boring/difficult to read' any day! But remember, employers do not want to know your whole life history - just enough to decide whether they should interview you or not.

Organisation of the information on your CV - If your CV is not well organised then the reader will find it hard to follow and will not be able to build up a picture of you quickly. Remember the reader will not spend very long looking at your CV - so if they cannot find what they want they will not bother to read any further.

Overwritten - long paragraphs and sentences This makes it difficult to read quickly - try and keep your sentences short and punchy and use bullet points to break up the text under section headings.

Too little information - A lot of applicants do not include enough details about their previous experience; an employer therefore may not have enough information and will reject your application.

Not results orientated - You need to shout about your achievements. Remember that your CV is your sales document, if it does not say clearly and unequivocally why you should be employed then it has failed. An employer will only want to employ you if they can see a benefit in it for themselves. So do tell them the benefits of employing you.

Misspellings, typographical errors, poor grammar - Your CV should be carefully checked for such errors before you send it out to employers. Tiny errors in your CV can detract from an otherwise good presentation and make you look lazy or careless, not the sort of qualities you want to portray. As you will probably be 'blind' to these errors you should get someone else to check your CV for grammar and spelling errors.

Always give a brief overview of the company you worked for; its size, numbers employed etc. You may know the intimate details of Brown's Widgets Plc, but your reader will not necessarily understand who they are and what they do.

Describe the responsibilities for each position that you have held, starting with the strongest point in your favour and then work backwards. If you have a lot of points to put under one specific job you may want to break this description into two or more sections, or at least be careful not to use too many words.

Separate responsibilities and achievements. Anyone doing your job would have had the same responsibilities as you; the thing that differentiates you from anyone else is what you actually achieved. Remember, this is absolutely vital to your success in securing a senior role!

If you have had a number of positions for a particular employer you may not want to include every individual job (in which case leave out the year designations for all jobs titles and just include the start and finish years for this employer), or you may be able to combine one or more of the jobs.

Do make sure that you stress your responsibilities and achievements under each job (these should be relevant to your next job) but do not repeat information too often; this will just bore the reader.

If you are a graduate you do not really need to list your 'O' Levels/GCSEs, just indicate the number of 'O' levels gained. 

Unless you have just completed a degree or MBA, this section should go after work experience, because your work experience is more likely to be of interest to an employer. 

If you have qualified recently, you could mention your recent qualifications in your covering letter.