Top Reasons Why Employers Throw Away Your CV in the Bin

Are you a team player, someone who is going to disrupt the market? Or maybe you are results driven and have an entrepreneurial spirit?

Stop. This type of jargon-laden junk-talk will get your CV thrown in the bin, according to City and Guilds.

The education organisation surveyed more than 1,000 small, medium, and large UK businesses and found that more than six in ten (64%) of respondents said the use of jargon is used to cover up a lack of skills or qualifications.

The research also revealed that 57% of employers found acronyms on CVs confusing and almost two thirds (64%) have had to look up acronyms on the internet.

"Plenty of employers won't have a clue about a candidate's ability to do the job if they don't know what a qualification is worth or even what it means," said Chrissie Maher OBE, founder and director of Plain English Campaign.

"Acronyms are never a good idea, and all qualifications surely need to be written in full and, if they're relatively new, with an explanation about how they compare with more traditional, well-known qualifications."

Here's a great irony: recommending people to read George Orwell (aka Eric Blair) has become a cliché.

But his Politics and the English Language essay offers useful tips on clean writing, which even job hunters can use.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.