Your CV is the golden ticket to landing your dream degree apprenticeship—or it’s the reason you never hear back. Which one will yours be?

Degree apprenticeships are life changing schemes, geared mainly towards young people who often have never created a CV or worked a job in their lives. Schools often teach you that your CV is just a record of everything you’ve ever done.

It’s not that simple.

Your CV is you as a document.

Your CV is the one document that either gets you an interview or a rejection email. Let’s break down the 5 biggest CV mistakes that are costing you offers—and exactly how to avoid them.

Mistake 1: Only Talking About What Your Job Responsibilities Are

Your CV is not simply a record of what you’ve done in your work experience and jobs in the past or present. Your CV should be a document that sells you as a person. It should showcase why YOU deserve the job, compared to hundreds of other applicants. Employers don’t want to hear about things you’ve done as normal responsibilities in your job - they want to know how you’ve made an impact.

Imagine this. Employers read through hundreds of CVs a day. They know that in your retail job, part of your everyday work is packing away new stock. Pretty much anybody can do that, so they want to know times that you made a difference at work.

Make sure you include achievements, preferably with a number attached to them. For example:

“Coordinated a team of 10 individuals from different cultural and skill backgrounds to deliver a school project 5 days early, with a final score of 95%”

Sounds a lot more powerful, unique to you and credible than:

“Led a team at school to complete a project early before the deadline”

See the difference? The first example is much more specific, powerful and believable because you have measured it with numbers. However, make sure you don’t lie, and that your numbers are accurate as can be!

Mistake 2: Using Generic Keywords That Make Recruiters Yawn

Let’s go back to the earlier point that employers read hundreds of CVs a day. In fact, most of the time, they’re not reading the CVs. They’re scanning them for just a few seconds because most recruiters are low on time, and want to pick out only the CVs that stand out and are relevant to the job.

Most young people are tempted to describe themselves with lots of generic keywords. The worst thing is that most people usually do this in their personal statement, which is at the very top of the CV and therefore the most important part of it. Although they may be true, so many candidates are doing it that when you’re an employer reading through many CVs, your eyes simply glaze over the words.

Like durrr. I’ve seen those words a million times before. So what?

Just some examples of these generic keywords are.

Driven.
Team player.
Resilient
Ambitious
Hard worker.
Organised.

In your CV, aim to use keywords that are not used that often. But don’t just only do that, make sure you can also back up your claims. It’s easy to tell the employer you are so and so, but actually proving it with real examples in your work will set you miles ahead of the crowd. Check out our example below of a good personal statement vs a bad personal statement.

Bad Personal Statement

Good Personal Statement

Mistake 3: Your CV Is Too Long

I think you get the idea that now, employers really are crunched for time. They only have so much time in their working day, and they don’t want to spend it reading every individual word of every CV they review. After all, we’re all human, and they will only scan over them for a few seconds.

A one page CV full of relevant, specific information to the role is much better than a two page CV full of relevant and irrelevant information.

Imagine yourself as a busy recruiter. Which one would you read at first glance?

Mistake 4: You Have No Relevant Experience

Recruiters know they’re hiring mostly school leavers and students with little to no experience. However, they’re expecting to see you demonstrate interest in the industry that you’re applying to.

Most CVs are really generic, and can be used to apply for literally any role, let alone degree apprenticeships. The opportunities to get relevant experience are endless, especially online. Platforms like Springpod offer virtual work experience programs in a range of industries that you can add to your CV.

Simply put, if employers see that you don’t demonstrate a proactive interest in the role and industry, they’ll pass over your CV for the next.

Mistake 5: Bad Formatting That Hurts Recruiters’ Eyes

Humans are visual creatures, and this certainly applies to your CV.

Imagine this..

You’re an employer, with two CVs from two different candidates in front of you.

The one on the left is a blocky, white, text heavy page with barely any space and no colour. Just looking at the sheet, you can’t even make out the words.

The one on the right is clean and well organised, with a touch of your brand’s colour and all the text organised neatly into sections with headings.

Which one would you choose?

Most young people simply pick out any generic CV template, fill it to the brim with line after line of text, and don’t format it well.

The visual of your CV will make or break your first impression. And in applying with a CV, your first impression is your only impression.

Make sure you:

Add white space to make the text easier to read
Keep all text the same size, and make your headings larger
Use the same font throughout, ideally Calibri or Arial

Review, Tailor, and Win: Avoid These Mistakes to Nail Your Degree Apprenticeship CV

Young people make many mistakes when submitting what is very often their first CV. These 5 mistakes often get you rejected from the degree apprenticeship, so check you’re not doing any of these as you review your CV. Always make sure that your CV is up to date, and tailored to include only information relevant to the role you’re applying for.

👉 Check out our other guide on how to write a standout degree apprenticeship CV!

👉 Did you get rejected? Dive into our tips on how to turn failure into success!

👉 Read our reasons on why you're getting rejected from degree apprenticeships, and how to fix it!