Most jobseekers assume rejection only happens after the interview — when you stumble on a tough question, fail a case study, or don’t click with the hiring manager. The truth? For most candidates, rejection happens long before that. Sometimes in the first 15 seconds of a recruiter scanning their CV.
Recruiters don’t read CVs the way you imagine. We scan. The same way you’d scan a menu when you’re starving — eyes darting for keywords, metrics, or proof that this dish (or candidate) is worth ordering. If nothing stands out, or if a red flag pops up, that CV lands straight in the “no” pile.
After 20 years in recruitment, I can tell you this: most candidates don’t get rejected because they’re unqualified. They get rejected because their CV failed to make the case in seconds. Hiring managers and recruiters aren’t looking for your full career autobiography. They’re hunting for immediate evidence that you can do the job — and ideally, proof you can do it better than the other 100 applicants in the stack.
Unfortunately, most CVs fail in predictable ways. They’re too generic, too vague, too cluttered. They either try to tell everything and end up saying nothing, or undersell and vanish in the pile. If you’ve been sending out applications and hearing silence, the problem isn’t always you — it’s how your CV speaks (or doesn’t) to recruiters.
Hiring managers and recruiters aren’t looking for long career stories. They’re looking for immediate evidence that you can do the job, and ideally, proof that you can do it better than the other 100 applicants.
Here are some of the most common CV Mistakes That Get You Rejected Before a Recruiter Even Calls:
3 Real CV Mistakes That Kill Your Chances
1. Listing Responsibilities Instead of Achievements
Writing “responsible for managing a sales team” tells me nothing. Did you grow revenue? Cut churn? Improve efficiency? Recruiters need numbers, not vague statements.
Example of weak: “Responsible for managing a sales team.”
Example of strong: “Led a sales team of 8, delivering 120% of quota for three consecutive quarters, increasing annual revenue by $2M.”
See the difference? The second tells me what you actually delivered. The first looks like copy-paste from a job description.
2. Messy Formatting and Inconsistent Details
Think of your CV as your personal storefront. Inconsistent fonts, missing dates, misaligned bullet points, cramped layouts — all of these tell a recruiter you don’t sweat the details. And in most jobs, details matter.
Recruiters are trained to spot mistakes quickly. A clean, scannable CV signals professionalism. A sloppy one says: this candidate may cut corners. If your CV is hard to navigate, most recruiters won’t even bother trying.
3. Buzzwords and Filler Language
“Hardworking, team player, results-driven” — every candidate writes this, and recruiters ignore it. Why? Because it’s unprovable fluff.
Instead of “excellent communicator,” prove it:
“Facilitated weekly virtual meetings with cross-border teams across 4 time zones, resolving blockers and reducing project delays by 30%.”
Proof always beats adjectives.
The Harsh Reality: Recruiters Use 15+ Filters in Seconds
The three mistakes above are just the start. In reality, recruiters apply 15+ micro-filters when scanning CVs: gaps, stability, keywords, layout, progression, and more. Most candidates unknowingly fail half of these before they even reach the shortlisting stage.
That’s why some people apply to 100 jobs and hear nothing. Not because they’re “bad” at what they do — but because their CV never survived the recruiter’s first pass.
Your CV is your first interview. If it doesn’t pass the test, you’ll never get the chance to show your value in person.
How LevelUp Can Help You Beat the Filters
At LevelUp, we don’t “pretty up” CVs with generic templates. We rebuild them using the exact recruiter filters that decide who gets shortlisted. Every CV we work on is stress-tested through real recruiter eyes — not AI fluff, not career coaching theory, but practical insider knowledge from two decades in global recruitment.
We know what it takes to make a CV stand out in Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, Dublin, and beyond — because we’ve placed candidates there. And we’ll show you how to package your skills in a way that passes every recruiter’s 15-second test.
I’ve just shared 3 mistakes that I see daily, but the truth is, there are 15+ filters recruiters apply in seconds. Most candidates fail half of them without even realizing.
That’s why some people apply to 100 jobs and hear nothing — not because they’re bad at what they do, but because their CV never survives the first pass.
Your CV is your first interview, and if it doesn’t speak the right language, you’ll never get to the real interview.
At LevelUp, we rebuild CVs using the exact recruiter filters that decide who gets shortlisted.
- Join our next Masterclass event where I’ll show you — frame by frame — how real recruiters read your CV, LinkedIn, and applications. It’s not where you think.
- Or sign up for personalised 1:1 career coaching where your CV gets tested against real recruiter eyes.
Don’t let rejection happen before you even get the chance to speak. Contact us at support@getsubstance.co for more 10 mins free consultation.
