A recent survey of the top financial services firms highlighted the three major issues facing the industryKnowing what to include on an ideal CV can be a tricky process. Knowing what to leave out work-experience wise just takes some common sense: an unpaid two-week stint at a company years ago for example. However, are certain listed skills perhaps costing you some extra money in your pay packet?
Salary data company payscale.com has compiled a list of 25 skills that tend to correlate with lower pay, no matter your previous experience. The research concentrated on skills “that workers defined as being the most critical to their job” and within those, identified the 25 with the greatest negative affect on salaries.
And the skill with the worst effect on salaries? Filing.
The 25 skills to consider deleting from your CV
- Filing
- Administration
- Pricing
- System repair
- Property management
- Data entry
- Bookkeeping
- AS/400
- Customer service
- Dreamweaver
- Online research
- Paying invoices
- Call centre
- Help desk/help support
- Document preparation
- Phone support
- WordPress
- Typing
- Collections
- Intuit QuickBooks
- Delphi
- Packaging
- Computer hardware technician
- Plumbing
- Shipping
Many of the skills are those a potential employer would assume you had anyway: typing, administration etc. But others listed in the research seem stranger, such as plumbing, bookkeeping and customer service. One possible explanation could be that if you’re going for a job and have held positions in the past which obviously involve these skills, there’s no need to clutter your CV with the particulars.
There are also a number of specific computer programmes cited, including Adobe Dreamweaver.
Lydia Frank, payscale.com’s editorial director, says trends for specific software come and go, so you may come across as being outdated to an employer who’s company technology has evolved from the one you listed: “If that’s the pinnacle of a job applicant’s knowledge and they don’t know newer technologies, it may make [the applicant] seem weaker,” she says.
Join Over 40,000 Recruiters. Get our latest articles weekly, all FREE – SEND ME ARTICLES
Recruiters love this COMPLETE set of Accredited Recruitment & HR Training – View Training Brochure
