How to Proofread Job Search Content

As you write your CV and cover letters, part of your mind will be skipping on to thoughts of interviews, psychometric tests and meetings with potential future bosses. Slow down. Let’s explore why it is vital to proofread your job search content before you do anything else.

You tell yourself that your CV and cover letter are important documents, but you can’t help but feel distracted by what else is to come. A nervous excitement flickers in the background.

Such a state of mind is inspiring and makes for great content, but this lack of total concentration means that mistakes can easily creep into your writing.

A hiring manager will view any errors as a lack of care. Why wouldn’t you have taken the time to check? Maybe you don’t care about the job that much?

Proofreading your CV and cover letters adequately is a vital part of the job search process.

Here are a few considerations to help you perfect your job search writing:

Ways to proofread your job search content

Don’t rely solely on Grammarly. Online grammar checkers are only part of the proofreading process. They are incredibly insightful, and you will often notice other errors as you use them, but they should not replace some of the following methods listed below.

Take a break before you do it. You need some mental and emotional distance from the text. In your head, you will feel that it is a masterpiece, but you need to adopt a more critical mindset when you proofread. Go and do something else before you get down to it.

Print out the CV and cover letter. Proofreading on a printed piece of paper will naturally slow you down. This can be done after the Grammarly check. You can also use another blank piece of paper to hide the following sentences to concentrate on what is in front of you.

It helps to read aloud. Slowly. Reading a written text brings any awkward sections out into the open. If something doesn’t sound right, reading is probably subconsciously jarring. Go with your instinct and don’t hesitate to rewrite it. Text-to-speech software works nicely.

Proofread in sections. Don’t read normally. Breaking the CV down into sections will slow you down and make you concentrate on aspects that you otherwise may have skipped over. Read the titles, look at all the bullet points, and even read sentences in reverse order.

Proofread slowly

Eliminate unnecessary words. There are no prizes for filling the CV page with text, especially if some of the words do not advance your chances. Concise and direct sentences will highlight your value. Blank space allows a hiring manager to pause and briefly reflect.

Look for homonyms and typos. Words such as their/there or typos like he/the won’t be picked up by online grammar checkers, so pay particular attention to the usual suspects. Certain people get annoyed by these types of careless errors. 

Make sure that it sounds like you. This is important. A proofread should also be a sense check for authenticity. Your CV and cover letter should sound like you have written them. If you come to an interview and speak differently, there will be a disconnect.

Ask someone else to read it. The final stage of a proofread (which should ideally be done with every cover letter) is asking someone else to read it through and offer an honest commentary. You will write many job search applications, so ask your best friend.

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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists. 

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).