Can I Have An ‘S’ Please Bob!!

British Spelling on CVs, Has Anyone Else Noticed the Shift?

Over the past six months, I’ve seen a noticeable change in the language used on CV’s and it’s been bugging me enough to say something about it!

More and more, I’m seeing American spellings creeping in: CV after CV using organize instead of organise, recognize instead of recognise, and summarize rather than summarise. It’s one of my biggest bugbears when a ‘z’ replaces an ‘s’ in British English.

So, why now? One big reason might be ChatGPT, yes, it’s American based! And perhaps spellcheck tools aren’t picking up the differences unless your language settings are adjusted. Still, when you're reviewing your CV, shouldn’t this stand out?

No one in UK schools is taught to spell this way. If you’d written organize in a school exam, you'd have been marked down! Graduates and senior professionals alike are making this slip, and I know we weren’t taught to write like this, some of us still remember asking Bob for an ‘S’ on Blockbusters!

The good news: you can change your language settings to British English. I’m genuinely curious, am I the only one noticing this trend?

Let me know, do you agree or disagree?​