A resume is the first thing that speaks about you before even you can in front of the recruiters and employer. Recruiters go through your resume before they call you up for the interview. There are high chances that a small grammatical mistake or a typo can reduce your chances of job opportunity in competition because we all know how competition is high these days. Most of the resumes are not perfect. They often have mistakes which we think we have not made but we do not know we have actually missed them. If it’s possible for you to use the apps that check the mistake (grammatical) then give them a try because genuinely a job is worth all your efforts.
You might think you have the perfect format and most eye catching design on your resume but if your resume has these silly mistakes then they are going to make you look dumb. Take a look at these mistakes and maybe these will help in avoiding these mistakes.
Spelling And Grammatical Errors
Tbh grammatical mistakes stand out and make you look careless. Even though when you look at your own resume you might not find mistakes but when someone else looks at it they might find mistakes pretty easily. This is because we tend to criticize other’s work and find mistakes in others work easily and when it comes to our own work we are quite biased. That’s why it is a great idea if you ask your friend to proofread your resume for once.
Though you do grammar check we suggest you do not rely on it totally. Go through it a few times even though it’s really boring for you to do. It is particularly important if you are applying for a job that relates to writing or editing.
Adding Too Much Bling
A resume is a document that is meant to market your skills to the recruiter and it is meant to get you through your interview and land you a job. It is not really meant to demonstrate your creativity. Save them for your assignments and Pinterest profile.
Try to be a minimalist and let the words be minimum and sharp so that they can get your point across to the recruiter. Keep it simple, classy and elegant. So you better chuck out those weird designs, weird colors, weird formats etc. Also, keep it enclosed in a crisp file. When you do not prefer to go wearing a wrinkled shirt your resume should also be handed out without being wrinkled or smudged with stains.
Clumsy Formats And Fonts
You definitely do not want your resume to stand out in a bad way and using too many fonts and formats does just that. Your recruiters are looking for your skills and qualifications not your creativity with formatting. Steer clear of too many fonts and sizes and keep it clean and clear.
Don’t go for too big font size because then it would come off as if you are shouting the content or it may also convey that you do not have enough content to fill in the resume which is not what you want your recruiter to think. Don’t go for too small font size either because you do not want your recruiter to squint his eyes to know the information which he might also skip. Keep the font size and format type really simple and smart.
Too Long Or Too Short
Well, you already know that too much of anything is too bad. In general, it is often preferable to have a resume of two pages neither too long nor too short.
If you have been working for a long time and you probably have a lot of stuff to fill in so what you’ll skip and what you’ll fill? Focus more on the jobs and experience that relate to the job which you are applying and cut short the earlier jobs to the bare necessities because they don’t have much role to play here. Of course, there are exceptions to this, for example, academic positions.
If you are short on experience then try to fill in your academic and extracurricular achievements or coursework that you might have done in your college times.
Sketchy Job Dates
You might probably skip this thinking that why does it really matter? But maybe it does. Recruiters sometimes do look at the job duration of your recent jobs so as to get the idea of your experience. So adding the month and year of your job is quite necessary. When you tend to skip mentioning the dates the recruiter may either ask you for the dates which you might not remember or they might as well assume that you are hiding something.
Contact Information
It happens a lot of times that people forget to update their recent contact information. It might just slip from your notice that your number has changed or you no longer have a landline phone. If you miss out on updating this information then you might wait forever for a call which you’ll never receive and whose fault will it be?
Another thing you got to remember is to have a professional email address, not an email address which you created while you probably were in your high school.
Lies And Half Truths
Recruiters might not know you personally but that doesn’t mean you are not going to be busted when you have lied about something on your resume. You might get caught during background and reference checks. Writing that you are graduated when you actually still haven’t is not something you should lie about. Write down the date when you might get graduated.
Another most common lies that people tend to lie about is the languages they know. Do not mention that you know a language when you just know a few words or sentences because you do not know when you’ll be expected to speak the language. Dishonesty won’t get you anywhere.
Vague Or Unclear Objective
If you really want to include an objective in your resume then tailor it to the job you are applying. Mentioning some copy-paste objective which is irrelevant to the job is going to make you look dumb. Quite frankly including a professional summary is recommendable.
Objectives are useful for fresh graduates or for career changers who are not so clear about their career path.
Red-Flag Information
You might land yourself into unnecessary questioning if you go on and mention red-flag information in your resume. Even though you might have left your last job due to some disputes or political issues it is really unnecessary here. You need to be really very careful and practice your answers to certain questions so that you do not give a negative impression of yourself.
Not Customizing Your Resume
Yes, this is necessary for each job you apply. You should customize your resume as per the job you are applying. Do not put general information which might be irrelevant to the position you are applying for. The resume should be precise and on point. Tailor your resume as per the position you are applying for by editing your strengths, experience and skill as per the necessities of the job.
Common mistakes like these might kill your chances of landing a job. Take out time and carefully draft your resume. Do not forget to do the spelling and grammar check at the end.
