The Six Most Common Mistakes I See On Resumes
The Six Most Common Mistakes I See On Resumes
By William Vanderbloemen
In golf, they say that you can never win a tournament on the first day of competition, but you sure can lose it. In baseball, they say that you can’t win in the first inning, but you sure can lose.
In interviewing, you probably won’t win a job because of your resume, but you sure can lose it.
Resumes are a doorway to the next step in a job search. No more, no less. The longer I review resumes, the more I see some common stumbling blocks that could easily be avoided.
- Don’t try to make your resume look cool. Plain vanilla never hurt anyone in resume writing. I don’t need to see logos, four-color prints, or multiple pictures. I’ve never seen simple elegance lose in a resume. I have seen busy become bothersome.
- List what you have done first. Too often, I see statements of “philosophy” or lists of spiritual gifts at the front of a resume. I suppose that’s a nice principle, but what I really want is a snapshot of what you have done at your previous jobs.
- Don’t require me to be on the Internet to read your resume. There is a growing trend of listing resumes online, including vimeo channels, You Tube, and blogs on resumes. Cool bells and whistles for sure. But at the end of the day, simplicity wins in resumes. Links are good, but the requirement to be on line (like pointing me to a blog with your resume), limits circulation capacity.
- Keep your file size down. Excessive file size in a resume (north of 2MB) is a real problem. They take forever to download, a long time to print (and a lot of ink), and end up being a real hassle. The last thing you want is for your first impression to be a hassle.
- Don’t go on and on. One or two pages, maximum. We receive resumes from some really accomplished people. You would be surprised at how brief successful people are with their resume. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it’s also the essence of effectiveness in resume writing. As one of my colleagues says, “Be brief. Be bright. Be gone.”
- Don’t forget to spell check. You’d be surprised, but I really must list this one. A resume is a brief glimpse into your sense of professionalism. Sloppy spelling & grammar = sloppy work ethic.
What mistakes are we missing?
Tim Flynn
July 12th, 2010 at 12:36 PM
I have seen a fair number of résumés in my time and I agree with William’s advise. I would only add keep the font readable and don’t make the reader guess at what your saying. Avoid acronyms and Twitter shortcuts even if everyone knows it. Spell check is good but have someone look at it if you can. If you’re like me (old) you have done all kinds of stuff. So I have a core résumé and highlight experiences based on what the reviewer is looking for.
No matter what your business is; it’s about the numbers. Quantify your accomplishments, if you ran campaigns to raise funds don’t just tell me you did it; tell me you increased fundraising by 40%.
Lastly, and this is back to not adding links. Everyone I know that screens résumés, if they like what they see will run you through Google and/or LinkedIN anyway. When do I am looking for inconsistencies and supporting information. So be safe assume they have looked you up and aren’t letting on.
Ivan
July 12th, 2010 at 5:36 PM
I still see resumes from people who forget to let me know their home phone number or mobile phone number or even their email address. How am I supposed to contact you if you don’t tell me how?
I also want to reiterate what Tim said, please quantify your accomplishments. What have you done to make your organization better? Tell me the metrics that help measure your success.
Bruce Lininger
November 12th, 2010 at 9:54 AM
Having run search processes, and now being on the other side of the process myself, I see that brevity and clarity are best. If a candidate can answer the employer’s question, “what can you do for us?” and provide a glimpse of the “fit,” then prospects have gone a long way to getting the next look. Conversely, never forget Sovereignty.