Even in the era of advanced technology, where employers and job recruiters have changed the ways to find open positions, the resume remains as an essential part of the hiring process. Resumes are considered the heartbeat of a career search, which tell your story in a page or two. However, some people choose to reveal the story in six pages, which is thrown to garbage without even glancing it.
There are a number of more silly resume mistakes that a lot of people make in their curriculum vitae, and later feel guilty about it. Resume shows the first glimpse of you to the hiring managers, make sure to make it a remarkable one.
Following are few of the silliest mistakes that you need to avoid while writing the resume-
Grammatical errors and typos
This one seems obvious but still it happens over and over. As per a survey, 58% of resumes consist typing mistakes and grammatical errors.
There are no excuses to wrong spellings, misuse of words, overuse of punctuation, and other grammatical mistakes. Recruiters are busy people who just glance at a resume for less than 10 seconds before selecting or rejecting it. A single typo or grammatical mistake will get your resume to the garbage.
To avoid this mistake, proofread your resume 4-5 times, and also make someone else read it. Often other people more easily find mistakes because they haven’t been gazing the same page for hours.
Not using keywords
Hiring managers nowadays use tracking system to analyze the resume to save the time. These tracking systems are programmed to detect relevant keywords from specific job profile. If a resume doesn’t have right keywords, it will be rejected even before reaching the hiring manager. Try to use actionable keywords in resume, especially in the Skills section. Companies often look for candidates with effective communication skills, leadership quality, and someone who likes teamwork.
Made up information
People mention information, like internship of 6 months in a company, or they speak 6 languages, etc. Hiring managers can easily verify such things by making a phone call, or using social media channels. Even if you make it to the interview, the lies will be caught somehow. Don’t use information just because it might look impressive.
Lack of accomplishments
People choose to mention their responsibilities in the resume, but employers need to know your accomplishments. Most of the companies probably are the same as others and know the role description. Instead of responsibilities, think of accomplishments and outcomes that resulted from your duty. Quantify your achievements, like ‘increased website traffic by 33%’, or ‘increased 224 followers on Twitter in a month’. While using the numbers, try to avoid round figures, which sounds like you made them up just like that.
Robotic terms
A lot of people use robotic terms about themselves like ‘motivated self-starter’, ‘works well with all levels of staff’, etc. Anybody can say that. This will make you sound like every banana in the bunch. Go through your resume and get rid of such phrases. Instead use practical ones.
Irrelevant work experience
In the work experience section, some people write all the places they’ve worked at. Recruiters look for your work experience according to the job profile you have applied for. If you worked at 4-5 companies before, and your profile at a place was completely different from the one you’ve applied for, then avoid writing it.
Irrelevant skills
You might be having a lot of skills, but mention only those which will bring quality to your role in the organization. For example, you are a good guitar player, applying for a job of software developer. What’s the need of your guitar skills in development? Avoid it.
If you’re an experienced employee, you don’t need to write basic computer skills like MS-Word or PowerPoint. They’re expected from everyone these days.
Formatting mistakes
Don’t use fonts like Algerian or Cooper Black in the resume which come with unusual upper and lowercase contrasts. Your resume should be easily readable. For improved readability, use Calibri, Times New Roman, or Arial.
Some people keep the font size smaller so that they can include all the information in a page or two. But such resumes are rejected. No hiring manager has time to bring your resume close to their eyes to read. Use font size of 11 or 12 (14 for your Name).
If you keep your resume packed with content with no white space, probability of getting rejected is high. It is necessary to leave a good amount of white space.
Set a margin of over 0.5 inch on each side. Length of resume should be maximum two pages, and if possible try to keep it to one page only. Keep the alignment of resume justified.
And for those who don’t want to start from the scratch, can look for online CV maker tools like Canva, Resumonk, CVmakr, etc. In these tools you can get ready to use resume templates. No need to worry about font size, color or any kind of formatting. All that you need to do is to replace the default information with yours and you are good to go.
Outdated resume
Update your resume every once in a while, according to the job you are targeting. The objective of the resume should be varied depending on the job profile. Don’t use same objective for every resume. So, next time when you write a resume, make sure to avoid these mistakes, so that you can make it to the interview.