【Career】10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid!

Source: Monster, Joshua Boyer

When applying for jobs, it's incredibly easy to make harmful mistakes on your resume. Whether it be from applying to too many jobs, or honest errors, these mistakes can really harm your success rate.

1. Typos and grammatical errors

Your resume needs to be gramatically perfect. If it has misakes or typos, an employer could assume that you are lazy, unprofessional, or unable to communicate properly.

2. Lack of specifics

Employers need to understand your experience and knowledge from previous jobs. For example:

A. Worked with employees in a restaurant setting.
B. Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 20 employees in a restaurant with $2 million in annual sales.

Both of these phrases could describe the same person, but the details and specifics in example B will more likely grab an employer's attention.

3. Attempting the "One–size–fits–all" approach

Whenever you try to create a universal resume, that you can send to many different jobs or employers, it is almost always a bad idea.

Employers want you to write a resume specifically for their company and the position that you're applying for. They want to see how and why you fit the advertised position. When you write a universal resume, it almost always ends up in the garbage bin.

4. Highlighting duties instead of accomplishments

It's easy to make a mistake, where you simply start listing job duties on your resume. For example:

• Attended group meetings and recorded minutes;

• Worked with children in a day-care setting;

• Updated departmental files.

Employers don't usually care about your previous work duties, as they were assigned to you by your previous employer. Instead, employers want to see your accomplishments, like these:

• Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference.

• Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance.

• Reorganized 10 years worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members.

5. Going on too long or cutting things too short

Despite what you may have heard, there is no standard length of a resume. It is absolutely not standard to write a one page resume. This is because different employers will have different expectations when reading a resume. However, make sure your resume is not too long, or else it will be too difficult to follow.

Generally, a resume that is two pages is the best length, as it is short enough to follow, and long enough to cover details about yourself.

6. A bad objective

Employers read your objective statement on your resume, however they are not looking for general filler statements such as "Seeking a position that offers professional growth". Instead, they are looking for specific words that related to the position advertised. Example "A challenging marketing position that allows me to contribute my skills and experience in digital design for non-profit companies",

7. No action verbs

Avoid using phrases such as "responsible for", as these types of words can turn off a prospective employer. Instead, use action verbs such as "Resolved".

Essentially, the word "responsible" seems like you were tasked with something, as part of your standard job. However, "resolved" seems like you found a soution to a problem, using your creative skills.

8. Leaving off important information

You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you've taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you've gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.

9. Visually too busy

When designing your resume, make sure you use one specific font set, and make use of bullet points, and other easy-to-read formatting options. Do not use a wall of text, long paragraphs or essay style writing.

10. Incorrect contact information

This may seem like a no-brainer, however it's a very common problem. A lot of times, an applicant will change their phone number, address, or email, and forget to update it on their resume. Always make sure your contact information is correct.

Are you guilty of any of these mistakes? Do you have another suggestion for us? Let us know in the comments below, or in our groups!