Ever wonder why you haven't gotten a call or email requesting an interview after sending out what seems like hundreds of resumes?
Have you ever sat in the lobby waiting for an interview and noticed a typo on your resume?
Here are five of the worst mistakes you could make on a resume and some ways to resolve the problems:
1. Incorrect contact information. Double check your phone number, mailing address, email address, and name to make sure they are correct. Imagine messing up your phone number and having a hiring manager dialing 555-1432 instead of 555-1342. If you have numbers in your email address, the same thing could happen (i.e. andrea1432@email.com vs. andrea1342@email.com).
2. Unprofessional email address. Do you think gamblinman@email.com would be able to get a job for an accounting firm? What about injury.prone@email.com applying for a job as a general contractor? Regardless of your qualifications, an unprofessional email address can lead to your resume being filed away in the trash bin. Instead, create an email address with only your name if possible.
3. Too much information. A resume does not need to say that you are a 32 year-old single-mom with 3 sets of twins, dealing with health problems, and that you were fired from you last job because your car broke down and you couldn't get to work one day, and then you lost your pet rock. In other words, keep the personal information out of the resume. Keep only the information that relates to your qualifications.
4. Misspelled words and typos, and undefined acronyms. Were you the "Branch Manager" at your most recent job, or the "Brand Manager?" You say you went TDY to NY, PCS'd to TX, and you plan to ETS in 30 days, so you want to work in IA or IO for the DIA. Huh? Ok, if you are familiar with military and IT lingo, then you might understand, but most people will not. Have at least one other person that spells well proofread your resume. Recruit another person who knows nothing about your job to proofread your resume to make sure it makes sense to the average joe.
5. "It looks like a printer threw up ink!" Yes, a recruiter said that to me when I asked about the worst resume he had ever seen. He actually showed it to me, and yes, it did look like a solid black piece of paper. The applicant used tiny font and squeezed as much information as he could onto one sheet of paper--no margins, no white space. A good resume will have a balanced amount of white-space and section headers. In general, it is perfectly ok to have more than one page, especially if you have over 5 years of experience.
Comment below and share your stories about the best and worst resumes you have ever seen.
A hiring manager I know sent me an email address he found in a stack of resumes he had to review. This person did not get considered for the job simply based on his unprofessional email address: Ilik3blu3m3n@....
ReplyDeleteReally think about the email address you put on a resume because it reflects your personality, professionalism, and character. Consider creating a new email account in gmail, hotmail, yahoo, or aol and dedicate it just for your job search.