Resumes: The Top 6 Most Common Errors

Even though a recruiter can sell you to an employer based on their knowledge, it’s your resume that will be the first thing a hiring manager sees, so it’s vital that you get it right.

1.   Spelling Mistakes & Grammatical Errors

It might sound obvious, but you would be surprised just how many resumes contain spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Even though it’s not the end of the world, they are very much avoidable. So making them implies carelessness, which is not a very good impression to make on a potential employer.

2.   Not Specific Enough

When employers look at your resume they want to know exactly what you have accomplished in your previous roles and how it is relevant to them and what they are looking for. So instead of just listing a responsibility, say exactly how you went about it and what exactly were the achieved results.

It’s a smart idea to include exact dates, as part of your specifics, in terms of how long you have held a position because then an employer can see how your career has developed. Also include the level of the people you worked for so you can inform the employer of how high in the business your interaction reached.

3.   Long Sentences & Being Too Elaborate

If you use words that are too long and over-do sentences on your resume, then there’s a good chance you could overshadow your actual achievements. The use of bullet points can add structure and most importantly it gives the employer an easily readable format to access your information.

4.   Photos, Images & Fancy Font

More and more job seekers are feeling the need to spice up their resumes by trying to make it look more visually appealing with things such as photos of themselves, elaborate fonts and other splashes of colour. Many of these people feel it will help their resume stand out, and while in some cases that might be true, in others it implies style over substance. The employer looking at your resume only wants to know what your achievements are and whether you are right for them.

5.   Incorrect Information

Once again this might sound obvious, but so many people constantly mix up phone numbers and move home and forget to alter their resumes with the new information. It’s very frustrating for recruiters to have an amazing resume in front of them, but then find themselves unable of actually contacting the person responsible.

6.   Creating a general Resume

When an employer receives that generic, ‘one size fits all’ resume, it tends to go straight in the bin. Most recruiters look for tailored resumes that explain exactly why, in terms of achievements in previous roles, that person is right for the role. If you don’t do this, other people who want the same job will.


Image by CharlotWest on Flickr