Toni Bowers, who writes about HR issues for TechRepublic, recently did a great article on resume blunders. Though it’s targeted at techies, it contains great information for us all.
I’ve extracted five of her “10 resume mistakes to avoid” and recommend that you take time to read the entire article. If nothing else, you’ll probably enjoy her dry wit. So given that “the goal of a resume is to let a potential employer know why you’re the best person for the job,” here are my top five “things not to do” picks.
Five things to avoid
1. Typos ‒ Grammatical errors, too. Ask a detail oriented friend or family member to look your resume over. At a minimum, take a break and read it over again before sending it. Print it out, rather than reading in on your monitor. And read it out loud to see if something sounds funny.
2. Excessive length ‒ If you’ve got a lot of relevant experience—and the key word here is “relevant”—one page may be too short. Two pages are probably OK. Your resume should be “lean yet meaningful,” so you need to leave out details that have no bearing on the job you seek.
3. Poor readability ‒ White space is important. So use 1” margins all around. And break up text that highlights your accomplishments into bullets. Use a clean, simple font. Arial and Helvetica are good choices. So is Times New Roman, though I think it looks a bit fusty. Minimize the use of bold, italicized and, underlined text. As Ms. Bowers says, “You don’t want your resume to look like a ransom note built out of newspaper clippings.”
4. A lack of keywords ‒ Check the job description for relevant keywords. It’s probably best to sprinkle them throughout your resume, though some gurus recommend listing them at the top. Of course, per Ms. Bowers’ advice, make sure that you actually do have the experience named by the keyword.
5. Experience rather than accomplishments ‒ Ms. Bowers is adamant about not using expressions like “Duties included” or “Responsibilities included.” They don’t indicate whether you did something well or not—or how you stood out from others with the same job description. So, even if you have to dig a little, highlight some genuine achievements.
Because I’m a copywriter, I naturally emphasize the importance of avoiding typos and grammatical errors. We’re all moving fast, and many of us don’t write all that well, but, according to Ms. Bowers a recent study reveals that 25% of execs will toss a resume with a typo. Check your work. You don’t want that one to be yours.
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