Resume Mistakes That Are Costing You Interviews:
By Cham Posted Date: October 17, 2016
Your resume is the most important thing in your arsenal when it comes to hunting down that new job. It is what shows the potential employer what skills you have, your background, and how suitable you are to the role. This means it has to look great and be as relevant as possible to the job description in order to get you through to the next stage of the hiring process.
As the resume is one of the first documents an employer would see that details your capabilities for the job. We all know first impressions count – so it’s vital that you pay close attention to detail and take your time to write out your resume carefully.
Below we discuss some common resume mistakes that people tend to make (and what you should avoid!) when preparing resumes:
- Bad layout and formatting: Your resume has to be formatted perfectly, with the use of a good layout to present your information. Be consistent with bullets used, text and even the margins. Make sure its readable on both a mobile device and on a desktop screen, a great way to do this is to save it as a PDF rather than a word document before sending it. Employers will not accept any excuse for untidy and inconsistent formatting, so check and double check this.
- Too many pages: Don’t make your Resume too long, too much information and a lengthy resume employers wouldn’t bother reading through. It should be concise and straight to the point. The ideal length of a Resume is about 2 pages.
- Too many paragraphs: Another mistake people tend to make is jam-pack their resumes with paragraphs of text. Split your resume content up into organized bullet points, the recruiters and HR teams want to be able to read through relevant information quickly with ease.
- Lengthy profile description: Your profile statement (paragraph along the top of your resume) should be made short, direct to the point, strong and written with authority. In just a few sentences (two to three) summarize your speciality skills, experience and career aspirations.
- Overusing a word: Another very common mistake, people tend to sometimes have one word that they use repetitively without even realizing it – be mindful of this. Once completed get a few people to proof read through your resume because they might notice something you dont.
- Incorrect and inconsistent grammar (tenses): Sometime the first word used to describe a task in a role is the wrong tense. If you are talking about a role that you are currently working at then use the current tense (eg: Reviewing data or Liaising with clients) and if it is a previous role you are referring to then use past tense (eg: Reviewed data or Liaised with clients)
- Not tailored enough: For the important jobs you apply for make sure you edit and tweak your Resume specifically for that job. Change orders of bullet points and even talk more about relevant experiences. Presenting a generic resume will not take you far.
- No references: Always have references mentioned regardless of whether you want to include them in the resume or not. If you want to provide the references when requested, then mention it in your Resume as ‘References Provided on Request’
When writing your resume be sure to avoid the above mentioned mistakes and improve your chances of getting that amazing new job you’re after!
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