15 Deadly But Often-Made Resume Blunders to Avoid
January 3, 2009 
120 Comments
Most articles on this topic list blunders that very few people are dumb enough to actually make. Maybe we’re making a bold assumption, but it’s not likely that very many people are “stating that they work well in the nude”, as one resume blunder article cautions against. Nor are very many job seekers likely to “use pale blue paper with teddy bears printed around the border”, as another article warns of. Very helpful! But nevertheless, there are quite a few real resume blunders that perfectly intelligent people commit, which you should be aware of, because they can diminish you in the eyes of employers.
1. Letting typos slip through
Possibly the easiest resume blunder to make, letting typos slip through is almost one of the most dangerous. A recent survey indicated that 84% of hiring personnel toss a resume in trash upon spotting just one or two typos! Understand this for what it is: the HR people do not have some type of vendetta against spelling errors in and of themselves. Rather, what they see when they come across as a spelling error is a lack of conscientiousness. They see someone who apparently did not even take their application seriously enough to proofread it before clicking the “Send” button or mailing it in. This isn’t the impression you want to give off, so be sure to eliminate all spelling errors before submitting your resume.
2. Inappropriate e-mail address
It is common today for applicants to leave an e-mail address on their resumes. Nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, many applicants make the mistake of leaving personal or inappropriate e-mail addresses rather than professional ones. Put yourself into the HR guy’s shoes. You are looking at two very impressive applications, but one them lists their e-mail as “ismokeweedeveryday@gmail.com” while the other lists theirs as “JohnSmith@gmail.com.” Which person are you more likely to hire? If you don’t already have a professional-sounding e-mail address, just visit one of the many free e-mail providers (like gmail, yahoo, and hotmail) and sign up for one.
3. Listing irrelevant, non-job-related information
Too many applicants try to get “cute” and show how eclectic they are by listing non-job related information in their resumes. This can be anything from the vacations they’ve taken, the hobbies they enjoy, or even (in rarer cases) the pets they own! It’s understandable to want to “liven up” your application, but remember this: the HR person who will eventually read it reads thousands of applications each year. They have trained themselves to relentlessly skim through applications searching for only the very relevant details.
4. Poor formatting
Remember: employers and their HR staffs scan resumes. They do not painstakingly read each and every word. Being that this is the case, the best thing you can do is make your resume scannable. This means using one of the many free resume templates that come with Word or that can be downloaded on the Internet. These are the formats employers are used to reading, and it’s one easy way you can take friction and hassle out of their reviewing of your resume. Don’t get “cute” with formatting!
5. Use of personal pronouns
Remember back in college when your professor didn’t let you use words like “I” or “me” in essays? Keep this rule in mind when creating your resume as well. Like a college essay, a resume is a formal document (albeit a business document rather than an academic one.) For example, rather than saying
I oversaw the creation of a new department that generated $5 million in sales and increased pre-tax profits by 15%.
Say this instead:
Oversaw creation of new department that generated $5 million in sales and increased pre-tax profits by 15%.
If this seems like a lot to remember, just pretend that you are someone else, describing yourself to another person. This rule will help keep you on track.
6. Trying to sound “well-rounded”
Some applicants believe they will look better to employers if they seem well-rounded. Such people typically play up how many committees they’ve served on, how many different and varying job titles they’ve held, different industries they’ve worked in, and the like. Unfortunately, this does not work as intended. Most employers see such people as not being great at any one thing, and they are thus unsure of how to evaluate them. Most often, such applicants are simply passed over in favor of those with more specific skillsets.
7. Self-deprecation
Too many resumes have self-deprecating remarks and phrases. While it’s understandable to not want to be seen as bragging on your application, you still want to look good. It is for this reason that statements like “graduated in the top 66% of my class” and “self-employment: what a disaster that was!” will not make you look good. Rather, they will make you seem like a potential threat to the organization, someone who probably shouldn’t be trusted with much power or autonomy.
8. Bragging
Of course, the other side of the resume blunder coin are applicants who excessively brag about themselves or their achievements. Again – you do want your resume to make you look like a strong candidate. What you do not want is obnoxious arrogance, as seen in statements like “you will never find a better candidate than me”, or “my job performance is unsurpassed”, or “if you don’t hire me, you’ll regret it!” Such statements make you seem cocky and indicate a potential lack of team spirit (or even narcissism!)
9. Focusing on responsibilities instead of achievements
The best resumes draw attention to what you as an employee have achieved – sales growth, cost-cutting, higher customer retention, etc. The worst resumes talk only or mostly about what responsibilities you have held – manager, committee supervisor, etc. Take a good, hard look at your resume and determine if it is primarily responsibilities or achievements based. If it is not already achievements-based, make sure it is before you send it in to employers!
10. Important skills buried at the bottom
Some otherwise good resumes handicap themselves by listing important skills at the bottom – say, computer skills. It should go without saying that the skills most relevant to the job you want should be listed top, front, and center in your resume. Read over your resume a few times and put yourself in the position of a busy, beleaguered HR person. Would your job-specific skills jump out to them? If not, re-arrange your resume so that they will.
11. Lack of bullet points
As alluded to earlier, scanability is essential to creating a good resume. One of the most critical elements of scanability is the use of bullet points. Do not make the mistake (which many applicants do) of writing everything in as a “wall” of text, hoping that whomever reads your resume will painstakingly peruse your every word to extract the important parts. They will not. That being the case, be sure to use bullets early and often!
12. Listing references directly on the resume
You should list your references on a separate sheet of paper or, ideally, only provide them when asked. Including them within the resume itself only adds bulk (which makes it more tempting to rush through) and does you little good, since references will only matter if and when the employer decides to interview you and advance the process beyond the resume-reviewing stage. When in doubt, leave the references out!
13. The “more is better” mentality
An article listing the 100 funniest resume mistakes says that one woman divided her resume into acts as though it were a play: ie, Act 1 of the resume, Act 2 of the resume, etc. We realize this is rather extreme and ridiculous, but it’s telling because of how many people (albeit less dramatically) adopt a “more is better” approach with their resumes. This is absolutely false. In fact, research would probably show that resumes are read less often in proportion to how large they are. Whenever possible, try to include only the essential details necessary to convey your main point.
14. Resume sent as an attachment without you knowing how it’ll look
We’ve all been there: you send something out as an e-mail attachment, only to have it look different (sometimes drastically) on your recipient’s computer than it does on yours. This can be disastrous if the random factor and chaos of the Internet messes up your resume’s formatting or bullets! Luckily, this need not become an obstacle. Before sending your resume via e-mail, simply “test” send it to a few of your friends and verify how it looks on their computers. If it looks as it does on your computer, send it to the employer. If not, find out why and fix it.
15. Passive-aggressiveness
Not every job applicant has the benefit of writing a resume with a sparkling job history. Some have been fired numerous times or been involved in conflicts with bosses at one or more jobs. There is a strong tendency among such people to demonize their ex-bosses in the resume, blaming them for their own failures. But while you might think this makes you look better, it rarely has this effect. Rather, most employers will read something like “I only got fired because my boss was an unrealistic jerk” and imagine themselves being in that boss’ shoes someday. You will be seen as a “problem-person” and probably ignored. The far more effective and mature approach is to simply acknowledge any past difficulties you may have had and exude an honest, sincere willingness to put those things behind you.
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Anyone who will come across these resume tips will really admire it as it entails all the pit falls which are usually neglected while preparing online resume. It has pointed out some very basic but serious errors which occurs while developing a resume template.
When I have reviewed resumes I have automatically discarded any with typos. To have a professional resume you must ALWAYS review it. and customize it towards each job. This site will be useful to many people
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone spelled the word manager as “manger”.
Maybe they all worked in Bethlehem…
Dan Ryan recently posted..Becoming a Better Leader by Overcoming Bad Habits
Now that’s funny!
Using a resume template to create a professional resume is one of the best options available. It makes your resume look professional. I guess these tips are wonderful and I would definitely follow these while preparing my resume in near future. Thanks for your wonderful tips.
The resume tips here are really worth noting. All the points are will prove to be of great help to those looking for online resume. Great work, keep it up and up and up.
First I would like to say is that the website is very easy to navigate, and looks good. As for this article, it gave me very good resume tips on what not to do when creating a professional resume.
typo on number eight: “you will never a better candidate than me”
I think you left the word “find” out. BAM!
Very common mistakes, indeed.
I see almost all of them in my inbox from time to time (sadly enough, they are coming from people who want to make a living by writing, as I’m a managing editor of a weekly newspaper).
I’ll reply with a link pointing to this article from now on
I absolutely disagree with part of #4. I am in HR and I HATE template resumes. What it says to me when I see an easily recognizable template was used is that the person was so lacking in skill with Word that they needed the crutch of a template to make a decent resume. Especially if you are looking for a skilled administrative support position, you must use your resume as a way to show me that you have decent formatting skills. In that respect, you LOSE if you use a template.
Excellent article. Well though out and original. I knew almost all of this already but number 9 and 14 have me ready to go recheck my resume to see if it is faulty in those ways. Thanks a lot. I can use all the help I can get in today’s job market.
resumebear is the best website for getting resume tips. It helped me a lot in building my professional resume. I also found various other resume do’s/dont’s which are very important while building a resume.
This article made me rethink my online resume. Especially number 14. I actually did look at mine, and sent it to a couple of friends to make sure that it was ready to go to employer. You would have thought that these would have been no-brainers, until you read them like this and it makes you step back and look at yours. Your job search will go alot easier if you have a professional resume.
Hi,
Errors mentioned is the article are bang to target –
Post reading the reply from some of all have observed that Pointer Number 14 is a critical so would like to add a suggestion :-
Post you done with your resume convert it to PDF format that will ensure not format changes while sending online –
Thanks.
thank you for such a nice article on resume, the resume tricks are of very helpful to. i checked my resume and it sure did have some mistakes thanks.
The info on this site is very informative. I will be creating a resume in the coming years, so this information will be saved and kept for a future use. Thanks for the help!
The resume tips and resume template here are really worthy. All the points are will prove to be of great help to those looking for online resume. Great work, keep it up
These resume tips are meant to scare jobseekers. Why are employers so strict with candidates’ resumes? It seems rude that they toss the resumes in the trash without interviewing candidates first. I don’t think that is fair. After all, not everyone had the priviledge of being a business school student. After reading this post, I don’t think I have any chances of getting any kind of cubicle job. After all my English grammar is crude. That makes me sad. I guess the best way to have the best looking professional resume is to hire some one professional to do my resume. I have an online resume and I’m very proud of it. It is not perfect but many employers had looked at it and seek for me via emailing. Hotjob has been great to me.
Its funny to see these mistakes pointed out, again. Ive hired many employees and think its funny to see inapropriate emails on there professional resumes. Another mistake I think is funny is when they use a MS resume template and don’t make all necessary changes. Thats cracks me up and puts their resume straight in the hold for 1 year then shred file.
OK Eric….. Since you’re so smart… did you know that to become an Administrative Assistant in the college world you actually do take the classes listed on the Monster Administrative Assistant Resume. TO THE T… MEANING EXACTLY. So how can I not reflect like I copied that resume. Look it up. College graduate are you?
I’ve gone through many blog posts on resume tips, but this one is truly a landmark, at least for me. This post will be of great use to those wanting to create a professional resume.
15 amazingly helpful points for those wanting to write a truly professional resume. Superb resume tips to make your resume stand out and get noticed. Thanks loads for sharing.
I thought about the issue in #14; considering what version of what application the potential employee might use, (for example, Word 2003 vs 2007 even in compatibility mode) it might be easier to convert to a standard. There are a few PDF converter applications and plug-ins out there: you can simply virtually print into a document ready to be sent out and read by the ever-so-common ‘Adobe Reader.’
Full Points
Bingo. This tip is a copy-and-paste from long, long ago. It’s a non-issue these days.
PDF it, unless they specifically request it in Word format. (PrimoPDF works great, and it’s free.) Even if you’re on a Mac and the HR person is on Windows, a document created in Word will be just fine on 99% of computers out there.
It is very useful to prepare online resumes and the article tells more details about professional resume preparation.It’s interesting and informative…….
These are great tips! i have yet to post an online resume myself but have used a resume template before..and actually forgotten to make all the necessary changes!
another way to help make sure you have a professional resume is ask at least 2 other ppl to proofread it for you!
These resume tips are very helpful. Thanks alot and great blog.
I agree with all of these mistakes… especially typos… how embarrassing if you have any in your resume!
That was a really interesting and informative essay. That really looked like a work that has some social concern. Keep up the good work!!
Good advice and #13 is an excellent point, especially with the supply and demand ratio in the labor market widening daily.
This article gives a good feel on how to prepare a professional resume. Preparing a professional resume becomes easy and also impressive by avoiding the most common mistakes. This is really something everyone must go through before preparing their resume.
Finally, thanks for all these great resume tips.
My pet peeve: the “objective” line. I don’t know who is out there telling applicants to put this on their resumes – wait! it’s probably on the templates! I personally see the objective as another opportunity to throw some BS at me. Your resume should always be accompanied by a cover letter, and your objective (other than finding employment) should be covered there. Most “objectives” I have seen are generic and dull; e.g., “To find employment with a company where I can make a contribution and that will enable me to grow.” Oh, puleeze!
Introduce yourself in the cover letter, and reserve your resume as a summation of your accomplishments and skills.
TD,
I’m sure OBJECTIVE is on every template. It is also taught to students in business communication courses. While I happen to agree with you and leaving out an objective would allow for more space to put other useful information, how many resume screeners will file my resume if I fail to put a simple objective statement?
Excellent and prudent resume tips. Great advice for
keeping your professional resume in a positively
viewed manner.
I really appreciate your resume tips as I am returning to the workforce after 10 years absence. I will now feel more confident when composing my online resume, thanks!
Thanks for the resume tips. There were quite a few ‘obvious’ points that I had overlooked that will now make it a professional resume.
The resume tips provided here are apt . The article talks about what a recruiter would look for in a professional resume; the guidance provided is a sure help for me when I update my resume.
These resume tips are sure to finally get me a job, it’s been way to long. My dad reviews resumes for a living, and he has said many of these tips, but he never listed so many before.
Thanks!
some of these resume tips really hadn’t occurred to me… thanks so much, this will definitely help when putting together my next resume!
This are nice resume tips. Hope you continue giving us nice tips.
Those are very good tips. Never knew you shouldn’t put your email. Very interesting blog
Thanks for the tips. I will have to check over my resume and add some of these great ideals.
I’ve seen a lot of these tips in my high school classes and they really do seem to make a difference. Is it really a bad thing to list your interests on your resume? I had help with my resume from someone in at Job Connect at the college and she told me it was a good idea to put them on there. I guess it depends on what kind of job you’re looking for. I totally agree with the inappropriate email address problem. Having a silly email address probably doesn’t make you look very professional. Thanks for the great tips.
Very good advice, Thank you much.
Great article,
but I too disagree with template resume.
Most HR will recognize them at laugh.
If you aren’t good at formatting , go onto limewire, or some such thing, and search resume’s, under documents search, and DL 20-30 resumes and if one is there you like and modify them with your information. It sounds cheesy but I’ve done it for a number of professional jobs when I haven’t had the time or inclination to set up my own unique formatting
I spent the past 18 months as a recruiter. Thousands of resumes later I can say for sure that all of these points are good ones. One more to add: Consider sending PDF’s instead of Word files. Use a program like CutePDF Writer, for example; just “‘print” your resume to PDF for a resume that’s more reliably consistent across all platforms. (And you look a little more tech-savvy in the process.
Stumbling on…
Good article, but the writer uses the word “scannable” wrongly. Scannable resumes are not those that can be scanned visually by a person, but those written in a non-formatted standard type, using specific keywords and made to be scanned by a computer. They are only used for specific job markets, and should not be confused with a resume that is well-formatted to be easy to scan visually.
Yes, but more and more employers in all job markets are using software to prescreen resumes which look for keywords and work best with relatively simple formatting as this article suggests. Therefore the difference between old-school ‘scannable’ paper resumes and today’s everyday resumes are shrinking, and it is advisable to write resumes considering this.
great tips here, though im surprised I didn’t see anything about actually sending the resume in terms of should it be an attachment or not – I work at a resume center in my college and one of the things we always tell students is to make sure they have their resume in a file format that is universal, or if ever in doubt, send it plain text
I just wanted to let you know that I included this post in the latest episode of my video show The Web Mix at thewebmix.com.
This is is an article that I thought people need to read because I’ve known many people who struggle with writing resumes and I have read many very bad resumes before.
Thanks for the post!
Interesting..!!
We need to add not getting the resume all the exposure possible. When we look at the condition of the economy and the shrinking number of available jobs we have to reach a greater number of employers in order to widen the chance of success. One way I found to accomplish this is a simple small investment in a website where the resume can be posted. You can then go to all the online social medias and post a link with a small bit of information that will lead employers to your site. You’ll score big points with most employers just for the fact that you are a user of the social media platform. The number of employers looking for social media talent has grown in the last two years.
Most of these tips come down to that ONE tip we all learned in 3rd grade: Check Your Work!
Actually reading your resume before you send it seems to be the skill that’s lacking.
Additionally, under item 1 is to make sure that you use the correct word. “Their” will pass a spell checker but the real word you want to use is “there”. Also, watch out for: for and four: to, too and two among others.
Under item 2, inappropriate email address, don’t use the email address of where you presently work. This shows that you are trying to get another job using you present employers assets. Not a good idea.
Item 16 is to cleanup you MySpace or Facebook pages. You may think those pictures of you swilling down some beers are cute but a potential employer won’t.
great post, especially the bit on passive aggressive behavior. i have dealt with a few people like that and it really makes them look narcissistic and immature to constantly belittle people.
Very nicely done, as many commenters have already noted. One thing: Speaking as someone who has hired (if within the persnickety journalism biz), grammar counts, too; for example, put “only” only where you mean it. (Think of the huge difference between the statements “I sleep only with the best” and “I only sleep with the best”–the latter being from a commercial, if embarrassingly unschooled, T-shirt. I guess lummoxes dumb enough to wear such a garment deserve no better fate.) Another thing: Do not send out resumes in any sort of text format, including Word and WordPerfect; lock it down, layout- and font-wise, by making a PDF, which will look on the receiver’s screen just as it does on the sender’s (yours), and attaching it to a cogent and persuasive email. Third, if you’re looking for templates that (a) fit what a scan-happy HR person might appreciate yet also (b) look great and “individualistic,” get a Mac and the Apple program Pages; the templates there are both professional and gorgeous. (Unlike the “I’m-a-dullard” look of anything produced by Microsoft products. Brrrrr!) Last, having a decent-sounding email address is a good start but, if you have the tech chops to make your own or are willing to pay a little to have a resume site made and/or hosted for you (try even GoDaddy), then make sure to choose a professional-sounding URL (an available version of your name) and create an email account using that URL. Pretend your name is Robert H. Kensington, and then consider which sounds more persuasive to you: roberthkensington@yahoo.com, or contact@roberthkensington.com. Want to sound worth $20K/yr. more? Then have your own website. Footnote: Although .com classically means a commercial website, and .com URLs are tougher to find available, .com is still the strongest top-level domain; if you can, avoid the likes of .net, .info, .name, usw.
Great Article.. very informative and insightful tips.
Thanks for sharing
Regards
Shabbar Suterwala
Corporate Soft Skills Trainer
‘research would probably show…’ – classic!
recently went to pizza hut, heard a 20-something year old guy say “have you got a pen and paper?” to which he was asked why?
“so i can write a CV”
did make one chuckle much
very good
thanks
I think a 0 tolerance for spelling errors sounds extreme. Saying that these errors are deadly seems to me to be a “bush” exaggeration thats on its way out.
If employers will only accept employees who never make any mistakes, there will be a lot more people unemployed in the coming years.
You’ve missed the point.
Important Skills a the bottom can be frustrating for the reader. With all fluff at the top, many qualified candidates go unnoticed.
Good article with lots of information that can be useful if taken in moderation and applied appropriately. If you are going to work with a recruiter, I do not suggest you use a PDF formatted file. If you are a valuable candidate, the recruiter will want to assist you in improving your CV/resume into the “Choose me” document that will stand out from the rest of the resumes that the hiring manager will be reading. If you send a PDF, that cannot be done.
Don’t use resume creators, they use tables and are a bear to work with when reformatting needs to occur. You have to strip all formatting from the document and start all over. The resume is only supposed to get you the interview based on your accomplishments and talents. The interviewing and hiring managers know that and will disregard 95% of the fluff that someone puts into it to make it look pretty. Net out the information into the least, yet most useful pieces of informatino necessary to inform the reader that you will be the one bringing them the most value and that they need to bring you to the interview so you can elaborate on that.
Clarice
Health Staffing Services, LLC
To prevent formatting issues when sending, I saved my resume as a pdf. This was a great idea as pdf’s are a standard web format, small, and the formatting does not change.
I have to agree with the writer and disagree with Kimberly. Typos, in what amounts to the most important you create in any given time period, shows a lack of attention to detail.
I spent over ten years managing IT and security staff. A simple typo in a server config file or a firewall could have disastrous consequences. There was a famous story that took place ~8 years ago. A network engineer made a one character mistake and essentially crashed the entire Internet – he rerouted the entire Internet through his small ISP.
Most online resume uploading tools require .doc files, not pdfs. I much prefer pdfs, but seldom upload them.
But pdfs are great for attaching to email, of course.
Great Tips, I hadn’t thought of Passive Aggressiveness as a problem in a resume/cover letter before, but I understand where you’re coming from.
This is a very good topic. I also made a list of mistakes on my resume, but I was able to rectify most of them on seeing this email.
Particularly true is the fact about the last 2 points about sending the resume as attachment and about passive aggressiveness.
You hit the nail on the head when you spoke about being TOO well-rounded… I need to speak to what it is I DO…. or want to do. The fact that I have experience in many areas does not mean anything if they are looking for someone to be really good in ONE area. That really helps me. It is probably why no one is calling – they don’t know what to conclude when they look at my resume!
this a good website and amazing resume templates are available. really gives confidence for freshers.thanks
Wow. Resumebear is a very useful and wonderful site. I can create a Resume in just 1 minute. It is very useful to freshers. I like the different types of resume templates. Good fast loading site. Fonts and Font size is amazing and good matching templates.
“1) Letting typos slip through”
Wherever I go in reading blogs about resume blunders, this would always come on top. I guess job seekers should know by now the much avoidable typo errors on their resume.
And by the way, this is way an excellent post!
Thanks for the excellent post. It’s been a long time since high school resume 101.
Perfect spelling on an application that you fill out in the lobby is one thing. But if someone isn’t willing to get a couple of friends who are good editors/spellers to check over the resume he/she has lots of time to perfect broadcasts, “I don’t care enough to do my best.”
When thinking about attaching the resume, I prefer it to be attached in two different variants on the same mail – a PDF and another Word (2003) format.
PDF is producing the *same* output on all platforms, irrespective of the system fonts.
If they like to see it in M$ Word, they can have the Word Format attachment!
If they own neither a PDF reader, nor a Word (Or OpenOffice.Org), then how could they be an “employer”…?
[ I use PDFCreator, a free software to create PDF files. It's simple and very eazy! ]
It is also important to keep your resume in one page when you could for entry level and 2 pages max for management. Keep it relevant and specifics. Polish your summary since this is the first phrase the hiring manager would check so you might want to give it the x factor.
Hey ResumeBear. Your lists always turn your number 8 (plus parenthesis) into smiley faces. It makes me smile, but I wouldn’t like that on my site.
The typo information was interesting. You should always watch for spelling mistakes.
In addition, the pronoun information was interesting too. I never really thought about personal pronouns as relating to resumes.
I also thought the information about lising reponsibilities instead of achievements made sense.
Finally, the use of bullets was a resume tip that I never thought of much.
Thank you for sharing the great tips. I’ve been looking for a job for 3 months now. Hopefully the improved resume will help to get me in the door.
Great tips! These are very important to remember…can’t tell you how many clients I have talked to whose resumes had the kind of typos that cost them the opportunity for an interview. The post may be dated however, the points made here are just as relevant today as ever before.
Karen, The Resume Chick (on Google or Twitter if you need me)
Psss…. there’s a typo in the typo section, “Rather, what they see when they come across as a spelling error is a lack of conscientiousness.” (take the “as” out)
It is true how many people put very stupid things on their resumes. Looking at them I would chuckle, and then toss it the garbage.
Good article. If I were looking for a job, I’d certainly follow the advice! Thanks for posting this, Resume Bear – as usual, the article is relevant and timely.
“Employment History that is irrelevant (A paper round was the worst one I saw).”
Sadly, people still think that the more experiences they lay down on their CV, the better it is for their profile. Relevancy, that is co-relation between your skills set and the post that you are applying for, is still a huge factor for your successful CV.
These are not necessarily “Blunders”.
They serve as guidelines for the prospective employers in the elimination process.
Very good article! The tips are great!
Great article and advice! I see a lot of typos, poor formatting, and inappropriate emails.
Thanks for sharing!
so the suggestion for avoiding the use of personal pronouns is just the exact same sentence minus the personal pronoun, but using a non-sentence is a fantastic idea…
Yo this is where it’s at for everyone that’s trying to leave college and get some work done!
when it comes to free email, i found gmail to be the best and yahoo the worst ‘”~
online resume is really needed specially if you want to apply for IT jobs on the internet ~”*
I believe using Areal font with 10px size in profile CV might helpful
I had 2 spelling mistakes once in one resume. I was so embarrassed. The funny thing is I still got the gig.
The message of 15points are good and i suggest a point to you to include before sending a Resume it should be in the format of Window MS Office 2003 since most of the organization or the companies don’t have the the prescribed format of MS office to View the Resume if you sent your resume in MS office 2007 or MS office 2010.
Why would a company hire somebody who does not take the time to structure a well thought out and error free resume? A job seeker must be professional in creating a resume.
These are great tips for the most part. However, I do disagree with #4 unless it is an applicant looking for an entry level position. There are really great resume methods that will make a person stand out so much better than using a template. Templates can be generic and often make your resume appear as parts of a play much like recommended against further down in the blog. Other than that I highly recommend these tips!
Justin recently posted..Bolder Boulder and Contributing to the Community
how can you make your resume good enough not to have to bribe recruiters?
Im not able to enjoy this site properly on flock I think there is a problem.
Excellent professional suggestions for job seekers and anyone else in the job market.
This is really well though out article. I am working at a recruiting firm, and the most annoying thing I have seen, is people misspelling the word manager as manger. And guys, LinkedIn counts too.
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For #14, sending as an attachment, it is best to convert to .pdf, as that is most likely to keep the formatting.
Add a #16: Follow the instructions. We state clear instructions, clear specifications in the cover letter. Sadly, so few people follow them, to their detriment.
Great tips. I don’t think I’d ever make those big blunders, but definitely less obvious versions of the same mistakes.
Generally cluttering your resume with “filler” is a bad idea. Better to demonstrate your capabilities rather than simply tell what you can do, but be selective in what you share. Make everything on your resume worth reading.
Great article!
Thanks for the important feedback!
Go ResumeBear!
You make some great points! A way to finesse #14 is to send your resumé attached as a pdf. Regrettably many sites want text only – though it can be controlled by preparing a text only version in Notepad. Recruiting agencies tend to want MS Word so they can manipulate it.
#15 I’ve not seen passive-aggressive resumé – find it’s more of a danger in interviews.
Jennifer