Common Errors in Resumes
A resume represents your skills that provides a first impression of yourself to a potential employer. When the competition is tight, even the slightest, most insignificant error can be the deciding factor on who will be hired and who will not. Therefore, one mistake on your resume can reflect poorly and decrease your chances of receiving an interview and you being considered for the position or not.
Writing your resume on your own you need to think the goals of a resume, and not breaking a few key rules in order to approach the project like the best of the resume professionals by avoiding the most common resume mistakes. So writing a resume is not an easy task. You need to figure out what style, format, font and wording to use can be a real challenge, especially if you are a first-time resume writer.
The most common errors in resume are:
1. Don?t focus on your responsibilities instead focus on what you achieved in your resume. A sharp focus is an extremely important resume element like objective statement and straightforward like the title of the position you’re applying for, which can be adjusted for every job you apply for. Avoid too many self-focused statements; starting too many sentences with ?I?.
2. Poor grammar and spelling mistakes in your resume will embarrass you when employer point it out to you. Make your friends read your resume to check for incorrect spelling and grammar errors. This will save you the embarrassment.
3. Having no cover letter for a resume. The cover letter is your sales document. It will augment your resume and using unprofessional email address. Your professionalism has to come through in your resume.
4. Lying about your experiences, providing too much information. Exaggerating is the same as lying. Although it may get you the interview, it won’t get you through the interview.
5. Not having proper resume formats or paper. Since a resume is a professional document. Simple formats allow recruiters to easily scan your resume. Using bright paper or stationary distract recruiters from what’s important on your resume about your skills.
6. Not using reference Page. The same header as resume and cover letter. Not including all necessary information like name, company name, full mailing address, phone number & e-mail address etc.
7. Leaving dates on resume is the most common error. Leaving them out might seem like you are trying to hide certain information.
8. Inconsistent layout of resume may disclose you as irresponsible. So present your resume in a consistent layout. Have an even amount of space between each heading.
9. It is important to prepare your resume in your own words. You may have several different versions depending on the jobs you are targeting.
10. Preparing resume with disorder information. Using abbreviations or contractions.