What are some of the common resumes mistakes and how can I avoid them?

Hi Dehana

Your résumé’s purpose is to get your foot in the door. But do all resumes provide you a ticket to the interview where you can sell yourself?  No.

 Recruiters look for reasons to blow the whistle and tell job seekers to get out of the candidate pool. Glaring mistakes will immediately earn your résumé a one way trip to the dustbin. Hence be sure to avoid these mistakes when writing a resume.

Mistake:   focusing on your needs and not the employer’s needs.

Correct: find out what the employer really wants and those special abilities of yours that would impress the recruiter.

Putting yourself in the moccasins of the employer is the first, and the most important, step in writing a resume that markers you rather than describes your history.

Mistake: not determining a target or goal for the resume.

Correct: it is mistakenly believed that it is the responsibility of the hiring manager to determine what position you will best fit. In fact, it’s the job hunter who has to determine in which position he can best fit and back up this assessment with proof (experience and achievements).

Mistake: typos

Correct: avoid using passive language, repetitive statements, or the wrong terminology. Do not start each statement with “responsible for...” or “managed...” This will bore the reader to death. Use strong and effective action verbs like supervised, lead, directed etc.

Also, be careful with your spellings. The WORD spell check does not catch every spelling mistake. Like if you have typed carrier instead of career, it would probably go unnoticed. Ask your friends or colleagues to proofread.

Mistake:  highlighting your job duties instead of accomplishments.

Correct:  highlighting your job duties alone, will bury the skills you have mastered during that time period. Try highlighting the accomplishments. For example, a list of job duties would like:

• Attended group meetings and recorded minutes.
• Top sales person of our company.

Accomplishments are what allow a prospective employer to visualize you working in their organization. For top effectiveness, accomplishments must be stated quantifiably as rupees or percentage. They are looking for statements like:

• Used the flash recorder to record the group meetings and compiled all the useful information in the WORD file, which was greatly helpful for departmental future reference.
• Increased the sales of our company by 20% over the previous year.

Mistake:  lengthy objectives

Correct:  A short and precise objective, built using simple language, with understandable phrases that does not run around the bush is sufficient. Do not use flowery language which might need a dictionary to interpret.

Mistake: exaggerating or out-and-out lying about your achievements and experiences will get you a better job.

Correct: stick to the truth. This kind of fabrication will only create initial interest. But, once even a single lie of yours is caught, the entire ‘you’ will come into suspect and you may be fired even before being appointed.

Mistake: using flashy and creative layout and other embellishments to stand out from the crowd.

Correct: using complicated formats or decorated paper will definitely get attention but not for the right reason. The best way to stand out from the crowd is with high quality error –free document. Getting too creative might spoil the whole look. Use fonts like Verdana, Times New Roman or Arial and remember to use the same font throughout your resume.

Mistake: using unnecessary acronyms or superlatives.

Correct: don’t take a chance with this. Write the full title of your previous position, institutes, school or company. Most of them understand that MD stands for Managing Director. But not all know that CCS stands for customer care specialist or AM stands for asst. manager.

Also, do not add superlatives to your previous positions. Like “best manager” or “superb reporter”. Promote yourself with sure facts and figures under the experience or accomplishments column, but not through self appraisal.