7 Mistakes To Avoid On a Resume
Even a tiny mistake on your resume, could cost you your dream job and honestly nobody wants that. If you are not getting a callback from your dream firm, a huge chance is that a tiny mistake may have ticked your employer off and made your resume’s way to the waste paper basket. Think that your resume is completely perfect? According to a survey even the highest paid professionals have admitted to making mistakes on their resume. Also yes that was Mistakes that is Plural.
So without further delay we are going to list down below the
Top 7 mistakes that you should avoid while making a Resume. Entry level employees beware from making these mistakes because a resume is the first impression that you are going to have on your employer and trust us you do not want to either tick them off or create a bad impression on them.
The Top 7 mistakes are listed below as follows-
i. Typos and Grammatical errors in the document.
ii. Lack of Specifics in your document.
iii. Using an unprofessional email address in your resume.
iv. Including irrelevant information in the document.
v. Including incorrect information in the document.
vi. Annoying buzzwords ,short forms and obvious keyword stuffing in the document.
vii. Displaying an “any job will do” attitude in the document .
1. Typos and Grammatical Errors -
Yes yes we know what you are thinking , “This is so obvious” but as we said before we are all humans and thus we can all make silly mistakes. If your resume has a number of grammatical errors then it will definitely form a very unflattering impression on your employer. They will tend to read between those lines and honestly you would not get a callback from your dream job. So our advice is to definitely steer clear from all those grammar mistakes . There are a number of sites where you can check the grammar of your resume, for example - grammarly.com
2. Lack of Specifics in your Document -
By lack of specifics ,we mean that you should not state the obvious or very general information in your resume about your job. If this is confusing to you, do not worry we have given an example below, check it out -
a. Scenario 1 - Worked as a customer service executive in the firm .
b. Scenario 2 - Worked as a customer service executive, trained 18 interns under my guidance and received an average customer satisfaction rating of 90% .
In the above two scenarios, both the cases or scenarios are describing the same person with the same job . However the lack of specifics in the
Scenario 1 will most probably cost your job . On the other hand the brief specifics in
Scenario 2 will attract your employer because of the way in which you have described your job.
3. Using an Unprofessional Email Address in your Resume -
Let us take you on a walk down memory lane, remember back in high school when you had to submit your assignments online and your teacher did not accept it because it was submitted with the mail id starting with the name of ‘Dark Unicorn’ because it was inappropriate . Well it’s similar here,
use an email address that best describes you because it would be one of the biggest tragedies if your employer overlooked your qualifications as they got hung up on
Darkunicorn@gmail.com
4. Including Irrelevant Information in the Document -
Having irrelevant or outdated information on your resume is a Big No! Avoid including information such as your - age, marital status. Including this kind of information on your resume will make your employer think that you are not updated with the latest way of writing resumes .
Also if we are examining all sides of the situation mentioned, there is a chance that by including this information you are setting yourself up to be open to
common discrimination based on age, gender etc .
Thus do not include such information unless it is needed in your resume.
5. Including Incorrect Information in the Document -
Yes we know that
lying on your resumes sounds very attractive and most probably you have seen it in all your favorite sitcoms, you have always seen a lot of people doing it. But we are sorry to burst your bubble, lying on your resume or including incorrect information is a big mistake which you should avoid at all costs. If by even a little chance your employer gets to know that you lied on your resume. Your resume would make its way straight to the recycle bin.
Thus avoid it at all costs.
6. Annoying Buzzwords, Short forms and Obvious keyword Stuffing in the document-
Including Keywords in your resume that are relevant to the job that you have applied for so that your resume can make through the ATS that is Applicant Tracking System of your employer is important. This will ensure that the system does not weed out your resume thinking that it is unqualified for the job .
However it is not as easy as it sounds , here comes the hard part , Do not overuse Keywords in your document, include them in a way that it sounds natural . If you yourself feel that you are not the best judge of your own work, make someone else read it to you ,so you can remove the unnecessary keywords .
An additional tip would be to
not use annoying or unprofessional keywords because trust us, it does not look cool and even if it does , looking that ‘cool’ may cost you your job. Stick to being professional in your resume.
7. Displaying an “Any job will do” attitude -
When you try to develop a Resume that will fit in for most of the jobs that you are applying to , you tend to develop a very very generic Resume . This kind of resume is one of the top things that tick off an employer or make you land on their bad side.
All employers want to feel special and important thus when you develop a very generic resume it displays 2 things respectively -
i. An “Any job will do” attitude .
ii. A Lack of Effort .
This is a major reason why we strongly advise you to make different resumes for the different fields that you are applying to. We know it is hard work but honestly it is completely worth it .
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