Just as a start, I thought I would add a quick post on some of the most common mistakes that I’ve known some of my friends to make when it comes to their resumes.
I’m by no means an expert, but these are some common mistakes that shouldn’t happen in most basic resumes.
Forgetting To Put Your Contact Details
Probably the most important thing you can remember to do is to make sure that potential employers are able to reach you if they are interested.
Remember to put your full name, current mailing address and phone number (land line and mobile) and a current email address.
If they like you, but can’t reach you, chances are they will move on to the next candidate. It is rare in my experience that employers will like potential candidates enough that they would be willing to dig around to figure out who is the mystery person with the fabulous resume.
Not Putting Relevant References
If you’ve never held a job before and hence don’t have any work references, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put any or that you should put anyone you can think of as a reference.
The purpose of references is to serve as a third party character reference that your potential employer can trust is reliable.
This means putting people who are of perceivable social standing and are able to give an objective opinion of who you are.
In cases where you do not have work reference’s, you can put down the name of a lecturer or teacher from the university or school that you studied at.
If you are a member of a class or society, you can have a senior member of your group be a reference.
You don’t want to put down the name of your girlfriend or the old lady who lives across the street, unless of course they meet the above criteria.
No Contact Details For References
Usually if an employer is interested, they will call you asking for references. If on the other hand you attach the names of references with a resume but leave out contact details, this can give off the impression that you are sloppy and have a poor attention to detail.
Not Writing Clear Descriptions Of You Previous Job Responsibilities
I remember looking through a friends resume and all he wrote under previous employment was his job title and one word descriptions of what he did.
You want to communicate clearly and concisely firstly, “Your Job Title”, and secondly, “A Clear Description Of Responsibilities”
For example, let’s say the previous job you held was working as a pizza delivery driver.
Instead of just writing:
- Job Position : Pizza Delivery Driver
- Job Description : Delivering Pizza
Elaborate more on the exact tasks that you do.
For instance, when I used to deliver pizza I also used to help out in the back room in between deliveries.
In this case, you might write something like the following in your resume:
- Job Position: Pizza Delivery Driver and Food Ingredients Preparation
- Job Description:
- Adhering to Business Health and Safety Standards
- Responsible For Clean Up Of Food Preparation Area and Equipment At Close Of Business
- Communicating With Customers and Providing Excellent Customer Service
- Communicating With Other Driver’s To Ensure Timely Deliveries
- Food Ingredients Preparation and Storage
- Responsible For Packing Requested Delivery Orders
- Responsible For Cash Handling And Correct Payment
It might sound like an embellishment of a pizza delivery job, but those are all the jobs I used to do and they are all true.
Your job description should clearly reflect your job responsibilities. Don’t look down on any previous work experience you have.
When you’re first looking for a job, everything you do counts, and when employers are expecting to hear from fresh grads with no work experience, they are going to want to know as much about you as you can tell them.
Not Putting Your Most Valuable Attributes First
When an employer posts a job, they can potentially receive hundreds of applications.
If you can’t catch their attention with a glance of the front of your resume, you run the risk of your resume being dumped without even having a proper look through.
What I usually do in this case is I would have my name and contact details clearly on the front page along with a list of my most valuable attributes that I think the employer will want.
For instance, let’s say that the job you are applying for is as a Marketing Graduate.
In this case, you want to put right on the front of your resume in clear letters that can easily be read even at a sideways glance what you perceive is your most valuable asset.
This could be anything from “Graduated At The Top Of The Class” or “3 Month’s Experience As Personnel Assistant To Marketing Manager of Acme Company” or both even if you have them.
You want to make each description large enough to read easily and short enough to breeze through. State as many of your key attributes on this page as you can without making it look cluttered.
Also, do remember to put your name, contact details and any other relevant information that they need to pre-qualify you.
These can include location, marital status, visa status and so on.
Not Being Consistent With Formatting
If you’re going to use size 18 Font for the headings, make sure all the headings are size 18. If you’re going to use Times New Roman for the description text, use it for all the description text.
Inconsistent page to page formating is an indication of someone who has poor attention to detail and also a poor level of professionalism. This is really bad, especially if you’re applying for telework in which the potential client only has the resume in front of them to represent what you might be like in person.
The font I will generally use whenever I am writing an official letter or document is Arial font. Arial is a clean font, very neutral so it doesn’t draw the readers attention away from the content and it is clear and easy to read.
Other good fonts include Times New Roman and Calibri.
Your character is reflected in how well you format your resume. Don’t let little inconsistencies belittle the chances you might have to being shortlisted and accepted for a job.
Spelling Mistakes
Having spelling mistakes prevalent throughout your resume screams laziness and poor attention to detail. Most word processing softwares (namely MS Word) have spell checkers that help you avoid this problem.
Some simple advice, always run a spell check after you finish your resume and reread it just to make sure the spell checker didn’t accidentally change the meaning of any of the words.
“Six” spelled “Sux” could be misinterpreted as “Sex”. A resume full of “sex” where “six” should be could really minimize your chances of getting a job interview (usually).
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Yasuo Long believes that all employees should have the right to design their lifestyle according to their needs in order to maintain their health, their relationships and their happiness. In pursuit of this, he quit the 9-to-5 and became a telecommuter to give himself the time and mental freedom to discover what it really means to live with direction and purpose.
