Top 3 Resume Writing Mistakes
Having a resume is one of the rules of modern day employment.
If you don't have one, you don't have a chance to get a job (most of the time anyway).
Having a great resume is absolutely vital to your employment success, but unfortunately it can be hard to produce a seriously world class resume.
So many people fall into easy to avoid traps and make basic mistakes which makes their resume look bad.
So how many of these mistakes are you making in YOUR resume? 1) Poor spelling or grammar - this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, period.
It's unbelievable in this, the age of computers, that you can't even use a simple spell checker.
99% of computers come with Word pre-installed, and if they don't you can get OpenOffice for free.
There are even online spell checkers that will do it without installing anything onto your computer.
There is literally no excuse for spelling mistakes.
Grammar and punctuation is a bit harder because computers aren't so good at picking up on those, but go for the "3 read rule".
Print out your resume and read it.
Then get a friend to read it.
Then get another friend to read it.
That's 3, and will pick up any grammatical errors and typos.
2) Old or out of date information - keeping your resume up to date might seem like a chore, but if your resume lands on a recruiters desk and it's out of date or missing vital information (ie a blank 6 months) the chances are they won't spend too long looking at it.
Make sure to update your resume every time you leave a job, or every time you get a new one.
Or, any time you do any freelance work or gain any new qualifications, skills or experience any other way.
3) Weird formatting - first off, use ONE font throughout the entire resume.
Do it all in black ink, no rainbow colours all over the place.
No clip art or pictures either.
And definitely no handwritten parts.
Try not to use too many tables..
this isn't a spreadsheet, it's a resume.
If you're submitting electronically make sure your resume is in Word DOC format, or Adobe PDF.
Nothing else, not DOCX, ODT, HTML or anything else bizarre.
These are just the basic errors people make.
Once you get over these there's still a long way to go before you've got a gold medal resume that will earn you top spot and the job you've always dreamed of.
If you don't have one, you don't have a chance to get a job (most of the time anyway).
Having a great resume is absolutely vital to your employment success, but unfortunately it can be hard to produce a seriously world class resume.
So many people fall into easy to avoid traps and make basic mistakes which makes their resume look bad.
So how many of these mistakes are you making in YOUR resume? 1) Poor spelling or grammar - this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, period.
It's unbelievable in this, the age of computers, that you can't even use a simple spell checker.
99% of computers come with Word pre-installed, and if they don't you can get OpenOffice for free.
There are even online spell checkers that will do it without installing anything onto your computer.
There is literally no excuse for spelling mistakes.
Grammar and punctuation is a bit harder because computers aren't so good at picking up on those, but go for the "3 read rule".
Print out your resume and read it.
Then get a friend to read it.
Then get another friend to read it.
That's 3, and will pick up any grammatical errors and typos.
2) Old or out of date information - keeping your resume up to date might seem like a chore, but if your resume lands on a recruiters desk and it's out of date or missing vital information (ie a blank 6 months) the chances are they won't spend too long looking at it.
Make sure to update your resume every time you leave a job, or every time you get a new one.
Or, any time you do any freelance work or gain any new qualifications, skills or experience any other way.
3) Weird formatting - first off, use ONE font throughout the entire resume.
Do it all in black ink, no rainbow colours all over the place.
No clip art or pictures either.
And definitely no handwritten parts.
Try not to use too many tables..
this isn't a spreadsheet, it's a resume.
If you're submitting electronically make sure your resume is in Word DOC format, or Adobe PDF.
Nothing else, not DOCX, ODT, HTML or anything else bizarre.
These are just the basic errors people make.
Once you get over these there's still a long way to go before you've got a gold medal resume that will earn you top spot and the job you've always dreamed of.
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