Your resume is your foot in the door, even if it feels like all you get in is one toe. It’s what gives you the chance to maybe – eventually – meet the recruiter in person.
But you won’t get that far if you make these common resume mistakes. Learn what four things to avoid on a resume that can cost you the job, below.
1. Making It Too Long
When recruiters or HR professionals look over your resume, they’re not reading it in length. They’ll give it maybe a five-second glance, scanning for the things they want to see.
A lot of people write paragraphs as their job description, as opposed to bullet points. Bullet points are much more “scannable” and the human eye skips over big chunks of text.
If you’re writing bullet points, try to keep them short enough that they only take up one line. That way your list looks neat, and not like a paragraph you added some dots to.
2. Using the Same Resume for Everything
There are nothing recruiters will throw away or to the side faster than a non-relevant resume. If you’re applying for a job in the food service industry (and you’re not looking for first-time employment) don’t put that you managed social media.
It’s not going to help you get this position. If you’re dying to include it, you can put it in your skills section, but there’s really no reason to.
The more tailored your resume is to the specific job you’re applying for, the better the chances are of it getting read – not just scanned.
3. It’s Boring
We’re about to tell you something your college professional skills teacher would hate. You can use the word “I” on your resume.
One of the worst things you can do, according to Liz Ryan, keep human-voice out of your resume. What do we mean by not using a human voice?
“Creative and out of the box thinking professional with seven years of experience in the field”. Did you just describe yourself, or the bulk of your colleagues?
It’s okay to use some general language, but make it interesting. Something like “I got into (job field) seven years ago and my employers praise me for my creative thinking”.
Does it go against the traditional resume template? Absolutely. But does it catch someone’s eye when they’re wading through 100 vague statements about professionals? You bet it does.
4. You Don’t Use Keywords
When you apply for a job, you need to really read and then re-read the job description. Why? Other than you need to know what you’re applying for?
That job description has keywords in it that the employer (or a scanning program) looks for in a resume. Sometimes, for very popular positions, they won’t even look at your resume with human eyes if it doesn’t have those keywords.
Things to Avoid on a Resume
If you’ve avoided all of the four things above, then you should be all set. One last thing – don’t lie on your resume. If you say you’re fluent in a language, you’d better be ready to speak that language randomly at your interview.
Lying on a resume is a great way to not get the job, or get fired once you have it. Don’t be that person – and make lying one of the things to avoid on a resume.
For more information on how to communicate professionally, click here.
