8 blunders to avoid on your resume
Despite what you read, your resume still wields ‘open sesame’ force when it comes to getting you the roles you want. But it’s very easy to trip yourself up by not taking enough care to ensure your resume document is the best that you can make it.
Here are the eight most common errors that send resumes straight into the recruiters’ ‘no’ pile week after week.
Step one: Get it right
The first and most important of these is really a no-brainer.
You must use the addressee’s name and spell it correctly. You’d be amazed at how many people in high level jobs actually don’t bother to check. ‘To Whom It May Concern’ is a definite strike against you.
Then, you need to continue as you’ve begun – by avoiding at the typos and glaring grammatical glitches that will have you tossed onto the reject pile in the blink of an eye.
No if’s: no but’s. Just get it right. Use the spell check device on your computer but don’t trust it 100%. Have at least three other people proof read your document. Individuals who are 50 and over will have had spelling ‘beaten’ into them at school – so they’re always a good bet.
If in doubt, use a dictionary (that’s a book) to look up any words that elude you.
Step 2: Write a resume not a book
Again, it would astound you to see how many senior executives send in 15 closely typed pages (or more) that include every detail in, around and under their working lives including where they went to primary school decades and decades earlier.
Then there is the one page school with so much crammed into so little space that no-one, with the best will and skill in the world, can make head or tale of the message. Both bomb out in double quick time.
These days, all essential detail including qualifications, a work history, core skills, industry affiliations and selected accomplishments should be clearly, elegantly and concisely arranged on 4-5 A4 pages. No more.
Utilise your white space to advantage by using dot points and very short sentences. Be stylish and informative. Stick with one businesslike font in an 11 or 12-point type. Avoid fancy graphics because machine scanners probably won’t be able to read them.
Step 3: Consider where the resume is headed
Increasingly, you will need to tailor your resume to accommodate machine readers. On-line job boards and sometimes even individual advertisements often provide specific guidelines to follow. If not, it could pay to check the web for more generic handy hints.
Step 4: Keywords are the key
When you’re dealing with electronic software, it will probably scan your resume for key words that will propel you into the ‘further consideration’ file.
But don’t be fooled and omit this step when you know the first reader will be a real, live human. He or she is a hard worked consultant who in all likelihood will use just this same strategy to initially sort the maybe’s’ from the ‘no way’ candidates.
Since most of the people involved in processing your application will be looking to spot these markers make sure you include them – in both your resume and its accompanying cover letter.
You’ll find keywords and phrases in the advertisement you answer and in any job description forwarded to you. This is the language that you need to mirror in your application.
Step 5: Customise every time
Don’t ever send exactly the same resume and/or cover letter twice.
The advertisements you’re answering are not exact replicas – even if some the basic keywords have a marked similarity. So, why should your application be a clone of a previous response.
Fine tune each application so it’s a tailor-made self-marketing tool that addresses the job you’re applying for. Work back from the advertisement to give them what they want to hear – without in any way bending the truth!
Try to find one previous achievement that illustrates some of the attributes the prospective employer is looking for. Spell this out and highlight it in briefly in your resume and again in slightly different detail in your cover letter.
Remember, the employer is seeking a specific person to do a specific job at this specific time. Let him/her see clearly and quickly that you fit the mould.
Step 6: The cover letter is the key to the door
If you send a resume without a cover letter you’re losing the best possible opportunity to shoot yourself to the top of the queue. An engaging and informative one-page cover letter with personality will almost certainly guarantee that the readers will continue on to read your resume in full.
Just be careful that in summing up Brand You and your Unique Selling Points that you don’t harp on material that’s already clearly expressed in your resume. Repetition is off putting. Look for a fresh new means of showing how well you could do the job.
Step 7. Style without substance
One of the most disastrous types of resume that arrives here at Windsor is the one – generally submitted by senior executives – that carefully details the roles they have held but reveals nothing of what they did with them!
These are peppered lavishly with words like ‘responsible for’ and ‘managed’ and are – in effect – a string of job descriptions. This is not what the prospective boss needs to know. Their interest is in what you DID with that job.
No matter what type of role is in question, your resume must focus on your achievements, not your responsibilities. So, you need to use numbers. These might include fundraising, increased profitability, sales generated success, business growth – anything so long as it’s big, positive – and you did it!
Step 8: Don’t lie: it’ll come back to bite you.
Don’t bend the truth: you’ll be caught. No one these days’ hires without some serious checking happening first. And now with the web, email and social media, you can expect that it will be sooner rather later.
If this blog is ringing bells with you, you can find many more handy hints on both writing resumes and crafting winning cover letters below.
Windsor also provides a professional resume writing service.
Contact details at: https://www.windsor-group.com.au/contact/