10 Resume killers You Should Avoid

A resume is a written compilation of your education, work experience, credentials, and accomplishments. Most professional positions require applicants to submit a resume and cover letter as part of the application process. When you apply for an open position, you’re competing with close to a hundred applicants, at the very least, given the nature of today’s job market. Competition is high and you need to stand out.

In many cases, your resume is the first document a hiring manager will look at when reviewing your application. A good first impression is what it takes to land an interview. To help ensure that your resume impresses your readers, avoid the following resume killers:1. Irrelevant Work Experience

Yes, you may have worked really hard your previous job, and were probably given employee of the month at the restaurant you worked for to put yourself through college more than once, but unless that work ties in with the job you’re applying for get rid of it. If you did manage to achieve something significant and feel like it ties in with the job you’re applying for, throw it in, but make absolutely sure that it’s relevant.

2.Grammatical Errors

Nothing shows carelessness more than a simple typo, so be sure to review your resume with a fine-tooth comb before sending it out. It has to be grammatically perfect. Simple language errors land you a quick ticket into the reject pile. Therefore, when you finish drafting your resume, ask a friend, colleague or a family member to look it over at-least once before applying.

3. Lack Of Specifics

Employers need to understand what you’ve done and accomplished. Instead of just stating what your current (or previous) position is, explain how you brought value to the firm and how they benefited from having you. For example, if you were a CS intern at a company, you could write “developed an algorithm that streamlined a process saving the company $5 million in costs” instead of “worked closely with industry professionals at company XYZ”. The first statement is more likely to grab an employer’s attention.

4. Personal Information

Do not include any personal information other than your email address and contact number. Other information like race, religion , height, weight or political affiliations opens the door for you to be subject to discrimination.

Companies, therefore, prefer that you do not include any physical descriptors.

5. Resume Length

Experts at online resume-writing firm Novorésumé firmly believe in the less is more concept for writing resumes.They created a sample resume for Elon Musk to prove “even a highly successful career like his can be presented in a one page résumé“.

elon musk's résuméNow, if Elon Musk can have all his experience and accomplishments fit into 1 page, do you really need 2?

6. Providing references

The statement “Available upon request” under the references column is nothing more than a space filler. It takes up valuable space and may cause you to leave off more relevant information. It is generally assumed that a job applicant will have references so it goes without saying that you will furnish references if requested. The space on that one-page document is far too important to be used up by worthless statements.

7. Using An Unprofessional E-mail Address

People pay attention to email addresses, and if yours is unprofessional, hiring managers will notice. Having an inappropriate email address like superman1986@gmail.com or princessbarbie@gmail.com is tantamount to showing up for the interview in sweats – very unprofessional. If that’s the only email account you have, create a new one with your own name. It only takes a minute or two, and it’s free!

8. Your Current Work Contact

Do this and you might receive a call at your current workplace by your prospective employer. Never list the contact information of your current place of employment. The only phone number you should include on your resume is your own personal cell number. Nothing more. There’s also the possibility that all your calls and emails are monitored by your current employer, and them finding out about you looking to switch may lead to you getting fired.

9. Lies

People falsify their resumes all the time. It shouldn’t be done, but it is. Problem is, you never know what the hiring manager may bring up in your interview. It’s very easy to catch someone lying, so please avoid it. The world is a small place that only gets smaller with every passing day. Even the slightest exaggeration on your resume can catch up with you. Keep to the facts, don’t bend the truth and don’t claim duties or experiences you never had.

10. Visually Unappealing

If your resume makes use of 5 different fonts and 3 different color schemes, it’ll definitely be a headache for the hiring manager to look at. Avoid the use of bold, italicized, and underlined words and phrases. Stick with two fonts at the most, bold and italicize your text sparingly and use bullet points to emphasize your accomplishments instead of long-winded paragraphs.

At the end of the day, you’ll still need a solid resume to really sell yourself. Just make sure the content you feature is visually appealing and can be read over quickly so that instead of passing it by entirely, employers will give it the attention it deserves.

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