Are You Making One of These Common Resume Mistakes?

Imagine having a resume that increases your odds of getting an interview with a company. According to the 2019 Jobvite Recruiting Benchmark Report, in 2018, only 12% of those that applied for a position had any additional discussion with a company representative. And that was in a good employment market. 

In a much tougher employment market with the global COVID-19 pandemic causing massive unemployment worldwide, you must be strategic about your resume. You need to understand what most applicants do wrong and be smarter. If you do, you can increase the odds that your resume will intrigue the recruitment team, and you can make it to an interview.

What Do Applicants Do Wrong?

Many things. Not because people are trying to sabotage their job search - they do not know better. These tips will help you fine-tune your resume and put a smile on the face of a recruiter when s/he reads it.

You’re Too Wordy

I once had a high school English teacher that made everyone redo each paper to get a higher grade. One of the purposes she had was to get us to be less wordy. She would sometimes have us be very aggressive and halve the number of words we used. It seemed like an impossible task, but it can be done - if you think about every word you use and why. Your resume is no different. Many resumes are just too wordy because you believe more is better. Just don’t. You will lose your reader. Make sure you make your point as succinctly as possible. The secret of good writing is rewriting.

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Syndrome

Some applicants believe that it is better to put all job responsibilities or accomplishments on your resume. That way, there will be something that is bound to be of interest to the reader. This does not work. If you want a job as a benefit and compensation analyst, then tell me about your experience with benefits and compensation.Your experience doing digital advertising for an ad agency ten years ago may be interesting to you, but it is not relevant to the job you wish to have.The only caveat to this is if you can demonstrate that in the digital advertising job, you would use the same skill set required for a benefit and compensation analyst.

Don’t Just List Your Job Duties (We Already Know What A Customer Service Representative Does)

Most resumes are just a listing of one’s job duties. Both the recruiter and hiring manager probably know what the general job duties for that type of role are in the market. You are not providing any additional insight UNLESS you tell not only what you do or did, but also how you did it and the results. So instead of saying that you took inbound customer service calls and resolved problems, you instead described how you did that and the results. How much more impressive would it be, instead, to show that you were #2 in the company in the number of inbound calls received and had a 97% resolution rate.

It can be helpful to take one or two sentences to summarize the duties of the position. Generally, I advise telling the reader why the role was needed in that organization and then provide bullet points of accomplishments.

The Myth of the One Page Resume

I still have people tell me that they were told (by whom?) that their resume must be one page. I know that was the standard many years ago, but I can tell you from reading thousands of resumes that most, at least for mid-career professionals, are at least two pages. Is that a problem? Absolutely not if the information is relevant to the job of interest. Generally, use these as a guideline for resume length:

• One page for 0-5 year’s experience or 1-3 roles

• Two pages for 5+ years of experience or 4+ roles

• Three pages (possibly) is you are applying for a government, academia, or consulting role or are doing research and have published works or patents

It is okay to submit a shorter resume through the company’s career page and provide a longer version to the hiring manager (with more details) when you interview.

Unnecessary Sections or Information

Especially for those new to the work world, you may add sections to your resume like volunteer work, clubs, or sports to show you are well-rounded to balance out the lack of work experience. After you have started your career and have at least one or two jobs on your resume, you should eliminate these sections from your resume. Only have this type of section if that role shows specific skills relevant to your work or potentially to cover a gap in a resume. Additionally, as you move beyond entry-level positions, your high school or college coursework and GPA will be less interesting to the hiring team. At that point, skip it.

Having an Objective Statement is a No-No

Somehow an objective statement has not died. It needs to.The problem with an objective statement is that it is written from the perspective of what the candidate wants. What you want is essential, do not get me wrong. But to go from applicant to someone that gets an interview, you need to demonstrate that you are a fit for the job. An objective statement does not do this. Use this space to show instead what you would bring to this role, not why you want this role. That is why, instead, it is better to provide a professional summary - a short, few sentences that describe who you are and why you would do well at this job.

Not All Jobs Are Relevant

If you have over 15 years of career experience, you may have one or more entry-level jobs in your past. Likely, what you did then is not relevant to what you want to do in a new job. It is okay to remove these positions from your resume or combine them into an Early Career History section if needed.

Formatting Woes

There are things that you are doing that makes reading your resume a chore. If you make it harder for the person reviewing your resume to read it, the likelihood that your resume goes into the “no” pile increases. You need to avoid these common mistakes.

No bullet points

Big blocks of text are harder to read. Package your information into bullet points to make it easier to identify the crucial points you want to make.

No white space

Having white space makes a document inviting. You only get a certain amount of a person’s attention. If you have a full page of text, it becomes very intimidating to read. White space shows that you know how to organize and prioritize your information - that you are not wasting the reader’s time.

Font size

Someone has to read your resume. Make sure that your font is not so small that a person has difficulty doing this without magnifying the page. If you have to use an 8 pt. font to get all your information on a page, you need to delete some of your information or be more succinct. Anywhere from 10-12 pt. font is best.

Eliminate Widows

Widows are paragraph-ending lines that fall at the beginning of the following page. Reword the paragraph or bullet, so this does not happen.

Review your resume and see if you are making any of these mistakes. Fix them right away. You will feel better about how you present yourself to recruiters. Remember the three “E’s,” Evaluate, Edit, and Exceed. Doing this, you will have not just a good resume but an amazing resume. 

Additional Resources For Resume Writing

What Is the Right Font for Your Resume

Show Your Results: How to Get Your Resume Noticed

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.