10 mistakes ruining your resume which you should immediately rectify.

“1 in 5 recruiters will reject a candidate before they’ve even finished reading their resume” - reveals the latest stat.

Every other job is becoming competitive and people are literally flooding at almost all job interviews these days. Isn’t it? But how do you stand out from the crowd with just this simple paper in your hand??

So much of importance and conclusions driven from a single sheet of paper!? Yes, what you are holding isn’t just a paper, but a gold mine summing up your entire capability and history.

What you shouldn’t add to a resume carries more weight than what you actually should. 

Let me quickly run you through what all additions might ruin your chances of being selected and how you can avoid them.

I attended a free one-one resume appraisal session by an expert, after which I came to know of the imprudent errors in my resume. This blog is my hands-on learning from that session.

READY?? LET’S TAKE A DIVE!!

STRICT NOs:

1. Disclosing personal information.

Now, a handful of resume templates we might have written at school/college has this separate section for personal data. They include Marital Status, Parent’s name and occupation, Age, Religion, Community, etc… Why are these required by the recruiter? – They are not gonna hire you for who your parents are. Then why add them? 

Remove the entire section. Instead, you can just add your Gender and, Date of Birth.

2. Mixed font styles and sizes.

Resumes aren’t décor spots to add snazzy borders, colors, emoji, etc… Don’t show variation in text size and style. Choose the most common font style like – CALIBRI (or) ARIAL (or) TIMES NEW ROMAN and use them throughout, even for headings.

To differentiate - you can use bold or italics but don’t increase or decrease the font size. They might distract the reader.

3. No unnecessary spaces.

Blank spaces add more nullity and voidness to the document. I don’t mean you should fill up every blank spot. Avoid adding too many line spaces between headings and paragraphs.

4. References.

Most of the companies don’t essentially ask for a reference. It’s better to give references on requisition by the company. It is not at all mandatory to provide references in your resume. Usually, companies ask you to fill up a company-specific application form before you attend the interview. Possibly at that place, if the form mandates you can provide one or two.

5. Declaration.

One of the absurd things to do in a resume is to write “All the above-said information is true to the best of my knowledge and conscience”. A formal and professional-looking resume would never have this insane declaration.

All those you’ve mentioned are in themselves assumed to be true and verifiable. Remove if you’ve already added one and don’t sound like a dumbo to the recruiters.

STRICT YESs:

1. Page count

Firmly not more than 2 pages – I repeat 2 PAGES!! Some resumes look like essays and autobiographies. When there are hundreds of people applying for the interview, do you think the interviewer will have time to run through that whole essay? Certainly not.

Did you know that “Recruiters spend an average of 3.14 minutes reading a candidate’s resume and they have generally made up their mind within the first minute”?

Just a minute to decide your fate. That’s all!!

2. LinkedIn & Contact Info

Never miss out on adding your LinkedIn ID to the very top right corner of your resume. Make sure you have an ID with up-to-date info. If you’re yet to open a LinkedIn ID – this blog on “How to optimize your LinkedIn profile to land you a decent job?” will guide you through the process. Not just the ID – but linking it to the PDF document would be easier to access.

Also, add your email address and mobile number to the top right corner. Please don’t mention your entire address at the top. Move it to the bottom or if you’re applying for a job outside your city – just mention your city and state (no full address required).

3.  Bullet Points

Bullet points aid in easy scan-ability for the reader. Also, don’t be so cliché with saying

·        ‘I can work well under pressure’.

·        ‘I can work well as a team’

Instead, use strong and professional adjectives like – ‘Team Player’, ‘Strategic Thinker’, ‘Industrious’, and other words like – Robust, Unprecedented, Earnest, Studious, Resilient, etc…Also don't exaggerate too much. 

4. Grammar, typos, and file name.

‘59% of recruiters will reject a candidate because of poor grammar or a spelling error’.

Grammatical errors clearly show carelessness to proofread before submission. Proofread your resume 3-4 times before final submission. If possible, ask somebody to re-check the doc for you.

Though these mistakes might seem small, they can cost you the best first impression. 

PRO TIP: Ensure the file name of the resume is in your name.pdf before you forward it. For example – Akshayaresume.pdf (or) akshayaresume2021.pdf.

Always forward a resume only as a PDF and strictly not as a DOC. Doc files can be altered by anyone and aren’t safe to be sent a long way.

5. Experienced candidate

If you’re an experienced applicant, make sure to add your experience in reverse chronological order, meaning – add your most recent job first, then move to the previous ones.

For example:

Sales manager at XXX Ltd (April 2019 – present)

Sales assistant at ABC Ltd (July 2017 – April 2019) so on and so forth.

Also if you have made any accomplishments in your previous job – mention them. Like – ‘Was handed a sales target of 90%, but consistently bought sales of 105%’.

 

I hope this blog helps you secure a challenging job. Make sure to imbibe these minor corrections in your resume and enjoy the results that follow.

Until next time :)