Common resume mistakes and how to avoid them

By Nayab Naseer

Your resume is in most cases the only document employers consider before they take the decision to consider you for employment. It is your most important marketing took, akin to a product advertisement or a brochure. Just as you, as a customer would be put off by any mistakes in the product advertisements you see in newspapers, or in their brochures, your prospective employers would also be put off my mistakes in your resume.

The number of job applicants has always been greater than the number of jobs available, and this has been the case throughout history. Even though you may be the most qualified and the most talented fit for the vacant position, the company will not hire you until your resume is considered, and for this, your application should stand out from amongst the hundreds or even thousands that come in for the same position. Studies prove that when there are many resumes piled up, a single resume gets a consideration of around 15 seconds before it goes either to the shortlist side or to the reject side.

It is imperative that your resume is perfect and free from errors. Some of the points to consider are:

1. Avoid typing and grammatical mistakes. Typographical errors, spelling mistakes and faulty grammar reveal your incompetence and carelessness, and any employer worth its salt reject resumes that contain such bloopers.

2. Do not use illegible or uncommon fonts or file extensions. When you send your resume by email or upload the same into the company's website, many things can go wrong. It is not necessary that the font you use is available in the company's server. Similarly, different versions of MS-Word would make the formatting go awry. You might send the file as an Open Office Document, and since the company would not be having Open Office, they would not be able to open your resume.

It is thereby imperative that you use common and popular font like Arial or Times New Roman, use standard font size between 10 and 12. Always save the attachment in the specified format, or if nothing is specified, in MS-Word or PDF format.

3. It is essential that your resume is simple and easy to read, yet attractive. If you use too many formatting features, chances are the formatting would go awry when the employer opens the file using a different version of the same software.

You can take more liberties with formatting when printing out applications and submitting hard copies, but make sure to use easy to read fonts and font size, and be careful to ensure there are no formatting mistakes. Since there would be many applications, most companies do not waste time trying to decipher unreadable or hard to read applications.

Similarly, never use generic templates while formatting the resume. These are common and the person who sifts through the resumes would see hundreds of resumes in the same format. Even though the contents differ, they would not have the time to distinguish whether one is better than another is, and chances are they would reject such resumes.

4. How you style the resume is also important. Including objectives, giving over-emphasis on education and writing the resume in autobiographical style are some of the things people are accustomed to, but which are not the signs of a good resume. The resume should, in the first place be employer-centric and the focus should be on what you can do for the employer rather that what your objective is. Similarly, place emphasis on the results you have achieved rather than the duties you have performance or your achievements. If you can, quantify your results into financial terms, like "Devised a new process that cut the time taken to do the same work by 25%, thereby creating a savings of $x per employee through increased productivity".

5. Make sure the information provided is complete and accurate. While you may want to exaggerate your duties and responsibilities, make sure not to over-do this, and make sure such information does not contradict other parts of your resume. For instance you say you have 10 years of experience in Human Resources and you say you worked as a software professional for four years, and it is only eight years since you majored from college, you are contradicting yourselves. Similarly, if you say you "managed a large team" and the employee strength of the company is under 10, you are carrying the exaggeration too far. Such exaggerations might make the resume look good, but can hit you back badly during interview time.

6. Never use high-sounding words, jargon's and phrases unless you know what exactly it means and you can substantiate what you have written down. Words like "committed," "resourceful", "flexible," "goal-oriented" and phrases like "wants to work in an progressive organization" all makes your resume look good, but unless you can convince the interviewer that you really mean all these, you chances are gone.

7. Make sure to submit your updated resume, and especially make sure the contact details like phone numbers and email addresses are correct.

8. Providing too much information can at times be counter productive. Most resume sifters would not have the patience to probe your application in depth and fish out the relevant information from the tons of information you have provided. Again, the more information you provide, the more specific you are making yourself, and you are thereby restricting your chances. The common tendency is to include personal details like date of birth, religion, and even photographs. Most companies consider such data irrelevant. In the USA, this could be actually counter-productive, as this would prompt companies to consider discrimination lawsuits after they hire you.

9. Finally, make sure you draft separate resumes for each application. Even though the main features would be the same, reword the resume based on the job description. It would be necessary to highlight some parts of your job experience or education depending on the job description.

10. Most people sign and date the resume. This is not required. However, if you are including a covering letter along with the resume, make sure you date and sign that.

Remember that you have only 15 seconds to make an impression. Having a resume that runs into many pages is more likely to retard your chances rather than advance it. If you can convey this same information in one or two pages, that itself proves your ability.