After spending hours doing up your resume, you are all ready to apply for the dream job you always wanted. Patiently waiting, but no replies at all. Is it because you have applied for a job that you are underqualified or because of some other reasons? Many times, resumes are been tossed aside due to mistakes that might not be due to qualifications or experience. Let’s look at what mistake they are and how you can avoid them.
Grammatical and Spelling Errors
Unprofessional? Not proficient in writing? These are some of the impressions you might give off if there are such errors in your resume. As common sense as it seems, it is not easy to spot your errors when you are trying to proofread your resume. Get someone else to proofread your resume or use grammar check tools online to help you to spot errors. Typically, recruiters only spend a few seconds on your resume. Therefore, you probably will want to leave a good impression and allow them to read the content with ease.
Visuals and Design
We are now in 2020 and many of us might want to move away from traditional black and white resumes to something more exciting. Resume with colors, with lots of graphics, fanciful fonts or even through a website. It is indeed very refreshing to receive resumes like this. However, at times people might overdo it a little. For example, using too many colors and fonts in one resume might confuse the person reading it more than anything else. Always remember that at the end of the day, the thing that determines your eligibility for an interview will still be the content of your resume. Keeping it nice and simple will still be the way to go.
One-Size-Does-Not-Fit-All
Sad to say, you can’t just do one version of your resume and expect to send them everywhere. Different employers are looking for different things. Many times, you will need to tailor your resume according to the job description to fit the job that you are applying for. A generic resume will just means that you are just trying your luck or lack of effort even if you are not. Employers are receiving tons of resumes in a day, if your interest level is lacking, there goes your opportunity.
Too Long or Too Brief
Either way, it isn’t good. Resumes are typically 1 to 2 pages long, depending on your years of experience and achievements. Recruiters don’t have that much time to read through everything, so just choose the most important and relevant items. However, being too brief will make you look underqualified. Using action words and quantifying your work is essential to show the impact of your work. For example, “Sold computer chips” vs “Planned and executed sales strategy and achieved 200% growth on computer chip sales”. Everyone probably will choose the person who wrote the latter statement in their resume anytime.
Incorrect Contact Information
As funny as it seems, this could be a fatal hit to your opportunity to get your dream job. How can anyone get back to you if you are uncontactable? Check your mobile number and email on your resume or any platform you are applying to. These are the kind of mistakes that can be easily avoidable with a few rounds of check.
Look through your resume and make sure all these mistakes do not exist there!
Kingfisher Recruitment Group is a global provider of total recruitment solutions. We help clients design people strategies, attract and develop talents worldwide across the Healthcare & Life Sciences, Professional Services, Technology, Retail & Consumer, Manufacturing, Automotive, Property & Construction, and Engineering industries.
