The Biggest Resume Mistakes That Can Hold You Back In 2017
Learning how to write a resume can be difficult. That’s because even experts disagree on what the perfect resume should look like. Part of the reason for this confusion is that individual hiring managers have their own set of preferences as to what they want to see on a resume.
Nonetheless, many mistakes are obvious. What’s more, they may have serious repercussions as to your hire-ability. So before you send that resume to your future employers, make sure you check for these serious mistakes.
- There’s no white space. When your resume resembles a page in the dictionary, you have a problem. In fact, you have a big problem because no hiring manager will want to read your resume with that format.
You have to put in some spaces here and there to make the resume more appealing and less intimidating. It has to be easy to read, and that means having proper section breaks on the page.
- You used Comic Sans as your font. Hiring managers have their own ideas on what font they want to see on a resume. But just about all of them hate Comic Sans. It’s a font that was literally made for comics, and it has no place on a serious document like a resume.
You don’t want to use New Times Roman, either, because it’s boring. People may think that you didn’t put much thought to your resume. Your font should be readable, at the very least.
So exactly what should you use? Your best bet is any of the following: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, and Garamond.
- You didn’t check for spelling and grammatical errors. That these errors still occur is one of the headaches of hiring managers everywhere. Their version of taking aspirin is to just chuck your resume into the recycle bin.
When you make this mistake, it tells the hiring manager that you’re just not right for the job, no matter what job it is. These mistakes tell everyone that you rushed your resume, you’re careless, or you just didn’t care enough.
So after completing your resume, take some time and then look through it again. Then have someone you know read it too, so that they can also look at it with fresh eyes.
- You have an unprofessional email address. Please don’t use HotGuy135@yahoo.com or CutiePieTotally@gmail.com. It just strikes hiring managers the wrong way, and again it sends the message that you can’t be bothered to get a more professional email address.
- You lied about a previous job or about where you went to school. Hiring managers may be able to find out things about your history, simply by going online. Fudging your resume may make it seem more impressive, but having your lies discovered can get you disqualified for any job. It may even get you fired after you get the job.
So in the end, you really have to be professional when you build your resume. Learning how to write a resume is generally about learning how to be professional in presenting yourself as a qualified candidate for a job. When you make the mistakes we’ve listed here, it may seem like you’re not professional enough as of yet.
