As a career coach and consultant, I read a lot of resumes and there are some common mistakes I see again and again. I get this. Resumes are difficult to write as most people find it hard to sell themselves on paper. It also feels like a mammoth task because we tend to update our resumes every few years when we are changing jobs. It can be tricky to remember what we did, how it added value and the skills we used. More often that not, we are applying for something with a short deadline and so we do the best job we can, send off, then rinse and repeat for the next job application.
However, you don’t need me to tell you that it is a tough job market out there. Employers have their pick of the best candidates, so it is more important than ever to have a standout resume and avoid mistakes that are easy to rectify. The trick is knowing that you are making them.
Below I reveal the eight common mistakes I see in resumes and how you can rectify them. Read on or if you’d like some personal feedback on your resume then make use of my free resume service. Click here to find out more and upload your resume.
Not tailoring to the job
Mistake number one is the most important to address. I know it’s tedious, but you need to tweak your resume for each and every job application. Th experience you include must be relevant and match the job description as much as possible. The skills you mention should match those requested in the selection criteria and should be sprinkled throughout your resume.
When you tailor a resume to the job it becomes much easier to address the other points below. It also makes it so much easier for the recruiter to see that you are the best fit.
A boring personal summary
You’ve seen those summaries at the top of resumes, and you may have one yourself. Most of the time they are a boring combination of motherhood statements that don’t really mean anything “Motivated and conscientious go-getter with strong communication skills” …. could be anyone.
Now first up I should say, you don’t need to have one of those summaries. And, in fact, if yours is a generic mishmash of skills then I probably wouldn’t bother. But they are a good idea if you’ve had a break in your career or if you are transitioning into something different. They can be a neat way of telling the story of you and how what you’ve done before fits with where you are going and the target job.
For example, when I embarked on my own career change, I had the following summary in my resume:
“A sales and marketing professional with over 15 years’ experience of driving business growth and brand awareness for clients within professional services. After many successes, including winning major pitches for key clients, I am now seeking a new challenge and wish to apply my commercial acumen, marketing and personal branding skills to the career advice and development industry. I undertook training as a life and career coach whilst on maternity leave and have subsequently set up my own coaching business where I coach mothers who are transitioning in their careers. I’m seeking a part-time position where I can utilise my unique mixture of coaching and marketing skills.”
Skills without evidence
One of the more recent trends in resumes is to summarise your key skills at the top after your personal summary and before your employment history. Now again, it isn’t compulsory to include this section, but it can be useful if someone is changing career with limited experience of that role or industry. This section is how you highlight your transferable skills that are relevant to the target job. They should include the skills mentioned in the selection criteria.
The mistake I often see though is candidates simply listing skills:
- Customer service skills
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Blah, blah, blah
This looks lazy and quite frankly anyone could write this list. Instead, you need to demonstrate with evidence where you developed those skills. For example:
“High level customer service skills developed through front of house management in a busy hospitality venue.”
When you add a key skills section to your resume it gives you a chance to highlight the most important bits of your experience and skills. They say the average recruiter spends just 7 seconds reviewing a resume – don’t rely on the recruiter reading your whole resume in chronological order to get to the most relevant and juicy bits. They might not bother.
Passive language
This is a tricky one to spot but believe me it makes a difference. It annoys the hell out of me when I read something like this:
“In this project I had to carry out a survey of patient’s attitudes to health care services.”
Compare it with:
“I devised and prepared a survey of patients attitudes to health care services.”
The second statement sounds so much more active. They were coming up with the ideas. They were devising and preparing. In the first statement they “had to” carry out a survey. It sounds like they didn’t want to, but they did it because they had to. That was their only involvement.
Watch out for language like this in your resume.
Employment dates that don’t make sense
Better to be upfront about employment gaps than to try and hide them by fudging employment dates. Employers are really interested in employment dates so make them easy to read by right aligning and include months as well as years.
If you’ve had a period of contract work with lots of short-term gigs then perhaps put them under one heading of “Temporary Contracts” or “Freelancing.” Remember to concentrate on the last ten years. You don’t need to go into lots of detail about early jobs unless they are really relevant to the role you are applying for. This is where it can pay to get someone externally to look at your resume because they will know ways to present employment gaps or short-term roles.
Spelling and grammar mistakes
It goes without saying that you need to spell check your resume and, if possible, get someone else to look it over to make sure it is grammatically correct and that there are no silly errors. You will be amazed at the number of avoidable typos I see in otherwise decent resumes. When an employer sees a silly mistake, it detracts from all the good things you are saying.
Too long
People often ask me how long a resume should be and really the answer is that it depends on the person, their level of experience and the role they are applying for. If you are applying for a role in academia, then a one-page resume is not going to cut it. On the other hand, in a more creative industry like PR I have heard that one-page resumes that contain the main achievements and highlights are becoming popular.
In general, if you are in the early stages of your career then go with two pages max and if you are more experienced maybe three pages. You need to bear in mind that the person reading your resume has limited time so the shorter the resume, the easier it is for them. Also, make sure you get your most important points in the first page. Watch out for unnecessary formatting issues that make your resume appear too long – this can be off putting for the reader.
To hobby or not to hobby
I have a confession. Reading and socialising are pretty much my only hobbies. I like to walk as well but only with a friend. I’d like to blame my kids and my busy work schedule for my lack of exciting hobbies and interests, but unfortunately I have always been boring. Therefore, I don’t bother putting my interests on my resume.
The interests section of a resume is not compulsory. If you take part in endurance or team sports, are involved in the arts, or volunteering and community service then go ahead and include these interests but only list hobbies that you are prepared to talk about at interview. If in doubt, leave them out.
I hope this has helped you spot and rectify some of those common mistakes that most people make in their resumes.
If you need further help then take me up on my free resume review service. Send me your resume and I will provide you with clear and actionable feedback within three working days. This feedback is so good that I have known people to go on and get jobs off the back of it. Click here to find out more and upload your resume.