Is your confidence down because you’re not getting any job interviews even after submitting a gazillion applications? Well it might not be you, but rather your resume. With hundreds of job applicants battling each other for a single job opening, a single mistake on your resume is all the excuse a hiring manager needs to toss it aside. So with just how crucial it is to craft a flawless resume, here are the top 5 resume mistakes job seekers make time and time again that should be avoided at all costs.
1. Making Spelling, Typo, and Grammatical Errors
I get that it’s obvious, but the thing is – stupid mistakes like misspelling a word or accidently including an extra space between two words is still the most common type of mistakes job seekers tend to make, and unfortunately, often times the costliest too. The key to avoiding stupid mistakes like these is to make sure you have as many people as you know critique your resume and provide feedback to you.
If you feel like that still isn’t enough, there are professional resume writing services out there that you should consider going for help. This is especially true if writing just isn’t your forte or if you really want to guarantee yourself a high-quality resume written by an expert. Be careful though, as all resume writers are not equally skilled. Some will do a far better job than others, so it’s important to really learn the difference between quality resume writers and poor ones.
2. Limiting Yourself to A One-Page Resume
Contrary to common belief, a one-page resume might not be your best bet. According to a resume study covered by Business Insider, recruiters actually prefer two-page resumes twice as much.
As a job seeker, one of the biggest mistakes is limiting yourself to a single page. In today’s modernized world of hiring, applicant tracking systems is one of the largest obstacles your resume will face. With how these resume robots look for keywords on your resume, it’s actually beneficial to have a longer resume, because it means you’re more likely to mention one of the keywords these resume robots are looking for.
3. Failing to Understand Resume Basics
Writing a resume is far different from writing a school paper or online article. It’s an entirely different artform in of itself. To give yourself the best chance of the job, it’s important that you familiarize yourself with what it really takes write a quality resume. Learn what works and what doesn’t. What belongs and what should be mentioned elsewhere. How a bullet point should start and how skills should be listed. There’s a lot of unwritten rules around resume writing that you should be made aware of before writing one so be sure to familiarize yourself with them before making the mistake of breaking one.
4. Including an Objective Statement
Objective statements were popular a few years back, however times have changed now, and they have really gone out of style as of late. The only time you should really include an objective statement now is if you’re looking to switch careers or if there’s something of unique importance you want to get across to the hiring manager. If that is not the case, an objective statement is not necessary, and usually just takes up precious real estate that would be wiser spent mentioning something else more important.
5. Resorting to A “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach
If you’re submitting to thousands of jobs, sure you don’t have the time to tailor each resume to the job description. But for the job openings that have really caught your interest and that you want to really optimize your chances of getting an interview for, it’s incredibly important that you make adjustments to your resume that will make you seem like the best fit for the job. The reality is, our general work experience is not going to make us the ideal candidate for every job we apply to. With that being the case, it’s important to add and delete work experience and skills that are and are not applicable to the job at hand. Doing so will allow you to set yourself apart from the other competitors who are too lazy to make such customizations.
