I’ve been interviewing recruiting professionals from Hudson, a leading staffing and recruitment firm, for an article on the top resume mistakes made by job seekers. Surprise, surprise — typos lead the list of pet peeves. In fact, one error on your resume can send it directly to the circular file without even landing in resume purgatory for a possible second look.
Job seekers: It’s time to take back your power. You know you can do the job, so stop taking yourselves out of the running by making silly mistakes on your resumes. If there can be a National Squirrel Appreciation Day, then surely there can be a National Proofread Your Resume Day. I declare this day to be February 1 — by then, those pesky New Year’s resolutions will have waned and there will be more time to focus on perfecting your resumes.
Of course, you can start proofreading your resume now, which is a good idea if you’re in an active job search. Whatever you do, don’t rely on spellcheck — it doesn’t catch everything. I like Jacci Howard Bear’s About.com primer on how to proofread text and layout. If you doubt your proofreading abilities, enlist the help of a pro. Check out the following article on what can happen if you fail to proofread your resume:
Ten Classic Resume Bloopers: Know Them So You Won’t Make Them
by Kim Isaacs
Monster’s Resume Expert
If you’ve ever watched those TV blooper shows, you know how funny slip-ups, gaffes and blunders can be. But while laughter may be good for the soul, it’s certainly not the response you want your resume to produce.
Baby Boomers (or Gen-X and Gen-Y fans of Nick at Nite) will recall the often hilarious pronouncements of Archie Bunker, the patriarch of the popular 1970s sitcom “All in the Family.” With just a slight slip of the tongue, Archie’s intended meanings frequently became completely convoluted (e.g., “consecration” instead of “concentration” and “mental pause” instead of “menopause”).
If your resume contains any such Archie-like malapropisms, it’s sure to be memorable, but it won’t leave the lasting impression you’re shooting for. Proofread your resume meticulously, and share it with trusted friends and colleagues to make sure you haven’t inadvertently substituted one word for another. Keep in mind that your computer’s spellcheck function often will not catch these errors, since the problem is one of incorrect word choice rather than misspelling.
To help ensure that your resume finds its way to the interview pile and not the circular file, avoid these 10 classic resume bloopers, culled from real-life resumes of job seekers from all levels, industries and career fields:
- “Revolved customer problems and inquiries.” Just what every employer is looking for — an expert in passing the buck.
- “Consistently tanked as top sales producer for new accounts.” Sales managers aren’t likely to be impressed with this self-proclaimed underachiever.
- “Dramatically increased exiting account base, achieving new company record.” If customer accounts were leaving in droves as this statement implies, it’s probably fair to assume that this candidate also tanked as a top sales producer.
- “Planned new corporate facility at $3 million over budget.” Every hiring manager is searching for employees who exceed budgets by millions of dollars.
- “Directed $25 million anal shipping and receiving operations.” Either this person is showcasing compulsively stubborn management qualities, or he has a challenging product packaging/storage problem.
- “Participated in the foamation of a new telecommunications company.” This job seeker was also in charge of bubble control.
- “Promoted to district manger to oversee 37 retail storefronts.” This is a common resume typo. There must be literally thousands of mangers looking for jobs in today’s modern world. Here’s a tip: Use your word-processing program’s find/replace feature to quickly correct this common mistake. You can also modify your application’s spelling dictionary so it won’t recognize the word “manger.”
- “Experienced supervisor, defective with both rookies and seasoned professionals.” Many of us have had a boss like this at some point in our careers, but you usually don’t find them being so up-front about their leadership inadequacies.
- “I am seeking a salary commiserate with my training and experience.” There are a couple problems with this statement. To begin with, salary requirements don’t belong on a resume. Secondly, a salary should be “commensurate” with experience (meaning proportionate to), not “commiserate” with (meaning to express sympathy for).
- “Seeking a party-time position with potential for advancement.” Sounds like a fun job.
Copyright 2012 – Monster Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. You may not copy, reproduce or distribute this article without the prior written permission of Monster Worldwide. This article first appeared on Monster, the leading online global network for careers. To see other career-related articles visit http://content.monster.com
This article was written by Kim Isaacs, director of ResumePower.com and author of The Career Change Resume book. Visit the ResumePower.com site to learn more about resume services to jump-start your career.