9 Mistakes to Spot In Your Résumé

A streamlined résumé is essential if you're getting the job you want and earning well. Learn about 9 résumé mistakes that could stop you from getting hired. 

The past year has created economic turmoil throughout the entire world. In the United States alone, one of the most developed countries in the world, the unemployment rate reached a shocking 6.9 percent on October 2020. According to human resources experts, only 10 percent of job applicants who submit forms end up getting invited for an interview. It's essential that your documents and applications land you an interview.

If you're looking for a new job to put food on the table and keep the lights on, you need every advantage. That includes knowing the most common mistakes you can make with your résumé. Avoiding these faux pas can help you land not just a job but your dream job.
The first and most common problem is sending out the same résumé to every company, no matter how different the job titles you want in them are. For example, if you have gotten professional piano lessons, that's a necessary addition to your résumé if you're applying to be a music teacher. But if you also include it in a résumé you send to a customer assistance company, it's not really helpful. Choose which skills and experiences you put on your résumé to fit better with the job you're applying for.

Customizing your résumé to fit the job you want also helps you remove unnecessary skills from it. Sure, you may have won third place at a river rafting competition, but how exactly would that help you at a desk job? Unnecessary skills include anything that's more of an interesting anecdote than an actual talent. Remove them because they'll only pad the word count and clutter your application.

Speaking of word counts, your résumé should only be a statement and not a whole manifesto. Too many words will dissuade employers from perusing it especially if the job is highly coveted. They'll have to sort through dozens if not hundreds of applications, and they can't spare the time to flip through your five-page document. Keep it between one and two pages if possible.

Your email address will be one of the details potential employers are sure to pay attention to. You do not want it to be something embarrassing or cool you thought up in high school. Ideally, your business email should be your name or initials. Numbers like your birthdate should be avoided if possible. There should be no adjectives or symbols attached to the email address.

Proofread your résumé multiple times and cross check every scrap of information you put into it. Are the employment dates you indicated completely accurate? Is that really the job description of that position you held five years ago? Are the contact information for your references still valid? Doing so can make it easier for your potential employers to check the data and make you look professional rather than careless.

Twenty years ago, being proficient with word processing software was undoubtedly impressive. Nowadays, they're standard and adding them to your résumé will only make it look like you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Listing your proficiency in the English language is only noteworthy if such skill is the primary focus of your job, like a second-language teacher, or because your skills are exceptional.

The information on your résumé has to be updated every time you get a new job. However, you may neglect to change the way your résumé presents this information. For example, when you're fresh out of high school or college, listing your academic accomplishments at the top of the document is perfectly fine. But after you've held down a couple of jobs, your achievements in those positions should be in that place of prominence.

No one wants their résumé to look like a medical report but sometimes people can go the other way and make their job applications look too gaudy. Pay attention to basic formatting and design principles if you're going to gussy up your résumé. Make sure there's enough white space to prevent clutter. The colours should be bold without being overwhelming. And the font should be as professional as possible.

While some employers may enjoy reading about your hobbies and interests on your résumé, this is just so much noise to others. Talking about your passion for the Twilight Saga is fine if an interviewer asks about your interests, but such personal information has no place in your résumé. The valuable real estate on your page should only be occupied by essential details that could increase your chances of getting hired, not irrelevant personal data.

A résumé is the way you can get in the company of your choosing. Ensuring that every detail on those sheets of paper contributes meaningfully to your employment efforts is essential. With the right résumé, you can get the job you need to provide for yourself and your loved ones.