Even in an ever increasing digital age, the resume still shines as your passport to employment.
This means that having a polished and sharp resume will net you interviews left and right. However, the opposite could happen when your resume is sloppy: you might not get called in for any interview.
Here are tips on what to avoid in your resume:
1. Grammatical errors and typos
In a competitive field where everyone is bringing their A-game, sloppiness is a no-no.
A CareerBuilder survey found that 58 percent of employers who identified typos in a resume led them to automatically throw away the applicants resume.
Because of the competitive and eager applicants out there, grammatical errors have no space in companies. Even the misuse of words and incorrect spelling may spell doom for your career.
Even spell checkers and Autocorrect on word processing programs won't cut it. Getting your resume checked by a resume writing service in Phoenix AZ could prove helpful. Don’t rely on a friend or professional colleague; they are not a full-time professional and certified resume writer.
2. Incorrect information
Even the simplest mistakes can cost your interview opportunity.
An incorrect phone number, over-exaggerated job description, or job title can cost you your job
.
Incorrect information will show up sooner or later during an employer's background check. So better not lie about the information you feed your employers -- it will come to bite you back in the end.
3. Generic Resumes
Even for long-time job seekers, this may come as a shock. Resumes are not one-size-fits-all.
No job will ever be the exact same, so your resume should also be different from employer to employer.
As opposed to sending out the same exact resume to all your employers, the best way to land an interview is to work on your resume one by one, crafting your resume to fit the certain company's needs. Knowing what the employer needs and adapting your resume to display the information that they need first will surely draw second looks to your resume.
Another tip to have is to use the jargon of the field you're applying in your resume. Are you applying for a newspaper company? Using words like research, fieldwork, and legwork could be crucial. But if you're applying for a content-producing digital company, words like SEO and key words could be better in your resume. Know the language and use it to your advantage.
4. Objective Statements
Nowadays, more and more people are dropping the objective statements from their resumes and with good reason: when you're applying for a job, your objective is to get the job -- no need to sugarcoat your resume with vague descriptions that don't hold any value.
Most of the time, your objective statement will be similar to the next resume. This is a sure invitation that your resume will end in the trash bin.
5. Listing All Your Jobs
Listing down every single job you have is a no-no. Nobody wants to know that you used to milk cows on weekends during your stay in college, unless of course, you're pursuing a job in cow-milking.
As much as possible, only list down relevant job experiences. Keep details that have no relation to the job or field out of your resume. This keeps your resume a lot shorter than it used to be.
6. Irrelevant "Special Skills"
Employers definitely want to know if you have other skills that could be an asset to the company or startup. However, if you start putting special skills such as "MS Word proficiency", your resume starts looking like everyone else's. On top of that, you're wasting precious resume real estate by including fillers like those.
Instead, highlight skills that aren't needed for the job but could come in handy in the field sooner or later.
There are several highly talented and top rated professional resume writing services located in the Tempe, Scottsdale, and Phoenix AZ area.