About mistakes in resume writing
Recruiters are not enemies to job seekers – in the face of a shortage of time to process large amounts of information, they optimize their work, avoiding spending time searching and studying resumes with incomprehensible and illogical content.
It is impossible to please everyone – no one has succeeded yet, but making the content of a resume easy to understand is not a difficult task. Below you will find a list of the most common mistakes in resume writing and recommendations for correcting them.
Using names of non-existent vacancies as the name of the desired position
If you are interested in the vacancy “Logistics Manager”, and in the “Desired position” field you write “Multimodal transportation specialist”, you yourself will minimize your chances of getting the desired job, because the most common job title with such job content is “manager on logistics”.
And the employer will, first of all, consider the resume “logistics managers”, not “Specialists …”. And when searching for a resume in the base of the worksite in the search results for the query “logistics manager”, the site will either show the recruiter the resume “Specialist …”, or show it at the end of the search results.
If you were a recruiter, you yourself would not consider, or consider the last resume, the name of the desired position in which does not correspond to the title of the vacancy, especially if there are alternatives in the form of a resume with “correct” titles.
Tip
Before posting your resume, look through the vacancies you are interested in and select for your resume the most popular names of the desired positions among employers.
Absence of words and phrases used in job descriptions in the resume text
Only the correspondence of the text of the resume to the job description can “hook” – the presence in the text of the resume of words, terms, phrases used in job descriptions.
If they are not in your resume, believe me, no one will read about your professional achievements, no matter how floridly they are described. If you want to be interviewed, match your employer’s “search queries”.
On the canons of resume writing, implying the use of action verbs and the digitization of achievements with impressive numbers, forget – they were relevant when the resume was printed on paper – now they do not read it, but look for keywords that match the query.
Tip
Do not be lazy to study job descriptions, choose from the common words, phrases, terms, use them in the text of your resume. According to the S technology search Engine Optimization (SEO), most of the content posted on the Internet is processed, about how to apply it when looking for a job, I previously wrote in an article SEO Resume Optimization for Humans and Robots.
Informative text, large resume
A recruiter spends 6-20 seconds on a resume. If 6-20 seconds is not enough to find the information corresponding to the search query, then the applicant can be blamed first of all.
Finding the necessary information in the midst of such uninformative cliches as “supervised the activities of subordinates” or “conducted business negotiations” quickly tires, and, sorry, annoys the recruiter. Therefore, a resume may be closed if it takes more time to check its compliance with the employer’s requests than the recruiter is willing to spend.
And there is no need to be offended by employers – Internet users also close pages if they do not have the patience to find the information they need in a voluminous and difficult-to-read text.
Tip
Reduce the description of work experience in one place to 7-9 lines, mercilessly delete uninformative phrases.
Extra information in the resume
Marital status, hobbies, number and age of children, religious and political views, praise by the applicant of their outstanding qualities have nothing to do with the correspondence of experience, knowledge, and skills to the job description, but can be ambiguously and subjectively perceived by the employer.
For more information on the risks of putting unnecessary information on your resume, read the article on 40 reasons why applicants are not invited to interviews. Besides, unnecessary information in the resume distracts the employer from the text corresponding to his requests.
Tip
Remove non-job-related information from your resume. If an employer needs to know if you are a diving hobbyist, wait for the interview question.
List of mixed/multi-level positions in the resume title
A resume of an applicant with the title of the desired position “Sales Director, Sales Manager” sent as a response to the vacancy “Sales Manager” is unlikely to be considered – most likely, it was sent by mistake because the “director” definition should not be interested in the vacancy “manager”.
And the resume “Accountant, procurement specialist” will also torment the recruiter with doubts about the real intentions of the applicant. But the resume “Secretary, assistant manager”, most likely, will not cause suspicion – listing positions with similar content of work is quite logical.
Tip
Use inconsistent titles of desired positions on individual resumes, or better yet, publish your resume with those titles in different accounts.
Resume title mismatch with work experience
If the resume is called “commercial director”, but there is no work experience in a similar or similar position in terms of the content of the work, the recruiter will not be able to convince himself of the need to invite this applicant for an interview, because nothing but the desire to take the desired position, the applicant’s ambitions not backed up. Any other candidate with minimal experience in a similar position will be preferred by definition.
Tip
The desire to set ambitious goals is worthy of respect, but be realistic – soberly assess the competition and employers’ expectations in the labor market. You should not bet on vacancies, the chances of which are small – apply also for vacancies in the competition for which you are competitive – it is better to receive offers and choose the best and do not wait in vain for a “dream job”.
Inconsistency of salary expectations with the realities of the labor market
Overestimating the cost of one’s qualifications is, of course, worse than underestimating. If you find yourself “out of the market”, you may not wait for offers.
Tip
Do not be lazy to study the labor market, compare your qualifications with the qualifications of other applicants, calculate your value in the labor market.
Errors in the text of the resume
Speech, spelling, syntactic, stylistic. A resume is an advertisement, it is hardly worth advertising your inattention and/or illiteracy.
Tip
Check and recheck the text, use the spell checker in Word.
Failure to specify the profile of previous employers
If profile experience is important, you should indicate the profile of the former employers at the beginning of the description of work experience. If you do not specify – reduce your chances of taking the desired vacant position.
Tip
Indicate the profile of the enterprise immediately after the name of the employer.
Invalid photo selection for resume
It’s easy to choose the right photo. Look at the photo on the resume of your competitors in the job market and think about what a photo of a job seeker should be, who, according to the employer, will be an ideal candidate for the vacant position for which you are applying. This is how your photo should be.
Tip
Find an appropriate resume photo from your personal archive or contact a professional photographer. And don’t overuse Photoshop.
