Five Mistakes to Avoid on Your Resume

Resumes are extremely important in this current day and age. This is the first impression that hiring managers review instead of the old school face to face sit down. Submitting the right resume is critical. Instead of focusing on what to include in your resume, concentrate on mistakes that can ruin a great resume. These are five mistakes to avoid on your resume that could potentially cost you a great job opportunity.

You don’t need a professional resume writer to create a kick butt resume. You can have a professional resume with a little ingenuity and know how. Avoid these five mistakes and make a killer resume in your spare time.

Resumes that read like a job description are not good

Resumes are similar to job descriptions in many ways. However, they are not. There are some differences that should stand out in a resume that you will never see in a job description. For an example, when you have a resume that reads “responsible for sales in the Midwest Territory for Acme Company” this doesn’t tell me anything about what you accomplished. Simply stating what you did is a job description. Write about what you achieved in your resume. Write that you increased the overall sales closing by 10% when you were responsible for the Midwest Territory for Acme Company.

Don’t have formatting that cannot work someplace other than your personal computer

Everyone doesn’t use the same computer Word processing programs. Therefore, be careful where you create your resume. Make certain that any resume can translate well to other Word processing programs.

You can check to see how your resume looks in Word, Open Office, Google Docs, etc before you send it out. This is a big mistake to avoid on your resume with a little editing.

Put numbers in your resume

A lot of people will shy away from putting any numbers in their resume. This is a resume mistake that should be avoided. Numbers are a good thing and can bridge the corporate bridge in some cases. In other cases it makes you look extremely good. For an example, instead of saying that you increased the corporate sales, brag a little. Tell the hiring manager that you increased the corporate sales by 25%.

Too long or too short of a resume

Resumes that are too long or too short will cost you. There is no magic number of words for the content when you write a resume. However, a visual appeal is necessary for any written doc. Therefore, when you have 15 years of experience don’t feel compelled to list every little thing and have an eight page document. If you only have college education and one year of internship don’t make a half of a page for your resume content. Make a resume visually appealing by not having one that is too long or too short.

Take out the objective statement

Everyone has the same objective when they submit a resume, to get a job. An objective statement is not necessary and is rather redundant. Anything original or unique that you would like to share should be included in your cover letter. Stay away from objective statements in your resume.

These are five mistakes to avoid on your resume. Produce a great document that will get you the job opportunity you deserve by investing in a great resume by avoiding these five mistakes.