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Co-Authors: Victoria Cohen and Amber Reed
Your resume is one of the first critical steps in any job search, and simple resume mistakes could disqualify you before you even get the chance to speak with hiring managers. Avoid making these common resume mistakes below to set yourself up for success in your next job search.
Your essential contact information should include your correct and updated phone number, email address, and address. If you have missing or incorrect contact information, recruiters and hiring managers will not have a way to contact you about job opportunities, job offers, or updates throughout your job search. Including your current address will allow recruiters to contact you about job opportunities that are located near you.
Too much information makes a resume difficult to read and navigate for recruiters and hiring managers. Not enough information on your resume tells little to nothing about your experiences, skills, and accomplishments. Your resume will be easy to read and follow by using 3-4 bullet points for each experience detailing how you contributed, along with any promotions or achievements that you made. Using numbers or data to backup your contributions is also to your benefit because it “shows’ rather than “tells” hiring managers what you accomplished in your roles and the impact that you made.
75% of large companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to automatically sort, scan, and rank resumes for keywords. The majority of resumes don’t even make it past this process. (see reference)
If you don’t tailor your resume to highlight how your skills and experiences align with each job that you are applying for, recruiters and hiring managers can tell. Make sure to incorporate keywords from each job posting and emphasize your relevant skills and experiences in order to create targeted resumes for each job you are applying to. Don’t forget to remove any information that’s over ten years old or not relevant to the position.
You could be the perfect candidate that a hiring manager is looking for, but if your resume has grammar or formatting errors, it may disqualify you before you even get the chance to speak with them. Make sure your resume is in chronological order, has proper grammar and spelling, and that the formatting is consistent and well-organized.