Studies show that the average recruiter or hiring manager spends 6 seconds reading a resume.
With only 6 seconds to impress, it’s crucial to avoid these 6 common resume mistakes.
- Grammatical errors: When your resume includes typos or grammatical errors, it’s easy for hiring managers to assume you don’t care or you’re not a great writer. We recommend using a free tool like Grammarly to avoid these mistakes.
- Including everything you’ve (ever) done: You don’t need to list your high school job. Instead, focus on the last 10-15 years of your work experience. If you’re a recent college graduate or writing an entry-level resume, check out this article.
- Not including a professional summary: Resume writer and career transition coach, Wendi Weiner says, “One of the biggest mistakes that I often see in a resume is an objective instead of a professional summary. Objectives should not be used in a resume. Your professional summary should resonate who you are as a professional and the high-caliber skill sets you have to offer.”
- Submitting the same resume for every job: If you’re applying for multiple jobs and using the same resume, you’re doing it wrong. You must use specific keywords listed in the job description to avoid your resume being tossed in the “reject” pile. Make sure you write each resume for the appropriate job description and expectations.
- Not showing your accomplishments: It’s important to show the value you add in your roles. Do this by using numbers and action words to show what you’ve accomplished.
- Too long and too busy: The length of your resume will ultimately depend on the position you’re applying for, but as a general rule of thumb, you should be able to fit everything on one page. Make sure you limit your resume to one standard font. Whatever you do, do not use Comic Sans.