First impressions matter; if your resume does not attract the reader’s attention in the first 20-30 seconds then your chances of obtaining an interview are greatly reduced.
According to employers, career counselors and employment agencies, who see thousands of resumes, the ten most common resume writing mistakes are:
- Too long.
- Disorganized: information is scattered around the page, hard to follow.
- Overwritten: long paragraphs and sentences, takes too long to say too little.
- Poorly typed and printed: hard to read, looks unprofessional.
- Too sparse: gives only bare essentials of dates and job titles.
- Not oriented for results: doesn’t show what the candidate accomplished on the job.
- Too many irrelevancies: height, weight, sex, health, marital status are not needed (and should not be included) on today’s resumes.
- Misspellings, typographical errors, poor grammar.
- Tries too hard: fancy typesetting and binders, photographs and exotic paper stocks distract from the clarity of the presentation.
- Misdirected: too many resumes arrive on employers desk unrequested, with little or no apparent connection to the organization.
