7 Mistakes You Are Making While Writing Your Resume! Avoid Them!

Looking for a job?

Well, if you are and if you are making these 7 mistakes in a resume, chances of your getting a job reduce substantially.

To be honest, what and how you write in your resume becomes a testimony to your personality and skills. Make sure you reflect what you want to and what can enhance your career, and not what can ruin it altogether.

Also, if you were not aware till now, get yourself updated on the fact that resumes, like many other marketing materials, have an expiration date. Resume sells your skills, and hence it is a marketing doc for you. But, as the times and the technology change, the procedures of job hunt and evaluations are changing too. Therefore it becomes important to re-evaluate your resume writing styles and avoid the mistakes that you might be making.

Here are the top 7 mistakes you are making while writing your Resume! Avoid them at all costs!

1. Do Not Make It Look Like An Auto Biography. Keep It Short And Crisp

Ok yes, you are too enthusiastic to write about your achievements, awards, hobbies and interests, agreed! But, the longer the resume, the greater are the chances of it getting rejected. On an average, a recruiter or employer would spend 6 to 10 seconds to take a glance through your resume. The highest would be 16 seconds, if at all it is found worth consideration. If you wish to give away all the info in those 10 or 16 seconds, try to keep it to pone pager or one and a half to the max. Remember, your resume should always highlight the skills, the job experience, and the life accomplishments that are most relevant to your job goals.

2. Avoid Giving A Landline Number As Your Contact

You are in a mobile age! Stop giving landline numbers in your resume. You should give a number where you are accessible 24X7. A potential employer should be able to reach you easily and not via via. By listing your mobile number in the resume, you will also increase your chances of contact in the day, even if you are on your previous job.

 

3. Do Not Forget To Mention The Professional Profile Links

If you are not using the power of your online professional profile to the best, you are making a mistake. Add your professional profile links such as LinkedIn or any other to the hardcopy of your resume and make it more effective. Make sure you have the same info about you on your online profile that you added to your resume. Also, if you have recommendations and testimonies from friends, colleagues or previous employers added to your online profile, it will increase your credibility manifolds.

4. Do Not Make Your Resume A Summary of You Are, But Make It An Objective of What You Want

You know how you make your resume a more objective one rather than a summary? By adding objective statements that describe your needs, rather than how you’ll meet the needs of an employer. Use the space in your resume more productively by putting forward your job objective and what you wish to achieve. In maximum three to five sentences, explain what you’re best at, most interested in, and how you can ADD VALUE to an organisation and to a prospective employer. In a resume, this is called your professional summary. Make it most effective.

5. Do Not Make Your Resume A Long And Heavily Bulleted Document

If at all you have 6-10 seconds of recruiter’s time, you must make sure your resume is making the best of it. You need to make sure that there are fewer bullet points which are short and crisp giving it all out in few words. The key is to format the information in a way that makes it easy to scan quickly to recognize your job goals and relevant qualifications and achievements. Too much of text is going to confuse the reader and fail your resume.

6. Do Not Go Back Too Long In Past Experiences

Always remember that people who wish to employ you, are always interest in your most recent experiences and  not the tell tale history of what you did from day 1 of starting your career. Your recent experiences and accomplishments would make them more comfortable and how that ties back to their open position’s requirements. If at all you’re an entry-level professional, remove all the references to your high school projects. Instead, focus on highlighting your job relevant education, relevant internships and the leadership skills you’ve developed during college. If you are an experienced professional, do not date back to more than 10-15 years in your resume. If at all you need to mention the awards pr achievements that are older than that, remove the dates and mention.

7. Stop Putting “References On Request”

This comes across as if you are trying to fill up an additional resume space. Well, most employers are well aware that you’ll provide them with references, should they ask for them during the interview process. There’s no reason to waste this valuable space on your resume by stating the obvious. You can always make the best use of this space by writing a relevant and crisp quote about you or some information more compelling that could add value to your resume.

If you make sure you stop making these 7 mistakes, your resume would come across as a well documented and easy to read document, which gives the flawless and precise portfolio about you.

Hence, greater chances of getting hired there!

Make a sane choice and a sensible resume.