Resume Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Prior to Writing Your Resume

For an individual to write a professional resume it is necessary that a high quality paper be used. Print your resume on a printer that prints clearly and without glitches or splotches.

If you do not have access to a printer then you may want to stop by your local copy store or UPS store, they will have the high quality paper and printer. A potential employer may assume the worst if you send them a resume with Kool-Aid stains or wrinkles. So make sure that you present a professional resume to a potential employer.

It's important when writing a resume to limit it to one page. Many employers have a lot of work on their hands and don't have time to read more than that one page. They want to hire someone quickly to take care of the extra paperwork, and certainly being able to get through resumes quickly by reading only one page, will help in that task.

The Body of the Resume

A mistake that people don't realize they are writing a resume is giving information that is not what the employer needs. Most employers are not interested in what your duties were. They want to know what you accomplished. This resume tip will help you gain the attention of your potential employer.

Let's state an example to get you started on your resume. Instead of, responsibilities: managed twelve team members, wrote invoices, spoke with vendors. It would better if you stated something like this: While in this position I was able to raise the sales quota to meet the goal of $25,000 per quarter, and exceeded it by at least 15% every quarter.

This resume tip may be the most important one you will ever find. Be very careful about how far back into your job history you go. It is typical to only go back about 15 years. Any more than that could cause age discrimination.

Also when notating your college graduation, it is not necessary to put the graduation year. That would make it easier for the employer to potentially determine your age, so feel free to leave that out unless you have an upcoming graduation date.

Make sure that your resume format uses bullets and/or short paragraphs. You want to make sure that your potential employer can skim over your resume and glean from it the information that he or she is looking for. This will give you a much better chance of having your resume being looked at more closely.

Do not list references directly on your resume. Place them on a separate sheet and only submit them if the potential employer requests them. This takes up unnecessary space on your resume and tends to clutter.

If an employer wants the references he or she will ask for them. It is also recommended that you leave off the phrase, “References available upon request”. Of course if you are searching for a job you should have references so this is a moot point.

It's an extremely bad idea when you are writing a professional resume to put in your hobbies and volunteer work.

Most potential employers don't have a huge interest in you as a person when they are hiring you; they are interested in you as a potential employee and what you can do for them. So avoid adding any of this information on your resume. It's just not needed.

After Writing Your Resume

I know that this shouldn't need to be put here, but make sure that you actually proofread your resume. Make sure there are no typos or spelling/grammatical errors.

A potential employer would see the lack of care in this as a sign that there would be a significant lack of care in the workplace. So proofread, and have someone else proofread, and make sure that it is as error proof as possible.

Points to keep In Mind:

Limit resume to one page

Use higher quality paper and a good printer

Limit information on a resume to work related only

Give numbers instead of using words

State achievements instead of responsibilities

Limit job history to 15 years only

Use bullets or short paragraphs

Put references on a separate piece of paper

Provide references only if requested

Make sure to proofread your resume, TWICE