Post date: Jun 5, 2016 4:53:14 AM
A resume is your first opportunity to showcase your suitability for a position. It should be clear, succinct and compelling. Every word used in it must be carefully weighed and measured for its effectiveness in conveying how neatly your skills fit into the job.
At the same time, one must not forget about the little time that a recruiter has to scan through a resume before it can be shortlisted for the next round. Experience shows that many young and experienced job-seekers commit easily avoidable blunders which undermine and ruin their winning chances. Let’s focus on 5 such major blunders to be avoided in a resume.
This section is the topmost header section. It should not contain a title such as ”Name”, or “Resume” which makes it look down- right foolish. Your name written in bold type font itself acts as the heading. It should be followed by your address, email ID and mobile number. Do not use flashy fonts and multi-color images. Use black ink on white paper and avoid unexciting designs and templates while drafting your resume. Remember that your resume is indirectly portraying you and your personality.
Many resumes simply wither away at this very early stage itself. They talk of vague and loosely related things and virtually go in circles by attempting to be everything for everyone. I wouldn’t hesitate to mention that most contain phrases directly borrowed from someone else’s resumes. Your objectives statement should be a one-liner, clearly stating the purpose of your resume which is to seek the position you are applying for as given in the job advertisement.
People, sometimes, list their qualifications without any bearing on the job they are applying for. They list them in a matter-of-fact manner, without considering whether those qualifications are relevant and useful in the context of the job they are applying for. It’s a good idea to present only those qualifications which directly add to your strengths in the given area rather than list unrelated and unhelpful qualifications that only show that the candidate really has no focus and clear goals.
This is probably the most important thing a recruiter focuses on. It is not enough to just state where you worked and what you did. What is really important here is to explain briefly how you overcame your past challenges and how this ability is crucial and transferable to the next job. Performance indicators like real volume of sales achieved, for example, would give your resume a leg up.
Resumes with grammatical errors and written in non-standard English can be a big put off to even the most sympathetic recruiter. Common errors of style include run-on sentences, sentence fragments, inconsistent and inappropriate tense usage etc. The best way to overcome this problem is to get your resume proofread by someone who is good at English. A second opinion here helps you to see many errors which would have otherwise easily missed your attention.
Finally, remember that your resume is your best chance to make the first impression. And the old saying that 'the first impressions are the best impressions' has still not gone out of fashion!