Common Mistakes in Resume Writing
A resume is a summary of your qualifications and experience for a job. On a resume, your academic accomplishments, training, employment, and experience are usually highlighted. As the IT space becomes increasingly competitive, it is crucial to pay closer attention to what companies seek. Before scheduling an interview, potential employers use submitted resumes to screen candidates. It is, therefore, necessary to note common mistakes in resume writing that have limited your chances of getting to the interview stage.
Your resume should detail your career objective, relevant work history, education, and any volunteer or apprenticeship expertise you possess. Also, to stand out among other applicants, craft a perfect and compelling resume. What are common mistakes you should avoid when writing your resume?
Common mistakes in resume writing to avoid
It is easy to make errors while constructing a résumé. The consequences are a no reply or an outright rejection of your application. Clearly, there are many avoidable mistakes people make in resume writing. Here are some prevalent mistakes and ways to avoid them:
- Grammatical and spelling blunders: read through your resume to make it flawless and devoid of grammatical errors. So, before sending, ensure it is spell-checked and scrutinize it for typos and grammatical blunders.
- Making the font size too little or too big: one turn-off for recruiters is wrongly sized fonts or inconsistent font sizes. Too large fonts makes the resume a caricature, and using too few fonts to cram in a lot of information is, undoubtedly, a bad idea. Therefore, make your resume readable, and use font sizes of either 11 or 12. Times New Roman or Arial font styles are considered professional.
- Use of unprofessional e‑mail addresses: indeed, many job candidates do not consider the professionality of their e‑mail addresses and often use fanciful ones. An example is techysexybobby@gmail.com. As a matter of fact, it is highly imperative that you use an e‑mail address that communicates professionalism. Such an amateurish e‑mail address is unacceptable if it contains vitriolic or provoking language.
- Poor resume structure: Haphazard resume highlights a haphazard professional. IT jobs often require a high level of consistency and a well-defined structure in operations. Recruiters assume that professionals with poor resume structure would translate to low productivity as a result of poor organization. Therefore, ensure the margins are evenly spaced, and each heading has an equal amount of space between them.
- Adopting résumé as a one-size-fits-all approach: Recycling a resume for jobs in a field is a poor approach as recruiters often spot a generic resume. Avoid sending out a ready-made resume to all advertised positions without editing to suit each of them. Always tailor your resume to fit the advertised job position.
- Irrelevant skills/experiences to the advertised role: do not bulk your resume with irrelevant information. This is counterproductive. Similarly, adding skills or job experiences that are unrelated to the advertised role turns off potential employers. Ensure you structure your resume in a compelling and straight to the point manner.
- Outdated or missing information: update your contact information as well as your job experiences. Revise your resume to update information regarding certifications, degrees obtained, and job experiences. In particular, delete older resume documents on your device and keep only the updated ones. This saves you from sending out the wrong resume.
- Describing duties instead of accomplishments: your job experiences align with the position applied. Job recruiters are not willing to see a repetition of the described duties in the job advertisement. Rather, highlight your accomplishment and connect your job duties with your work performance. Also, use numbers to sell yourself.
Other common résumé mistakes include:
- Too long or too short resume
- Inserting a picture of yourself
- Use of slang misused lexicon, and repeating certain words as fillers
- Stating salary requirements
- Highlighting a skill set and hobbies/activities that are incompatible with the job
- Saving the résumé document with the wrong name
- Utilizing copied and pasted position descriptions,
- Making unverified claims, lying, and
- Putting incorrect or unnecessary information in bold.
Treat your resume as an important part of your job application process. These common mistakes in resume writing are avoidable. Check through your resume and find out what has barred you from getting interview invites. We can help you create the perfect résumé you’re looking for. We have experts who can tailor your IT résumé to the position you want in this fast-growing IT sector.
