Job Hunting? Don’t Make These 5 Common Resume Mistakes

Having great experience and skills doesn’t get you a job interview; having a great resume does.

A job interview will allow the company to determine if you have the experience they’re looking for, but without a great resume you won’t even get a foot in the door.

This quick 5 point checklist will cover 5 common resume mistakes and what you SHOULD do instead.

If your resume already meets the criteria, great! Proceed with confidence.

If not, fix these issues immediately before applying for more jobs. You’ll see a huge different in the amount of responses after you make these changes. It is likely that your call-back rate will double or triple.

Common Resume Mistakes Checklist:

1. Is your current job on the top half of the first page of your resume?

It’s crucial to have your current or most recent work or job-related experience on the top of your resume’s first page. This is usually the first thing hiring managers look for, and they’re not very patient when it comes to finding it.

Make it easy to find, or run the risk of using up the hiring manager’s patience before they even find this important info.

2. Is your content skimmable?

Hiring managers don’t read resumes, they skim them. They look for keywords, section titles and headers, important facts and statistics, etc. If you wrote your resume under the assumption that it will be read word-for-word, go back and redo it! It’s going to be skimmed, so you might as well plan for it and take advantage.

Use clear headers (work history, education, etc.) and use bullet points and short statements instead of paragraphs wherever possible.