Happy 2019 from your friends at Resume To Interviews! It’s that magical time of the year where the fast food restaurants are empty and the gyms are full (for about a week and a half, anyway). This year, Resume To Interviews is here to help with your New Years resolutions. Well, your resume resolutions at least. The following is a list of the worst resume mistakes you can make. So just like fatty foods, it’s time to cut these mistakes out of your new year entirely!
Use the Right Templates
We’ve all been there. You need a job, it’s late, and your resume is old enough to remember skinny Elvis. Using a template for formatting is one thing, but using ready-made bullet points is another. The problem with simply making minor changes to these types of generic, prewritten bullet points is that they won’t be able to properly communicate your professional story. Employers review thousands of resumes every year, and are almost always able to tell the difference between a well-written resume and a mad lib.
No More Typos
Spell-check. Spell-check. Spell-check. I cannot count the number of times I have received resumes with spelling and grammar errors. A resume needs to have flawless spelling and grammar. If an employer catches a spelling mistake on your resume, they’re going to assume you were too absent-minded or lazy to hit the spell check button. And absent-mindedness isn’t a trait your resume should highlight.
No More Lies
We all know that it has become almost expected to exaggerate a little bit when writing a resume. Knowing where and when this is appropriate can be tricky at times, however. The most important rule to remember is also the simplest: DON’T LIE. You’ll never want to include anything on your resume that you haven’t actually done.
Altering a job title to better reflect your responsibilities is one thing, but don’t pretend you’ve worked extensively in social media page optimization if you’ve only ever used Facebook to poke people. Remember that the point of your resume is to land a job interview, not to land the job for you. At some point, an interviewer will be asking you exactly how you did all of those things you lied about on your resume. They’ve seen it all before, so you won’t be fooling them either.