1. Misspelled Words Use Spell Check! I cannot emphasize this enough! It’s not like you have to pay for it. It’s a free tool with your word processing program. When someone gives me their résumé and it has misspelled words, I get this sick feeling in my stomach as I control myself from telling them what I really think about it.

2.  Verb Tense Confusion If you performed the job in the past, you are going to add -ed to most of the verbs in your job description. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to do a little grammar refresher and study verb conjugation (remember middle school English class). If you are presently working at a particular job, it should be listed first and the verbs should all be in present tense.

3. Too Many Bullets People tell me all of the time, “but HR likes bullets”. That may be, but you can’t bullet everything on your résumé. Use it sparingly and if you do use it, decide if you are going to write complete sentences (using periods at the end) or not and then BE CONSISTENT.

4. Objective Statements See my article about objective statements. They are outdated. It’s better to write a professional summary or a qualifications summary. This makes it less self-centered and more concentrated on what you can do for the employer.

5.  One Page It’s OK if it’s one page naturally, but if you have a long work history give yourself permission to use more than one page. Of course, if it’s only a matter of a few lines too long, try to fit it onto one page. Use your judgement of whether it looks better on one or spread out onto two pages. We won’t even go into the topic of federal résumés.  If you’re writing a federal résumé, it’s a whole different story…

6. Acronyms Have your friend read through it and if they have no clue what your acronyms are, you should write them out. Remember that not every human resources manager is going to know specific acronyms and they are going to be your first audience.

7. “Responsible for…” This is a huge pet-peeve of mine. Take it out and start with the verb, every time. It will be more concise and it creates an active voice, instead of passive. Of course your were responsible for it, you’re putting it down in your job description.

8. Placement If there is something really fantastic you did, don’t wait until the end of the page or the second page of your résumé to talk about it. Put it on the first page, at the top.This is especially true for recent college graduates. I have seen them list all of their part time jobs and then at the very bottom of the page, they will put a tiny little section about education. If you are a recent grad, put your education above your employment section and don’t be afraid to list some of the individual courses you took or projects you worked on.

9. No Target Job It’s OK to have a generic résumé but as soon as you decide to submit it for a particular job, you’ve got to target it to that job. That means sitting down with the job announcement and making sure everything on the announcement is somewhere in the text of your résumé. So, if the employer is looking for someone with excellent customer service skills, you need to mention how and when you utilized excellent customer service skills.

10. Vague Job Descriptions If you aren’t sure what you did at your job other than answer the phones, go to http://www.bls.gov/oco/ and look up the kind of profession you held. Check out their description and see if it reminds you of other tasks you may have performed. This is an incredibly helpful tool!

Résumé Advice From A Professional Résumé Writer

How Long Should My Résumé Be?

This is a very common question. I get asked this question everyday by senior executive’s to office assistants. Most people will tell me they had it drilled into their heads in high school that a résumé should not be more than one page. Some people will say they heard it from a résumé writing expert at their career center in college. In fact if I’m writing a resume for someone and it’s longer than a page, you can see them shifting in their seats because they are hearing those old teachers’ voices preaching the one page resume gospel. The only time I absolutely agree with a one-page resume is if you are attending a job fair.
This misunderstanding comes mainly from the fact that many hiring managers threaten to throw away long résumés because they don’t have time to read a “life story.” While it is true hiring managers, recruiters and human resources personnel do not have time to spare to read lengthy diatribes, in many cases, a one page résumé is very limiting. In fact, I was giving résumé critiques at a recent job fair and the recruiter at the table next to me told me he likes to see a page for every five years of experience. This may sound excessive, nevertheless it’s something to take into consideration when composing your résumé. Keep in mind that HR managers and recruiters read resumes in a different fashion than you may think- top to bottom, scanning for keywords, bottom to top, scanning for keywords.
A résumé is a very subjective thing. You can talk to two résumé writers and they’ll both say something different. In the end, you must base it on a few crucial things. First you must consider how much legitimate experience you have. By legitimate, I mean, is it relevant to the job you are seeking. For example, if you worked at Wendy’s part-time while you were in college 10 years ago, and now you’re seeking a promotion to a management position with the non-profit agency you’ve worked with for five years, you probably don’t need to include your Wendy’s experience.
A résumé should not tell a life story, but you should include all relevant experiences. You can figure out if your experience is legitimate if you compare your duties to the duties of the job you are applying for. On the other hand, if you are just starting out in your career and have very little experience or none at all, you may want to list those part-time jobs you had through college simply to show your level of commitment or dedication. Those managers can also be great references.

Think of writing a resume as a form of art. If you don’t draw and paint over a period of time, you might not be creating ‘masterpieces’. No one likes to continually update, rewrite, and reedit their resume so most people lose the “feel” for the art of resume writing. I’ve been professionally writing, editing, and reviewing resumes for two years and hold certifications in the field. I’m involved and actively participate in industry seminars and conferences…I know what works…

Something else you want to ask yourself is how many years of experience do you actually have. A good rule of thumb is to go back no further than 10 years. If you take that advice and mix it with the advice from the recruiter, a two page resume should be pretty typical. If it’s a double-sided resume, you’re still within your “safe” area for a “one page” resume… Now, if you are trying to change your career and you had legitimate experience 15 years ago, you could use a functional resume format and highlight the skills you gained from that position 15 years ago, without writing a life history. Check out the functional resume format for more information.
At a conference I went to recently, there was a panel of HR managers. All five agreed that they get a scowl on their faces after the second page. So, how long should a resume be? The majority of resume writers will agree that it’s based on the individual case, however two pages is an agreed standard. Of course, if you’re talking about federal resumes, all bets are off, but that’s another story…

Tina