A hiring manager or a recruiter receives hundreds of resumes in a day. Although the recruiter won’t look at each and every resume, some do stand out due to their quality, or lack of it. Your resume is the very first impression that you can make on a prospective employer. A resume is your opportunity to advertise your skills to an organization, where you are interested in working.
You will probably have the perfect qualifications and experience for the job and the resume template that you use might be quite sophisticated. However, there are certain thing that can go wrong and land your resume straight in the trash. There are certain common mistakes that recruiters watch out for weed out good resumes from the average ones. These mistakes, or gaffes that you make in your resume can be easily avoided, if you are mindful of how you are putting in all the information. To get you started, here we have a list of 5 common mistakes people tend to make in their resumes.
A resume is used as the first step in the application of a job. It is the first impression that you make on the employer. Most people think of a resume as a way to merely list qualifications and past job experiences, but that is not enough.
Employers are inundated with several applications and resumes at a time. And it is very easy that a not so attractive resume can be dumped or get lost in the shuffle. If your resume does not stand out of the crowd, it is possible that no one is going to pay heed to it. If you think that your resume is one that is no different from that of other people you know, it will pay well to bring in a little change.
Here are a few tips that might help you if you are looking to apply for a new job or trying to make your resume more solid.
Use industry keywords
Try and incorporate a maximum of industry keywords in your resume. All the kinds of roles and tools used in the industry should be included in the description. Many employers pick resumes by keywords, and this will help your resume stand out from the lot.
Use an attractive format
Nobody likes to glance at an uninteresting and boring piece of paper. Make your resume more visually appealing so that the employer feels interested in going through it. However, you should also focus on the content.
Do not make it too long
Most people believe that a resume that is long is paid more attention to. However, employers do not have the time and do not glance at a resume for more than a few seconds. Put in all the most important things that you think are essential. Also, important points should be included in the first page.
Keep it professional
A resume should be extremely professional and should not include any extra information that does not fit. Also, one should stick to the facts and never lie.
While you can always take reference from the top 10 resume samples on the internet, it gets a little confusing when the references are from experienced resume samples and you are a fresher or hold very little experience, or probably only of some months as an intern. If it gets challenging, you don’t have to worry because if a company is looking for freshers, they cannot expect a resume full of experiences.
Even though you are a fresher and a beginner, your resume can look professional. This does not mean you will have to fake your experiences and skill. This means that the way you put information about you on the resume can be professional. It is all about how you build the resume from start to end, the language you use and the way you give away information.
When you have made a draft resume using the samples you find online, you must know there has to be something on your resume that makes it stand out among all other resumes. Even if you are a fresher, you can make that happen. Let’s start with what you already know and do. Put this information very tactfully. For example, if in college you have organized an event or a play, you can mention the skills as you definitely had them when you organized. These skills are not just handling the whole event, but also right from choosing people who were to organize the event with you, to those who performed and micro management. You may use professional words like ‘managed a group of’ or ‘lead a team of’.
Avoid mentioning your age, desired salary, your marital status and your religious affiliation in your resume. The company will not gain anything from that information and it will not help them know you any better. However, you can mention your date of birth but don’t write down your age.
More than the resume, you may focus on the cover letter if you are a fresher. Most companies and jobs today, along with the resume ask for a cover letter. As almost all resumes look the same, it gets difficult for the companies to figure out if a certain candidate right to call or an interview or not based on his or her resume. In these cases, they ask for a cover letter. The cover letter is your golden chance to prove yourself worthy of the job if you are a fresher. A cover letter usually asks for the reasons why you think you are fit for a certain job. If you want the job, and you know you have what it takes to do that job, then you can write a letter to the company where you can tell them why you are the right fit.