If you have been following my blog posts, then you should be up to speed on the major content, formatting, grammar, spelling, and style problems that could cause problems with your resume. But maybe you have overlooked these 5 minor problems that can sabotage your resume:
- You omitted page numbers or “continued” or any other method of alerting the reader to a second or third page. Even worse, you have omitted your name and contact information from the second or third page. The resume pages become separated, and if they ever bother searching for the missing pages, they are never sure they belong to your resume.
- You overused capital letters. For some reason, many grammar checkers believe that if you use the word “company,” than any word ahead of it is the company name. The grammar checkers capitalize “Insurance Company” in a phrase like “worked for the region’s leading insurance company.” When your resume is spotted with unnecessary capitals, it becomes difficult to read.
- You headed your resume “Resume of….” Resumes are clearly resumes. The heading on page 1 should consist of your name, perhaps followed by an honorific if that is important (for example, M.D. or CPA) and then your contact information. Recipients will know it is a resume.
- You eliminated all white space. White space on a page consists of those areas without any words or design elements; for example, the space after a period or between lines of text or the width of a margin. If you cram too much onto a page—narrow margins, small type, no space before or after headings—your resume becomes too daunting to read. If you want your resume to be read, white space is important.
- You never checked how your resume looks when it is the printed. Never forget that somewhere along the line a real human being will examine your resume. The typeface or colors (even shades of grey) that you chose may look impressive online but make the text unreadable when the resume is printed. Always print out your resume before sending it off to make sure that it holds up in hard copy.
At Robin’s Resumes®, we pay attention to every possible problem that could sabotage your resume—and in our decades of experience, we have seen and addressed them all. Contact us today for a resume you will be proud of online or in print.