resume mistakes | Robin's Resumes (r)

Contact Information: Five Resume Mistakes

Jan 22 2017

The contact information on your resume is very important. Companies can’t hire you if they can’t find you. You want to avoid the following five mistakes when providing your contact information.

Mistake #1: Providing your work phone number or work email account. Most job searches are best conducted without the knowledge of your current employer. Your work phone and email are not private. You should open a personal email account that uses your full name (johnsmith@gmail.com) and, if necessary, you should purchase a personal cell phone specifically for your job search.

Mistake #2: Hiding your physical location. Many employment opportunities are geographically limited and employers are reluctant to hire someone outside their location. In any case, you would have trouble convincing an employer that you live in San Diego when you are still working full time in Chicago.

Provide a mailing address. If you are relocating, get a box in the new location you want to move to (unless you are flexible about locations). You can then say you are in the process of relocating.

Mistake #3: Making errors in your contact information. You seldom need to write down your cell phone number, for example, so when you do write it down, it is easy to transpose numbers. Double and triple check your contact information. In fact, I often advise clients to phone and email themselves using just the information on the resume to make sure everything is correct and the connection is solid.

Mistake #4: Not updating your contact information. If you have ever moved, lost a cell phone, changed an internet provider—and who hasn’t?—your contact information may be outdated. When you update your resume, make sure you update your contact information.

Mistake #5: Sending contacts to a blank or incomplete page online. This might happen with LinkedIn and other social media sites or with your personal website: the URL is correct but the page itself is blank, incomplete or amateurish. Your online profile should be as professional as your resume and any personal website (for example, a portfolio of your work) should achieve the highest standards of content and design.

At Robin’s Resumes®, we make sure your resume is accurate and complete from first page to last.

Catch These Resume Mistakes before They Happen

Feb 28 2016

Today I’m focusing on three resume mistakes that are easily avoided—and all too common.

Resume Mistake 1: Too much capitalization

I often see this problem on technical resumes, where every noun from Customer to Technology is capitalized. Save capitals for proper names—official names and titles, like ABC Company versus “the company” or Southwest Regional Manager versus “the manager.”

Professional resume writers know that, if you capitalize every noun, pretty soon capitalization loses its power and also becomes very difficult to read. For example, consider how capitalizing every noun detracts from this sentence: “Directed Finance Functions for several Companies, including Cash Flow Management, by working closely with each Company’s CFO or SVP of Finance.” Moreover, you quickly lose track of which words you have capitalized, leading to inconsistency from one job description to the next.

Resume Mistake 2: Too many acronyms

You may have used an acronym for years (for example, HIPAA or APICS or VMS); but never known or forgotten what the initials stand for. You may have exchanged them inside your company for years, but never wondered if anyone outside your company uses the same acronyms in the same way. You may think that the National Organization of Antelope Habitats is abbreviated NOAH, but it is actually NOOAH.

When it comes to acronyms—in fact, when it comes to the entire resume—professional resume writers question everything and ask you to question everything. We always research and we never assume.

Resume Mistake 3. Depending too much on the computer

Whether you are depending on the computer for formatting, spell-checking or grammar-checking—take charge.

Professional resume writers know that computers get confused. You may have told the computer that every main heading should be bold, centered, in 10 point Ariel font; but then you will find one heading in 10.5 font or without bolding or with no centering. You may have run the spell-checker a dozen times, but the computer will still okay “revue” when you meant “revenue.” As for online grammar-checkers, any professional resume writer will tell you that they are worthless. Proof, re-proof and proof again manually and ask at least one other person to proof your resume for you.

One advantage of hiring a professional resume writer is that you are hiring someone who anticipates resume mistakes and knows how to correct them. I will work side-by-side with you, on the way to an error-free resume. Call me today.

4 Resume Mistakes No One Mentions: Format

Feb 08 2015

Last week’s blog addressed four common content mistakes that you should avoid. This week, I focus on format mistakes. You probably already know to avoid elaborate formatting which wastes space and also confuses electronic applicant tracking systems. Here are four additional format mistakes that are often overlooked:

Resume Mistake #1. Creating a second or third page that has only one or two lines of content. A multi-page resume is fine if you have the content to fill it. But if you need that extra page for just one or two lines, adjust your format so that the lines fit on the preceding page. A single line on a page is called a “widow.”
Resume Mistake #2. Using multiple styles of bullets and fonts. Plain round bullets are still the standard. You may use something else if you prefer (like the square bullets here) but be consistent. A resume filled with checkmarks, dashes, asterisks, colored, open, and closed bullets looks disorganized and messy. The same goes for multiple fonts. In addition, if you keep changing fonts, half your text will end up in the wrong font.
Resume Mistake #3. Using a nonstandard font. Your resume will be read on someone’s computer or applicant tracking system. The computer will not be able to display the resume properly unless the computer carries that font; vital information may be lost because the computer cannot display it. Standard fonts include Times New Roman and Arial. There are other standard fonts, but you are always safe if you use those two.
Resume Mistake #4. Using margins that are too tight. You are better off going to another page than trying to fit content within margins of less than one-half inch. A very tight margin not only makes the page look cramped, it might also cause a printer error message. A hiring manager or recruiter expects your resume to print on the first try.

I help job seekers every day to make sure that their resumes avoid the obvious and not so obvious formatting mistakes that can wreck their chances for an interview. Contact Robin’s Resumes® for help with your resume.

4 Resume Mistakes No One Mentions: Content

Feb 01 2015

I’m sure you have heard about resume mistakes like misspellings and poor grammar, or missing contact information. But in this blog and next week’s blog, I will address a few mistakes that are just as critical but less likely to be mentioned. Here are four common content mistakes to avoid:

Resume mistake #1: Overdoing the adjectives and adverbs. You should definitely mention that one of your projects led to increased profits. But do not belabor the point with adjectives: “this impressive project created a far brighter future for the company with a vastly stronger increase in profits.” All those adjectives and adverbs (impressive, far brighter, vastly stronger) merely water down the point you want to make and take up space that could be used for facts: “this project increased profits by 25% year over year.”
Resume mistake #2: Using pronouns. You know that the word “I” is banned from resumes; bullets start with verbs and the “I” is assumed. But avoid “my” and “mine” and “ours” also. When you speak of a system that improved the efficiency of the sales team, your readers know that the sales team belongs to your company; you do not need to say “the efficiency of our sales team.”
Resume mistake #3: Substituting a word that is similar to the word you mean. For example, you use “complaint” instead of “compliant” or “lead” (present tense) instead of “led” (past tense).
Resume mistake #4: Using nonstandard abbreviations. Use standard abbreviations (for example, Alaska is abbreviated AK, not AL) and be consistent (U.S., US, or United States). Be miserly in the use of industry and technical abbreviations as even within the same company, one abbreviation can mean different things depending on the context.

I help job seekers every day to make sure that their resumes avoid the obvious and not so obvious content mistakes that can wreck their chances for an interview. Contact me to help with your resume.

Small Mistakes with Big Results

Sep 28 2014

Often small mistakes on a resume have the potential to upset a job applicant’s chances. For example:

The absence of a two letter word is easy overlook when proofreading a resume—in this sentence, the word “to” is missing. Other frequently dropped words are “as,” “by,” “on,” and “in.”
Redundancies may creep in: “$2 million dollars” and “approximately in the range of” are redundant.
Missing periods and commas are common in resumes, but that does not mean they are acceptable. Read through your resume with particular attention to punctuation.
Font changes may occur despite your best efforts, and many fonts have a similar look. Make sure that the font remains consistent throughout both in character and size.
If you use bold or italics in your resume, make sure they are used consistently and correctly; in this example, the “o” in “or” is bolded and the “r” is italicized.
One-letter spelling errors are especially easy to miss online because the online spellchecker does not recognize the error and your eye is expecting to see the correct word: manger/manager; than/then; armed/aimed.

While these examples may feel like nitpicking, hiring managers and recruiters do consider even small resume mistakes when deciding if a candidate has the attention to detail and communication skills that companies value. Robin’s Resumes® is ready to help you with a letter perfect resume.