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How “Tomato” Changes on Your Resume—without Spell-Check Goofs

In the headline of this blog, I meant to type “to make changes on your resume.” I typed “tomake” by mistake (leaving out the space), and the spell checker did not recognize “tomake.” It substituted “tomato” instead—an interesting guess, but the wrong one.

I often caution job seekers to not rely on online grammar checkers for their resume because grammar checkers truly do not understand grammar. But spell checkers—although more reliable—may still make embarrassing mistakes on a resume.

Spell checkers often overlook the problem when a single letter is missing (finance, fiancé), exchanged (weekly, weakly), or added (through, thorough). They have no way to detect a miss-used word (prescribe, proscribe; compliment, complement). No spell checker in the world can figure out if you transposed a date or forgot to include your zip code or spelled a company name wrong.

One resource’s list of the most frequent proofreading mistakes included words that sound alike (by, buy), inconsistencies, apostrophe problems (there is no such word as its’), and repetition (and and). To that list of frequent errors, I would add missing lower case i and l, because the eye skips over narrow letters. Prepositions are also easy to overlook because the mind supplies the missing preposition. Finally, punctuation errors—a missing period or an extra comma—are hard to detect because punctuation is small.

How can you avoid these problems?

  • Do not rely only on the spell checker. It is good but not perfect—and this is your resume. Hiring managers and recruiters reject resumes for errors all the time.
  • Read everything you write out loud at least once. Your ear will catch what your eye misses.
  • Read the printed copy as well as the online copy. Small problems like a missing or double period are more obvious in print than online.
  • Wait 24 hours and read a second time before sending it. A fresh eye is the most valuable proofreading tool you have.
  • Use a dictionary. Especially use a dictionary for words you “know.” Sometimes it is the smallest, most common word in the entire resume that will trip you up.
  • Triple check numbers, dates, and dollar amounts. By the way, “$100 dollars” is wrong; the dollar sign eliminates the need for the word “dollars.”

Robin’s Resumes® understands best proofreading policies to make sure that your resume is ready to impress hiring managers and recruiters. Contact us today.

Proofreading Your Resume: Seven Problem Areas

Online spell checkers and grammar checkers have very real limitations. Even if you used an online system to spell check and grammar check your resume, you should still proofread it yourself. The following seven items tell you why. Spell checkers and grammar checkers are unable to tell if:

  1. The correct word is being used. Many times a word is wrong for your resume but is still spelled correctly (disparate and desperate, finance and fiancé, manager and manger). You are the only one who can tell which word was meant.
  2. The correct verb goes with each noun. For example, the correct verb is for Kohls is singular: “Kohls is.” Grammar checkers are particularly bad in figuring out the right verb for compound nouns or compound sentences.
  3. Numbers are consistent. You should settle on one standard: 3M or 3 million; the 90s or the 1990s; USD 4 billion or US $4 billion; 0.50 or .50 or .5. Many grammar and spell checkers will accept both versions, so you must check for consistency.
  4. Lists are consistent. For example, the following list is inconsistent: “Worked on increasing revenue, decreasing overhead and morale.” It seems to say the job applicant worked on decreasing morale—not a good quality in a leader.
  5. Punctuation is used correctly and consistently. It doesn’t matter if you use the comma before “and” in a series, but you have to use it (or not use it) consistently and correctly. You should avoid exclamation points. In most cases, the period at the end of a sentence goes inside quotation marks. These are all decisions that an online grammar checker cannot make for you; you must proofread.
  6. Acronyms are correct. Does the acronym match up with the beginning letters of the full name (e.g., using the acronym USF for US Air Force)?
  7. Spacing and alignment are consistent. You don’t want to justify page 1 and use a ragged right margin on page 2; you want the spaces between bullets to be consistent, and you want the same font(s) to be used throughout for headings and text.

I do not advise reading a resume backwards as a proofreading tool. The main reason is that you are highly unlikely to find any of the above six problems if you are reading backwards. You cannot tell whether “are” or “is” is the correct verb or if the word you want is ensure, insure, or assure.

However, I do advocate printing the resume out and reading each line with a ruler beneath it; reading the resume out loud at least once (it is amazing what your eye misses but your ear will “hear” as wrong); and putting the resume away for at least 24 hours before you proofread.

One of our goals at Robin’s Resumes® is to make sure that every resume goes out letter, word, and comma-perfect. Contact us today.

 

Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer

With 12 years of resume writing experience behind me, I have acquired quite a few little tips and techniques that come automatically to me but might be unfamiliar to those who are writing or rewriting their resume for the first time.

For example,

On finding accomplishments: Any industry awards you received, any business you brought in, any committees you chaired, and any dollars you saved the company are clear accomplishments. But so are the awards you were nominated for, the growth your company underwent while you were there, the committees you were a member of, and the efficiencies you brought to your own job. Accomplishments in volunteer positions are also important.

On finding good keywords: Your best guide as to what a company is looking for is the company itself. Look at the advertisements, job postings, and websites for the company or others in the same industry. List the words they are using over and over again, and make sure those words appear naturally in your resume.

On proofreading: Forget that adage about proofreading by reading the text backwards. You will not only lose concentration out of sheer boredom, you will never find errors in grammar. Always proofread from first word to last at least twice: once on paper and once online. When you proofread online, set the zoom level over 100%. That way you will be sure to see missing or extra periods or other problems that might be hard to spot.

On using resources: No one knows everything, especially not online spelling and grammar checkers. A physical dictionary and grammar reference are still handy; there are also some online sites run by colleges that answer grammar questions. I once had a client argue with me about her misuse of the word “compliment” in a sentence; it should have been “complement.” But she was absolutely sure the word “compliment” was fine because the spell checker agreed with her. Your instincts and the spell checker’s instincts might agree, but take the time to check a dictionary.

And when you need expert advice on your resume, please turn to Robin’s Resumes®.

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