Your Resume and Recruiters’ Pet Peeves
Have you ever had this happen? After you’ve written something, you go back and look at it, say, a week or so later, and wince over the “obvious” errors you made: typos, grammatical errors, and so on.The same thing may be true for your resume.
While I have no doubt you’ve put a lot of thought and effort into its preparation, it’s always worth a second or third look, especially if you or an objective outsider have not critically examined it in a while–or at all.
And with the need to tweak resumes to better match position requirements, all the cutting and pasting may be wreaking havoc on what you once thought was the perfect resume. Also, the more you stare at your resume (or any document), the less likely you are to spot errors.
Hint: Reading backwards starting at the end of document is a great way to see spelling errors.
So I’m sure you’ve heard or read about all the complaints recruiters have about job seekers, such as too many resumes combined with too few qualified resumes. Well, there’s more…a lot of their complaints center around the quality of many of the resumes they receive.
Now, as a writer and former recruiter, I can understand their objections. Your resume is, after all, the very first impression a recruiter may get of you. WorkStrategies.com assembled a great list of recruiter pet peeves. One of their complaints – among many – is the resumes they receive. To wit:
I am so tired of receiving resumes that are so dense and verbose that I can’t even read them. Just an initial look tells me that this person has not put a lot of thought into how they are presenting themselves on “paper”.
Yikes. Talk about forming the wrong first impression. (Can someone tell me why this recruiter refers to paper as “paper”…as if it’s another substance, perhaps?) Anyway, with a dense resume, it’s not likely a recruiter will read every word — or any word, for that matter — to determine if a potential match is in the making.
Which reminds me of a time when a reader sent me his resume to review and offer suggestions (well, actually, he wanted me to edit it) on how it could be improved. He wasn’t getting any response from his resume submittals and hoped that I could help him discover a reason. I recall my eyes nearly popping out of my head when I opened the email: the resume was four pages long with half-inch left and right margins, all in 9 pt font!
ResumeDoctor.com recently posted the Top 20 survey results on what really ticks off recruiters). Here’s the list: (I’ve highlighted some of the areas to which you should pay attention on your resume.)
- Spelling errors, typos and poor grammar
- Too duty oriented – reads like a job description and fails to explain what the job seeker’s accomplishments were and how they did so
- Missing dates or inaccurate dates
- Missing contact info, inaccurate, or unprofessional email addresses
- Poor formatting – boxes, templates, tables, use of header and footers, etc
- Functional resumes as opposed to chronological resumes
- Long resumes – over 2 pages
- Long, dense paragraphs – no bullet-points
- Unqualified candidates – candidates who apply to positions they are not qualified for
- Personal info not relevant to the job
- Missing employer info and/or not telling what industry or product candidate worked in
- Lying, misleading, especially in terms of education, dates and inflated titles
- Objectives or meaningless introductions
- Poor font choice or style
- Resumes sent in .pdf, .zip files, faxed, web page resumes, mailed resumes; not sent as a “word” attachment
- Pictures, graphics or URL links that no recruiter will call up
- No easy-to-follow summary
- Resumes written in 1st or 3rd Person
- Gaps in employment
- Burying important info in the resume
Readers, take a few moments, dust off your resumes, and see if you’ve committed any of the above resume faux pas. Make a recuiter happy today– edit, edit, and re-edit, your resume. It could mean the difference between getting an interview or having your resume discarded.
Feel free to send me a sample or post a comment here–perhaps before and after snapshots.
Good luck!
Article by Lorraine Russo
Courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, and posted on Resume Blog.
