7 Reasons Your Resume is Getting Nowhere

Close-up of a businessman looking at resume holding in hand. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Have you been waiting for a long time to get a response to your resume?  If the answer is yes, then maybe it is time to make some changes.  Go back and look at your resume.  Can you see any mistakes that might be keeping potential employers from contacting you?  Here are seven possible reasons why your resume is not getting anywhere at the moment.

Using an unprofessional email – While your personal email address might be amusing to your friends, it won’t necessarily make employers laugh.  If you want to be taken seriously as a job seeker, use a professional email address such as your first and last name at the beginning.

Making mistakes in spelling and grammar – Did you review your resume before submitting it with your job application?  If not, you may have missed some spelling and grammatical mistakes.  Even though you might consider them to be minor ones, employers will not.  They want to know that you have taken the time to write a quality resume, which means you need to proofread it, even after using spelling and grammar check.

Emphasizing graphics – You may want your resume to stand out from the competition by being creative, but that probably won’t work for most employers.  Remember, your resume should focus more on substance than style.  You do not want to distract from it what you can bring to the table.

Leaving out keywords – Keywords are the words in your resume that can help employers find you.  If you are not using them, you are reducing your chances of being discovered as a potential job candidate.  Look for keywords in your job description or other relevant terms that can be written into your resume.

Not acknowledging accomplishments – An employer wants to know why you should be hired over other job seekers.  Talk about what you have done that can make you an asset to the company you want to work for.

Writing more than necessary – Your resume needs enough information tell an employer why you’re qualified for a particular job, but not so much that it might get tossed in the trash.  Keep your resume brief and to the point.

Dodging dates – If you have not included dates for the jobs listed on your resume, go back and add them.  You don’t want a potential employer to wonder if something might be wrong concerning your work history.

If you are not receiving responses to your resume, then consider making changes to it.  As a job seeker, you don’t want to give an employer any reason to dismiss your resume.  Correct the mistakes to it that were discussed earlier, and you just might see a different reaction that will take your job search to the next level.

William Frierson is a staff writer for CollegeRecruiter.com.

Source: The Career News