A funny quote by Bo Bennett goes that “a resume is a written exaggeration of only the good things that a person has done in the past, as well as a wish list of the qualities a person would like to have”! What she says is probably true, but since it is the only piece of information an employer has of you, he has to believe it. If there is a large company, several applications come in and the question that you need to ask yourself is how unique is your application as compared to the others. To stand above the crowd is not easy, but is the only way to get noticed. A research conducted has proven that more number of people who use appropriate language and choice of words are hired. So, you know what to do; re-do that resume, as soon as you can, with not a single vague or misused word! Simple words are more than enough to demonstrate your skills rather than a long drawn story. Contrary to the phrase show and tell, you just need to show — no telling required. View this article further and learn about the mistakes you can avoid with regard to your resume.
Mistakes To Avoid On A Resume
Assisted And Contributed
When used as separate entities, these words make no sense at all. When presented to the employer, he’s going to wonder why you used them without any other description. The question to be kept in mind is: how did you assist and contribute? So, don’t forget to quantify your contribution and lay down your role in black & white!
Excellent Skills
This set of words is highly overused, supremely vague and absolutely useless — it just doesn’t explain the kind of excellent skills that you have! So try this - instead of saying “I have excellent written communication skills”, give the employer proof of the fact that you are experienced by saying “I have written a guide of 10,000 words for students” or that “I have written X number of stories for the local daily”.
Team Player
Again, you might be the best person to work within a team, but you need to show how, when and where this has been applicable in your life. You need to talk specifically about leading a team and handling a given situation or being just a teammate and yet managing the entire team efficiently.
Personal Appearances
Ok, let’s define professional suicide for you! It is a lot of things that kill your professional life but it starts with talking about utterly irrelevant things — such as race, gender and external features etc — in your resume. It does not matter how good you look or how fair you are so avoid mentioning this at all costs. If you want to accentuate your profile by your looks then just add a photo to the page and be done with it!
Highly Responsible
So what? We’re not taking care of children or going shopping here! Your resume is a place to point out particular areas of accomplishments and not just a list of responsibilities! The correct way to go about this is to quantify your previous achievements by saying how you caused improvement that brought about profits to the company or how you created awareness and spread the word which ultimately led to financial gain. You can even mention all the initiatives that you took to make your department/process an efficient one.
Successfully
Every resume you read mentions this word again and again and again — “successfully” has been used, re-used and misused! It is just an amateur attempt of trying to use big words that mean nothing. The reader does not want to know your degree of success; he just wants to know what you did to make it big.
Vast Experience
If you are experienced, then you also have to mention in what! You might possess several areas of immense skill and knowledge, but presentation is important. A better way to put it would be: ‘I have vast experience in the fields of biotechnology as part of my course modules. I have also worked with an agency for 3 years that has given me practical familiarity into stem cells’. There, quantified!
These are some of the common mistakes that are found in the CV of a job hunter! Always remember that spellings mistakes can take the job away from your hand. Making drafts can help you review this carefully. Hope you’ve chosen your words well!
