Resume blunders- Don’t do it!

Here’s a question for you, out of the following situations, which is the biggest ‘turn-off’ for a potential employer, is it:

a) candidate showing up late for interview

b) candidate wearing inappropriate clothing

c) badly presented resume or CV?

d) candidate swearing during an interview

Well if the title of this blog hasn’t given it away, then you may be surprised to know that it is c) a badly presented resume or CV. According to research findings by job-board Fish4Jobs, 73% of employer’s find badly presented and written resumes/CVs, more of a turn-off than option a) b) or d) on the above question.

The most annoying list of mistakes include mis-spelling key information such as the employer’s name and job title (as reported by 67% of recruiters), waffling (yawn) and including irrelevant information (65%), general spelling/grammatical errors (89%) and another 63% found the use of inappropriate personal email addresses as irritating.

The funniest of funnies is what Fish4jobs highlighted as the most common mistakes that resumes/CV’s are likely to contain. Presented here are my TOP 6

1) Those who are trained in “fist aid” rather than first aid (can you teach me please?)

2) Candidates who love to “work in a busty office” (yes me too)

3) Candidates who seek a role in “pubic relations” (could get a bit hairy, sorry I know it’s poor quality but I couldn’t help it)

4) Candidates claiming to be “a good leeder” (according to a search I quickly ran on Wikipedia ‘There is no page titled "leeder")

5) Those who went to “a very good skool” (a place for ‘cool’ people maybe? I wouldn’t get in)

6) Job-seekers who “attended collage” (a place where posh people go perhaps?)

Whilst this goes out to the minorities I’m sure, my message to everyone is to use spell check (check you are using the right dictionary ie: UK or US), and read, re-read and read again, your resume, before you ping it off anywhere.

You have one chance to get it right, and if you can’t even get the spelling right, then I suggest you find a good skool or collage to teach you the basics.

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