I’ve Reviewed a 1,000+ Resumes...Here Is Where Your Resume Is Failing You!

While it’s widely accepted that your resume / CV is the main job selling document, the vast majority of students, graduates and jobseekers miss the mark on that one. Big time.

Think about it, if you were told that your dream job is one document away, wouldn’t you want the employer to read it and say: "WOW! We can’t afford not to hire them?"

After reviewing hundreds of resumes over the last couple of years, I found that there are 3 common mistake patterns where most people get it wrong. These are:

1st Mistake: Thinking It’s Personal!

It may sound counterintuitive, but your resume is NOT personal.

The intent of of the resume is to get an interview, and nothing else.

As such, you should only include information that’s relevant to the job.

Some examples of irrelevant personal details, attributes and interests are:?

1. “hardworking, punctual and reliable”. Such personal attributes that are expected in any candidate and add little value to your application.
2. “School captain” or “Year 11 Student of the year”. If you already graduated from uni, this has little to no bearing at all to employers.
3. Personal hobbies, family / marital status, religion, date of birth, full street address. All of these should be excluded.
4. The full referees’ contact details. Unless the ad explicitly asks for them, they should be out of the resume.

The golden rule: It’s not personal!

2nd Mistake: Thinking More Is Better!

This is especially true for students and fresh graduates.

So what should you do in your resume? You should write less, not more.

The more concise and direct your information is, the more likely it will stand out:

1. Less skills: Instead of adding 14 irrelevant ones, just keep it to 4-6 skills.
2. Less pages: Instead of writing your life story in 4 pages, keep it to 1-2 pages.
3. Less dot points: Instead of having 8 dot points under each role, keep it to 2-3 points.
4. Less applications: Instead of applying for 20+ jobs weekly, keep it to 2-3 quality applications.

The golden rule: Less is more!

3rd Mistake: Making It Hard To Read.

As a candidate, you should do your best to make your resume readable (i.e. easy to read) for a person and a software.

Long paragraphs, variety of font types and sizes, or too many headings do make it hard for a person to read.

Similarly, graphs, photos and tables are elements that confuse the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

Here’s what to do to make it more readable:

1. Break the text under each role to dot points instead of long paragraphs
2. You don’t need 8 sections in the resume, reduce them to 3 or 4.
3. If you have less than 5 years experience, keep it to 1 page.
4. Add numbers where applicable to break the text.

The golden rule: Make it readable it!

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Agree? Disagree? Would love to know what you think in the comments below???????