Reasons!! Why Your Resume is Not Getting Shortlisted

As someone who’s reviewed countless resumes and conducted numerous interviews, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: resumes that don’t accurately reflect the candidate’s skills and personality.

I have seen resumes that are not well tailored, even though when I take their interviews, I feel shocked because I can see a different person while their resumes portray something different. By this, I am not saying to put things that you don’t know or are unaware of, always keep your resume at the same level as your skill set, not more or less. Show yourself more by your resume rather than degrading your skills.

Most Important Points While Crafting a Resume

These listed points will help you write your resume in a much better manner and improve your chances of resume getting shortlisted

Prioritizing Information in Your Resume

For Freshers:

• Your education is typically the main attraction as a new student! Your school background is the most accurate indicator of your talents and expertise because you do not yet have a lot of professional experience.
• Nevertheless, do not be scared to highlight your outstanding initiatives or pertinent abilities first! This might make you stand out and demonstrate your abilities to prospective employers.

For Experienced Pros:

• However, if you are a seasoned expert, your accomplishments and work history ought to be highlighted! Your education is still crucial at this stage, but it is not the primary focus.
• You can truly show prospective employers how valuable and knowledgeable you are by emphasising your relevant experience and talents first.
• Keep in mind that the most important thing is to customise your resume to the particular position you are looking for and to emphasise the most noteworthy and pertinent facts.

Lead With Your Skills

Always remember to write your skills in decreasing order of your familiarity with them. Sometimes it happens that we write in alphabetical order or randomly, and when the interviewer asks for that we may fumble as we’re not confident in it.

Skills: Top Skill 1, Top skill 2, …. Lower skill

• Your top skills are the ones you’re most comfortable with and have mastered.
• Your middle skills are the ones you’re good at but might need a bit of brushing up.
• Your lower skills are the ones you’re still learning or have basic knowledge of.

By listing your skills in this order, you’re demonstrating a clear picture to your potential employers of what you can bring to the table.

Resume Customisation

This is a very important aspect if you’re fresher since you don’t have any industry experience you can mold your resume such that it fits the employer’s requirements. This will increase the chances if your resume getting shortlisted.

Too Much Exaggeration is a big no-no ??

Getting your resume shortlisted by mentioning the skills you don’t have and the projects you haven’t worked on and no nothing about it, This can surely get your resume shortlisted but will not help you in your interviews. Always mention the skills and projects you’re familiar with.

How Extracurricular Activities Help??

• Mention volunteer work, hobbies, or sports that demonstrate your skills and personality.
• If you’re an experienced person refrain from adding these skills directly instead communicate indirectly via extracurricular activities
• Have fun with it and let your personality shine through!

Common Resume Blunders to Avoid

After going through countless resumes, these are the most common observations I found in candidate resumes that you should be careful while crafting your resume.

1. Not prioritising your resume based on your experience.

2. Not aligning your resume with job’s requirements

3. Naming of Your Resume

Always name your resume file with your name. I have seen people naming it like

? “Joe Doe.pdf”, “Joe_doe_btech_fresher.pdf”, “joe doe resume(2).pdf”

? “random name.pdf”

? “Joe Doe Resume.pdf”

4. Formatting of Your Resume

Your resume should be properly formatted and visible.

• If you see the shared image there are some the formatting issues and examples

• Unnecessary Empty Space on Resume

• Alignment issues

5. Mentioning Soft Skills and Core Skills Together

6. Exaggerating skills and projects which you haven’t worked on.

7. Including irrelevant information which is not required and making the resume lengthy.

Conclusion

Crafting a well-written resume is crucial in today’s competitive job market. Highlighting your accomplishments, experience, and pertinent skills will help you stand out, get interviews, and progress in your profession. Do not forget to highlight your talents, customise your CV for each job application, and highlight your personality. You will have no trouble reaching your professional objectives and leaving a lasting impression if you have a strong resume!