What are the signs of a bad resume?

Most people are not good at writing resume’s. This is because people can only get good at something by two different ways:

• Lots of practice.
• Learning from other people.

Most learn how to write CV’s from lots of practice, but it’s really hard to get better this way. It’s an uphill struggle because your situation never changes. Your resume is a subjective piece and it’s hard to see the wood from the trees.

Unless you work in recruitment you will never be able to learn from other resumes because you won’t ever see them. You’ll never benefit from reading the terminology, layout and case-studies they used.

Paradoxically the better of an employee you are, (e.g. you stay in a job for longer, and have gained lots of experience), it becomes more difficult to write a really good CV. When the time comes to look for another job your writing is out of practice, and your CV isn’t as attention grabbing as it should be.

Because of this, it's really hard to get good at writing a CV.

If you look at any expert in any field, whether it's an athlete or an author, it’s really hard to figure out what makes them so good. They just are.

But really what these experts do better than most is that they limit their mistakes to a minimum. When you read hundreds of CV’s everyday you quickly pick up on common mistakes.

Many of what I list below are completely superficial which means they are very easy for you to fix.

You’ve got to get rid of the excess before you can make an impression.

1. REMOVE COLOR

One piece of advice regularly thrown around about CV’s is that you need it to ‘get noticed’. Without any further explanation this may mean to some people that it needs to visually stand out. Color will get you noticed, but for all the wrong reasons. Like wearing running shoes to a wedding or a suit to the beach. There’s a time and a place for color, but it’s place is not in front of a hiring manager.

2. AVOID WACKY FONTS The sight of Comic Sans or a similar bizarre font will make the reader shudder. In a digital world, you have to be savvy enough to present yourself professionally. If you can’t do that for yourself, it's highly doubtful you will be able to do the same for your potential employer.

3. NO MORE THAN FIVE LINES FOR YOUR PROFILE

A profile is defined as ‘a short article giving a description of a person or organization’. So remember, keep it short and sweet. Don’t go into major details about what you’ve done, just a very broad overview. If you struggle these are the things you should include:

• set out who you are
• what you do
• where you want your next career move to take you

If your profile is longer than five lines, it tells your prospective employer that you are not entirely certain of yourself.

4. REMOVE PARAGRAPH-LONG BULLET POINTS

They are called bullet points for a reason - keep everything short and sweet.

When you read a lot of resumes you realize that paradoxically, hiring managers spend very little time actually reading. Various studies have shown the average length that recruiters spend reading a CV. Whichever one you read, the statistics given are always shockingly low considering the amount of effort that goes into writing resumes. Don’t fret if the bullet points don’t make complete grammatical sense, you’re writing in business language here not in novel prose.

5. DO NOT LIST YOUR HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

If you list hobbies and interests on their CV beyond the age of fifteen isn’t doing their career any favors. Although you may enjoy writing about your long walks along the beach, this is not the sort of crucial information an employer may be looking for, say, a web developer. When you list your hobbies it raises questions as to why this is more important over your career achievements. If you are fond I think it is always best to explain your hobbies face-to-face at interview. If anyone out there has ever gotten an interview from being a part-time Sunday football referee, then please let me know.

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