Some advice
from the Killer Resume editorial team on how to avoid making
common resume mistakes.
Be sure to avoid these mistakes when writing your resume.
1. Meaningless Acronyms
If you are going to use acronyms within your resume, be sure that you
only use common ones that everyone is aware of.
For example, it is
safe to assume that all employers will recognize VP as the
short form of Vice President. However, not everyone will know
SVP stands for "Senior Vice President", RM stands for
"Regional Manager", and CCS stands for "Customer Care
Specialist". It's best not to take chances -- when in doubt, just
write out the full title of your position.
2. Using Superlatives
Never, never, never use superlatives in your resume. Regardless of how
outstanding your performance at a job was, don't say you were the
"Best Support Engineer" or a "Great Manager". Instead, illustrate your
competency by facts and back up your claims by awards or
numbers.
For example, say
things like:
-
Consultant of the
Year, 1999
-
Exceeded Sales
Quota by 50% in Q1 2001.
-
Promoted to
Senior Developer within 6 months.
It is perfectly
fine to promote yourself in your resume -- just make sure you do so
with facts and figures, not claims and appraisals.
3. Repetitiveness
The quickest and surest way to bore your resume reader to
death is by using and re-using the same subset of verbs. For example,
if you list 5 jobs in your Professional Experience section, make sure
that they don't all begin with "Responsible for ...". On
the same note, they shouldn't all begin with "Designed and
Developed..." either! As simple as this advice sounds, many
resumes tend to stick with a handful of overused verbs. Be creative,
but...
4.
Don't Be Too
Creative
There is no need to go overboard. Using words like "ameliorated" and
"edification" in your resume is overkill. Simplicity and conciseness
are keys to building powerful resumes. By using too many big words you
risk coming across as supercilious, patronizing, and flippant (kind of
like this sentence). No employer will want to pull out a dictionary
just to find out what you did at your last job.
5. Long Sentences
Avoid long sentences at all
costs. Employers tend to glance at and skim resumes, rather than read
them from top to bottom. To make things stand out, therefore, you
should use short sentences and bulleted lists to itemize key
accomplishments and facts.
For example,
instead of saying:
I joined the
Dallas, TX start-up as a software developer, working as part of a
large team on the development of an interactive, web-based billing
system and writing code in both Perl and C++
Write:
Key Accomplishments:
-
Implemented an interactive, web-based billing system.
-
Developed code in Perl & C++.
-
Collaborated with a 12-member software team.
Which one of the
above layouts do you think an employer who is skimming through your
resume will notice?
|
