You’ve found an advertised employment opportunity and have decided to apply. The job sounds perfect and you believe you possess the necessary skills. In order to apply for the job,
you need to submit a resume so you decide to review your current one. If any of the following are present, you might want to think twice about submitting your resume in its current condition:
- Using bold font on your resume sub-headings doesn’t make you stand out. Do you seriously think bold font is going to impress a recruiter? It’s your skills that matter, not your typography.
- Proclaiming you have excellent leadership skills is for resume amateurs. As if you’re going to advertise that your leadership skills suck. Unless you have some hardcore stats to back up your claim, don’t bother pointing the obvious.
- Your hobbies are of no interest to a recruiting manager. How you spend your free time is your business. The fact that you’re an avid reader or a travel junkie won’t help you outshine other candidates; leave these tidbits off your resume unless you’re intentionally trying to look like a job-hunting newbie.
- If you’re making wage demands on your resume, you’re doing it wrong. You might think you deserve an income commensurate with your experience, but your employer is going to be the judge of your skills-to-income rating, not you. Don’t bother adding the ‘looking for a well-paying employment opportunity’ line as an objective on your resume unless you’re purposely trying to tick off your interviewer.
- If a hiring manager wants to know your reason for leaving a job, they’ll ask you. Stating your reasons for leaving on your resume gives a potential employer an insider’s look into your character. Especially for those with numerous jobs in their past, highlighting your departure dilemmas just makes you look like you can’t commit.
- Speaking of those with numerous jobs, don’t feel like you have to list every employer separately. A resume chock full of previous employers is an instant red flag to interviewers. Consolidate employers/jobs during a similar time period into one notation on your resume and include this information with a consolidated date too, i.e. 2000-2005. Also consider only going back 10-15 years with your experience, you can consolidate relevant past experience that is more than 10-15 years ago in a section labeled other experience.
- Spelling is incredibly important on resumes. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you *wood* be surprised how often typos aren’t caught by your computer’s spell-check program. A computer isn’t going to necessarily understand the difference between wood and would on your resume. If you’ve spent time in the navel reserve instead of the naval reserve, an employer is likely to take a pass on hiring you. Have friends and family members review your resume to make sure there are no spelling errors or incorrect word choices.
When you spend hours crafting a resume in hopes of landing your dream job you want to make sure you are making an excellent first impression. Little things you might overlook can be instant turn-offs to those making hiring decisions. When you’re submitting a resume for an employment opportunity, you want to stand out from other applicants. The above-listed faux pas will definitely make you stand out, but not in a good way!
At SCR our goal is to find our clients the best talent in the energy sector. This, in turn, helps you find the right employer to make the best use of your skills. We encourage you to submit your resume and sign up to be notified of new opportunities that could be the right fit for you!
