Illiteracy, the main disadvantage of a resume that can irritate any HR professional, is elementary grammatical and spelling mistakes made by the applicant. Until the first meeting, which may not yet be, the resume is the face of the applicant for the position. Although literacy, for unknown reasons, is often overlooked.
Some of the shortcomings, experts at rabota.ua note, are downright curious.
“For example, I had to deal with a case when a girl indicated that she was“ not married ”or even“ not married ”at all. Naturally, because of these mistakes, the applicant completely loses all chances of getting a new job. One way or another, such oversights can play a cruel joke on him - they begin to take him less seriously, ”the experts said.
What are the most common mistakes
Lack of a clear goal or its inadequacy
Some resumes sent by applicants for a specific, clearly written position do not contain the main point: goals. Complicating the situation is that large companies are looking for employees for several vacant positions at the same time, and "aimless" resume does not allow you to determine what exactly the applicant is applying for.
There are also cases when the goal indicated in the resume does not correspond to the proposed vacancy at all.
“Often, the goal described in the resume does not match the vacancy for which it was sent, which indicates the candidate's carelessness,” said Oksana Bochkovskaya, a search and recruitment specialist at the LIGA Information and Analytical Center.
According to her, when selecting candidates, the HR manager determines the most important requirements for this vacancy and evaluates the resume sent by the applicant according to them. An exclusive set of requirements has been developed for any position: it may be education, work experience, special skills, etc.
“In our company, HR managers use key competencies when recruiting. This approach facilitates and speeds up the process of searching and recruiting personnel for open vacancies. Because when defining competencies, both the initiator of the vacancy and the HR manager clearly define what the candidate should know and what skills it is possible to train him in the company (taking into account the specifics of the business). In addition, parameters for evaluating the work of a new employee in the company are being created, and criteria by which the trial period (adaptation period) is assessed, ”she emphasized.
Lack of required data
Another common mistake is that the required data is not indicated in the resume, for example, the contacts of the applicant. Phone numbers and email addresses are often missing. However, there are also cases when applicants forget to indicate even their own first and last name. “With all the desire, inviting such a candidate to a meeting is simply unrealistic,” Bochkovskaya emphasized.
Often, the sections of the resume devoted to work experience do not indicate the full names of firms, their field of activity.But from time to time, companies with the same or a similar name may operate in completely different market segments. Moreover, the addresses of companies' web pages are rarely indicated, however, if there is a web address, it is easier and more convenient for the employer to get acquainted with the applicant's previous place of work.
From the data that is better to indicate in the resume - the motives for changing jobs. Explaining the reasons, on the one hand, will allow the employer to understand the logic of the candidate, and on the other hand, to assess how his requests correspond to the proposed vacancy.
Trying to embellish the resume
According to the assurances of personnel search specialists, job seekers often indicate personal qualities, skills and knowledge in their resume that they do not really have.
"If you are not sure that you have these qualities, it is better to simply remove this section from your resume," emphasizes Bochkovskaya.
Candidates like to overestimate their competence. Rabota.ua experts note that sometimes, with a complete lack of knowledge of the English language, a candidate for a position indicates that he speaks it “with a dictionary” or even “fluently”.
“Such a trick can be easily discovered - it is enough to ask a person something in English,” the experts noted.
Inappropriate information
The resume is required to describe the details, but only relevant: job duties and professional achievements, diplomas and scientific degrees in the field in which the applicant applies for the position. For example, if the applicant was engaged in scientific activity and at the same time worked in the field of marketing, then in the resume aimed at getting a job as a brand manager, you should not describe scientific achievements and provide a complete list of articles, publications and scientific papers. The main attention should be paid to specific skills and knowledge that were acquired in the process of working as a marketer.
It is also important to ensure that the phrases used in the resume are clear and logical.
“Once a girl secretary called her duties“ driver management ”and“ filing documents. In another resume, the applicant indicated “cycling, swimming, girls, books” as his own hobby, - said the Forsage consulting company.
Some resumes contain completely inexplicable incidents.
For example, the address of the rabota.ua portal once received a resume of a girl who applied for the position of HR manager. The applicant has attached several of her photographs to the resume, while only one of them was of a business nature, and the others were beach.
“Without a doubt, this case amused the employment experts, although it did not cause a desire to meet with the candidate,” the experts noted.
How to avoid major resume writing mistakes
There are several main rules, adhering to which you can protect yourself from annoying mistakes when writing a resume.
- Be sure to check that your resume is written correctly.
- Be consistent: if you've used an abbreviation once, use it throughout your resume (though it's worth listing all titles in full). Do not use special abbreviations, the decoding of which is known only within your company.
- Avoid long phrases.
- All resume should be in the same style.
- Better to highlight the titles you want.
- It is important that your resume is composed of a maximum of 2 pages.
- If you are applying for a position in a foreign company or your main competence is knowledge of foreign languages, then you need to prepare a version in the language of the country of the company.
- And most importantly, be sure that you can confirm all the information that was included in the resume.
Apart from this, experts advise avoiding exploitation of the pronoun "I".
In addition, it is worth choosing extremely specific wording: you do not need to write templates in your resume, for example, "took part", "was engaged in training." Seriously, it is worth mentioning specific achievements, for example, “increased the level of sales by 10%,” “receivables were reduced by 18%,” “trained 3 employees,” etc.
It is also worth avoiding passive forms, for example: "was responsible for ...", "found the use of the following opportunities ...". It is worth writing: "I was responsible for ...", "I effectively used ...".
Read also: Comic advice for job seekers.
Experts agree that the main thing in a resume is clarity, brevity, literacy and honesty. If the applicant indicated the necessary experience, skills and is confident in each of the points of his / her resume, then this is already the first step to success.