3 Common Resume Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

1. Lack of Consistency

"Where does the date go? Do I put periods at the end of the bullet? What font size should the bullets be?"

Advice: There's plenty of nuances when writing your job application. The questions above have no perfect answer, but whatever you choose, make it consistent. If the date is right adjusted, every date in every section should also be right adjusted. If you put a period at the end of a bullet for your experience, all other bullets should have periods. Your resume is 80% content and 20% formatting (maybe a little higher on the formatting if you're in the creative industry). Don't neglect that 20% by forgetting to be consistent in your layout, font and colour decisions!

2. Re-iterating your Job Description

This is a big one that I see most new resume writers make. The descriptions of their experiences say "Responsible for xyz...", "Did xyz while I was here...", "Worked on xyz..." so on and so forth. Your resume should not be a regurgitation of your job description. If your experience was as a customer sales rep, the hiring manager can intuitively conclude that part of your job had to do with greeting customers, cashing them out and helping them find their sizes. Everyone else at your workplace had the same job description and it doesn't set you apart.

Advice: Read your bullet points and ask yourself: "could my co-workers write the exact same thing on their resume, and would it be true?" If the answer is yes, then you need to find ways to set yourself apart. You can do that by focusing on your impact at that job, something special that only you contributed.

3. Spelling and Grammar Mistakes

“I can't tell you how many resumes and cover letters I've immediately thrown away because I spotted a glaring spelling mistake.”

Having an error like this immediately puts your application at risk. Errors indicate an applicant's lack of attention to detail and implies that their work will always be sub-par.

Advice: Always proofread your application before hitting send. If you're not sure, send it to your friends to edit first. Or (and I've seen this happen a lot), if you spent all day labouring over your job application and are tired, sleep on it, re-read it before you send it off the next morning.

Get to Editing!

I hope you've find this short guide useful. Check out my other blogs (I'll try to add 2 every month) for more quick tips and advice. As always, if you'd like tailored and comprehensive assistance on your next job application, feel free to check out my services in the menu bar up top. Good luck and happy writing!