17 Résumé Writing Mistakes To Avoid If You Don’t Want To Horrify Recruiters!

Applying for a job is not at all an easy task as one starts second-guessing his or her caliber. Am I really good enough for this job? Will this job actually excite me as much once I start working? Could I have done better in the interview process? However, there are very few aspects that actually go on to decide your future in terms of job search more than the one sheet of paper – the résumé.

For the better or worse, the HR manager only goes through your résumé for a few seconds, as he needs to go through scores of other résumés as well. So, in order to make a lasting impression, you need to make sure your résumé comes across to the recruiter in a positive way. On the other hand, if you end up making a silly mistake in your résumé, your application will most definitely end up in the list of rejected candidates instead of the ones shortlisted for interview. So, what exactly are the mistakes that you should watch out for, and how can you actually do that yourself? In this article, we have compiled many such methods and ways that help you in avoiding silly mistakes in your résumé. And in order to do that, we talked to a number of people related with the hiring process – HR managers and recruiters and found out what some of the common mistakes they thought applicants make in their résumés. Some might come as shocking for you, so be prepared! Here it goes –

Having a single résumé

Everyone understands the pain that a job seeker goes through because they have been one themselves at some point in time. However, that cannot overshadow the fact that an applicant sends the same résumé while applying for ten different positions – especially when they are starkly different from one another!

According to the hiring experts, this is one of the most common mistakes applicants make when they are trying to get a job. According to a job search consultant Ron Auerbach, recruiters often come across résumés that look and feel nice, but ultimately what matters is that the résumé should be molded in order to match the job requirements. When a résumé lacks that, no matter how impressive it may be, it shows to the recruiter that the applicant doesn’t have the focus and attention to detail. He goes on to urge applications to never send generic résumés while applying for jobs. Instead, it should be tailored to match the requirements of the position one has applied for.

Way too artsy

Making sure that your résumé stands out is definitely a part of the plan, but being way too creative with it is simply too much. While adding some sort of clip art or writing the text in artsy calligraphic handwriting may seem fun enough to you, but a serious HR recruiter would definitely push your résumé towards the rejected pile.

According to Auerbach, a recruiter judges the résumé first by the look and the feel of it. So, even if you have mentioned a whole lot of information that makes you the best fit for the job, it will ultimately be a waste, as the HR manager would feel that you aren’t professional about the job. While it may or may not be true, but the first impression is always the last impression. So, you should avoid being too artsy with your résumé and stick to the points.

According to Laura Handrick, another recruitment specialist, using colored or the bizarre shaped paper is the very first sign that the applicant isn’t really serious about the job position. She goes on to say that recruiters, in fact, get irritated seeing such kinds of résumés, and urges applicants to stick to the simple white paper. You surely want your résumé to stand out, but definitely not in the wrong way!

Grammatical errors

This is quite obvious, but surprisingly a large number of applicants tend to ignore the importance of grammar while writing their résumé. According to Laura Handrick, this puts a bad impression of the applicants in the minds of recruiters. If they aren’t able to pull together their résumé without tons of grammatical errors, what would their company emails look like, argues Handrick. She goes on to add the fact that HR managers love hiring people who can communicate in a clear and concise manner. Also, thanks to available apps such as Grammarly, one can easily rectify the grammatical errors before submitting their résumés, if they’re serious enough about the job.

Using flowery language

While grammatical errors and wrong usage of words may be bad, the use of exaggerated language and showing off of sophisticated vocabulary isn’t exactly loved by the HR managers, either. If it could easily otherwise be communicated in a clear and precise manner, there is really no need to use flowery words – it does more harm than good. In fact, recruiters might not even know some of the words, which clearly defeats the very purpose for which you used them.

Cydney Koukol, chief communications officer for a leading talent development agency Talent Plus, goes on to say that there is a sharp rise in the number of applicants who think use of flowery words will make their résumé stand out in a positive way, when in fact it actually does quite the opposite – it makes your résumé look bad in front of recruiters.

Using more than one page

Another one of the common mistakes made by the applicants looking for a job is cramming too much information in the résumé that makes it run for well over two to three pages, is actually frowned upon by the recruiters. The point of writing long résumés on the part of applicants is understandable, though. You have diverse experience and you wish to convey it all through your résumé – it makes perfect sense. But if you think from the recruiter’s perspective, you would realize that he or she needs to go through tons of such résumés, and there is not more than just a few seconds to go through each résumé. By deciding to add multiple pages in your résumé, the recruiter most possibly will miss the important information and consider you a non-professional applicant for writing so much.

Dana Case, head of operations at mycorporation.com tells us from her experience that she hasn’t accepted any résumé that had more than one page in it. A single page is more than enough to enlist all your previous experiences, no matter how diverse they are.