FREELANCER TIPS Four mistakes to absolutely avoid in your résumé More freelancer tips on www.freelancermap.com...
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24.07.2013
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A well-written CV A good, well-written résumé is a must have for anyone looking to land a job in today’s business world. These few couple of pages actually determine whether you get invited for an interview or not. But what makes a good or a bad résumé? A recruiter has to go through tenths, no, hundreds of résumés a day. That’s why most of them get very little amount of attention – sometimes as few as ten seconds. In order to get through the majority of applications in a short amount of time, recruiters tend to be quite harsh when it comes down to mistakes. This article aims to help you avoid those errors that are instant dealbreakers, which will cause your résumé to land directly in the paper bin.
1) Listing “bare” strengths This is probably the most common trap job seekers fall into. Writing that you are a “motivated, hard-working team player” who has “great communications skills” can be quite tempting. However, it has exactly zero worth for your résumé – you can write that you are Thor, God of Thunder for all you like, but the recruiter isn’t really going to care unless you can prove it. So try telling a story when listing your strengths. Think about an example of how a certain skill helped you in your last job and try to condense it in one or two sentences. Backing those statements up increases their value immensely and reassures the recruiter that you’re not just trying to make yourself look better than you actually are.
2) Not adapting a résumé to the job offer If you’re looking for a job or a contract, it is very likely that you’re sending out multiple résumés a day. It often seems easy to put pretty much the same in all of them, but it’s definitely going to be a deal-breaker. Job offers usually focus on certain aspects or skills potential candidates should have. Every résumé you write should be concentrated on the exact points the employer is looking for. This also means cutting out irrelevant information. You might be proud of a certain achievement, but if it’s not really relevant for the job you’re currently applying for, you might as well leave it out.
3) Clichés There are many overused phrases and sentences which are included in most résumés. Such clichés either have little to no meaning or just go without saying most of the time. “References available upon request” is one of these phrases. You’re not doing yourself a favour by wasting precious space in your résumé to tell the recruiter something they already know – it’s not like you’re going to deny sending them references if they do get requested.
3) Clichés (cont.) Describing yourself as “motivated” is another good example of a cliché that has little value. In order to avoid clichés just try to think about whether a certain word or phrase actually has some meaning that will help you get the job. If the answer is no, you probably want to cut it out, a recruiter is unlikely to read your whole résumé, so you better make every sentence count.
4) Spelling errors Last but not least, you should really mind your spelling. Make sure to always proofread your résumés. There are so many ways to check a written text for spelling mistakes nowadays that making such mistakes just comes off as being plain lazy. Spelling mistakes tell the recruiter that you didn’t put in those extra five to ten minutes of effort to double-check what you actually wrote. And if you’re not willing to do that you probably don’t deserve a shot at getting the job or contract, at least from the recruiter’s point of view.
Increasement of offers Following these tips will increase the chances of your résumé being taken into consideration. Avoiding the mistakes that most make will distinguish you from the crowd. Still, with hundreds of candidates, don’t expect to land a project or a job after the first couple of applications you send. Avoiding mistakes is a key element of a successful résumé, but persistence is definitely another one.
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