Throughout my 14 years in this business, I’ve seen and reviewed more resumes than I’ve had hot dinners and when I send reviews back to professionals on their resumes, I sound like a broken record. So in this short article, I thought I would share the top 3 mistakes people make, so you can avoid them.
Mistake Number One
Lousy formatting and presentation: Yes, content is king, but a visually appealing resume or CV, can make a massive amount of difference. To help fix this problem, if you apply to become a member of My Career Groove we have provided effective resume templates that you can use to accelerate your career. Find out more at My Career Groove
Oh, and whatever you do, don’t use the Resume Word Templates. Recruiters and HR see thousands of these templates and many find them less than impressive.
Mistake Number Two
Not putting your experience into context for readers: Most people focus entirely on their duties and responsibilities and forget to tell a story. It is amazing what a difference it will make if your resume outlines the number of staff you led or mentored, the key challenges you faced and overcame, the budget you managed and what you have achieved. By putting your experience into context, you have just provided the background required for employers to really understand what you offer.
All duties and responsibilities do, is tell readers what you were supposed to do, not what value you offer employers.
Mistake Number Three
Not aligning their resume to the needs of the employer: This is a huge one, as most people don’t tailor their resume for each and every job. Seriously employers don’t care about you, unless you can solve their problem, which is being someone that can help them.
So if they are asking for a person with advanced skills, in say MYOB, and this is not reflected in your resume, and instead you focus on your mastery of 5 languages, than unless they are running a global company, it is unlikely your resume will make their shortlist.
Although it is a total pain in the neck, you need to align your resume for each job you apply for. It will make an enormous amount of difference in terms of your success rate.
If you just get these 3 things right in your resume, it will make a huge difference to your success rate.
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