5 (More) Ways To Get Your Resume Tossed Out

You’ve got about 6 seconds to make a great first impression. Here’s 5 more ways to screw that up.

[This is a companion to Five Stupid Things You Can Do Right Now To Ruin Your Resume]

If your resume doesn’t stand out, your phone isn’t going to ring, no matter how amazing your experience.

What many people don’t realize is how detrimental little mistakes can be.

Here’s some of the most common reasons employers toss a resume in that first 6 seconds, and ways to avoid them:

1. You used a single resume to submit to every opening.

Possibly the most common and harmful mistake job seekers make, it’s like thinking you can prepare a single business proposal and get any contract.

You need to tweak your resume to reflect the specific job listing, and to reference directly at least the minimum requirements. What’s that mean?

When employers post a position, they provide specifics about the duties, tasks, skills, and experience they’re looking for. Your resume should include those exact details, preferably using precisely the same keywords or phrases they used.

Are they’re looking for a mobile programmer for iOS who knows Swift, and you have that experience and skill set? Then say that specifically. Don’t just say “Experience in mobile development”… say “Experience building iOS apps in Swift.”

However, take it from us: employers aren’t going to sift through four pages of a lengthy saga masquerading as resume; in fact, they seldom look beyond the first page. You need to fit the most relevant experience onto that first page, and make it easy find your best and most relevant qualifications. It also proves that you know how to prioritize what is important, a highly desirable trait in any employee.

Editing your resume to reflect exactly the skills and experience they’re looking for is a simple and effective way to not end up in the circular file.

Oh, and it’s a good idea to save each version for future reference.

2. You wrote a confusing and disorganized resume

This should be obvious, and chances are you’re doing the obvious things right. But there are subtle aspects of this that are easy to miss.

You’re probably organizing your experience with your most recent job at the top, with the duration of jobs or positions, and that’s good. But you may not be organizing your bullet points in a way that makes sense. You should be organizing types of skills and experience together… meeting related activities together, programming items together, defect-monitoring tasks together, customer-driven tasks together, and so on. Each point should flow into the next one.

If you’re repeating a set of bullets in each position on your list, put those bullets in the same order every time. It’s a subtle thing, but it truly makes the scanning of the resume easier for the reader.

Bonus: Focus on accomplishments. If you worked in accounts receivable, highlight anything you did that helped streamline and improve the process.

And if there’s a measurable result mention that. Did you shorten the collection cycle? Increase the acceptance rate of assembly work? Instead of saying that you “scheduled and ran meetings,” detail how you used those meetings to improve projects or resolve issues.

3. You used weak language that devalued your contribution

Speaking of highlighting results, framing any information with action verbs demonstrates not just what you did, but how you did it. This could be as simple as “Assisted with,” “Developed,” or “Recorded.” Every task at work requires you to act. That should be reflected on your resume.

Avoid weak words like “very,” “nearly,” and “approximately.” If a word is not required or does not offer a deeper description of what you did or achieved, delete it.

Remember that earlier example — “Experience building iOS apps in Swift?”

Let’s add some active language, and a measurable result. Compare that to “Successfully designed and built 5 iOS apps in Swift earning an average 4.5 stars in the App Store.”

4. You treated your resume separately from your online presence

Ideally, your resume should be nearly identical to your online professional presence, whether on LinkedIn or your own website. Your resume could be a shortened version, but it should be consistent with the experience you present on job boards and on your site.

Now, you may have additional experience from another industry living on your LinkedIn profile… some of us are renaissance people, after all. That’s okay. Just be sure that the items on the resume you’re submitting are also reflected — similarly organized — on LinkedIn.

5. You didn’t clearly state your objective

There are two ways to mishandle the objective section of your resume.

The first is to leave it out entirely. This makes it super easy for potential employers to eliminate your resume within the first second of checking it.

The second way to mishandle it is to be vague. Be specific about your goals and what you hope to contribute and achieve.

Don’t just be “looking for a challenging position where you can grow and develop professionally.” Yawn. Be looking for a position at an entry-, mid-, or expert-level where you can use and expand your specific skills and experience in the exact field you wish to build a career in, with a company you respect, and articulate exactly how you can contribute to growth.

This is especially crucial if you’re switching to a different field, because potential employers are going to want to know why someone with a completely different background is seeking to move to something that doesn’t match their previous experience.

Being able to articulate exactly how you plan to put your skills to work helping your new company goes a long way toward demonstrating your vision, professionalism, and desirability.

BONUS

6. Using a standard resume template without customizing it

This stupid mistake is far too common.

Way too many people just don’t put adequate time and care into their resumes. They grab a template, they copy/paste their details into the template, and they press send.

Sometimes, they forget to delete the “Jane Doe” name.

Sometimes, they leave in the “Your Address Here” line.

Sometimes, they force their content into the template’s subheads and bullets.

Just as you should tailor your resume content to a job, you should ensure that your resume layout properly represents you and your experience.

Don’t misconstrue this to mean you should add fancy fonts and colors, borders, and clip art (we covered that in our first article.)

But don’t be afraid to write your own bullet headings, and rearrange elements to best present your unique skill set.

If you’re in too much of a rush, you just may embarrass yourself.

More tips?

If you’ve got more tips to share, or horror stories as an employer that you never want to see again, please share!