FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Check your resume carefully before sending to employers
Over the course of time, some things never change. One of them is the poor quality of resumes. Even with spelling and grammar checks, and a truckload of books and newspaper and magazine articles, 64% of U.S. resumes contain mistakes.
According to research from job search engine Adzuna (adzuna.com), more than six in 10 resumes in the U.S. contain at least one spelling mistake. Other frequent resume errors include gaps in employment history, lack of personal summary, and using an inappropriate file name.
Even in the changing world of work, a resume is the first impression a potential employer has of you — meaning it’s still crucial that your resume is wellorganized and precise.
Lily Valentin, Adzuna’s head of North American operations, said, “Spelling mistakes, inconsistent work histories, and missing information are all red flags for potential employers, telling them that you did not take the application process seriously and aren’t fully committed to learning about the open role.”
Adzuna found that only 33,881 of the 92,989 resumes analyzed were spelling error free, meaning almost two-thirds (63.6%) of resumes contained at least one mistake. About 13.5% of the resumes analyzed (12,525 resumes) contained five or more errors, while 1.5% (1,378 resumes) were error-riddled containing 20 or more spelling slip ups. Among the most commonly misspelled words on resumes are “judgment” and “inquiries.” Another frequent fail noticed in the data is that U.S. job seekers are using British English spellings, such as “organisation,” “behaviour,” and “programme,” in place of American spellings.
Valentin said that beyond spelling errors, the most common resume mistake job seekers are making is forgetting to include a personal summary outlining their career ambitions. Nearly half (48%) lacked this level of detail. Another common job seeker mistake is leaving gaps in their employment history. Over a quarter of resumes (30%) contained unexplained gaps of two months or more, which can easily raise red flags to recruiters and employers. If a job seeker has a gap of more than a month on their resume, they should provide context for the reason behind it in order to help their potential employer better understand their situation.
There’s more. “Nineteen percent of job hunters filed their resumes under an inappropriate file name,” according to Adzuna’s research. “This means that they included words such as ‘draft,’ ‘V2,’ ‘untitled’ or ‘document’ in the file name,” said Valentin, “which leaves a thoughtless and unprofessional impression.”
An ideal resume should have a filename that includes the applicant’s surname and the word “resume,” for example “John Smith Resume,” so that a recruiter or hiring manager can locate the document quickly and easily. A resume should also be saved as a PDF document to ensure that its formatting is maintained and not distorted in any way by resumereading software that HR teams and recruiters’ use.
Additionally, 13% of job seekers submitted resumes that were either too brief or too lengthy.
“The perfect length will vary depending on years of experience,” said Valentin. “Resumes need to give enough information to give a complete picture of a
Even in the changing world of work, a resume is the first impression a potential employer has of you — meaning it’s still crucial that your resume is well-organized and precise.
candidate’s work history but should also be clear and concise.”
A surprisingly high proportion of job seekers (5%) included an invalid email address or no email address at all on their resume, a mistake likely to lead to immediate disqualification from the hiring process.
Writing a resume isn’t easy. Even though most job hunters are aware of the resume’s importance, they fail to put all their energy into producing a document that achieves its goal and captures management’s attention. Rather than dash off a resume just to get the ordeal overwith, put in as much time as necessary to produce a document you can be proud of.