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 Bronze league  · 332 points

Answer by Michael Brulotte, resume writer and owner of Docdoctor.ca, on Quora:

As a resume and cover letter writer, I've worked with people from all walks of life--blue collar, white collar, professionals, and high-ranking executives--conceptualizing, polishing, perfecting, or completely overhauling their resumes. One thing consistently surprises me: there seems to be a low correlation between a person's career success and their capacity to compose a solid resume. I often wonder how people have made it as far as they have with the resumes they've been using.

The one that surprised me the most was the curriculum vitae of a successful lawyer. "A lawyer needs help writing?" I thought to myself. But did he ever, and it was obvious at first sight. Columns weren't aligned, spelling conventions were inconsistent, important accomplishments were buried by run-on sentences, action verbs were weak and shifted tense for no reason, the entire document was in 12-point Times New Roman with no formatting, and it spilled awkwardly onto the upper quarter of a second page. This was from a smart and accomplished professional, and while this was the most notable example, it was far from being an anomaly.

So here's a list of mistakes I see most often, and suggestions on how to fix them without having to pay someone else to do it (though I'll gladly take your money). I'll break this down into two categories.

STYLE

I've heard a lot of resume experts say "avoid the graphics and fancy styles; it's the content that matters!" And that's sort of true. Unless you're a applying to be a creative professional (graphics designer, singer, songwriter), you don't want to waste valuable space on graphics and style. But that's no excuse for letting it be ugly (like that lawyer did). You wouldn't walk into an interview wearing jeans and a dirty t-shirt because "it's my experience that counts." Presentation absolutely matters. A simple, elegant, good-looking resume is the reader's first cue that you're a serious, professional candidate. Here's a list of common style mistakes.

Choosing a boring font:
Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, whatever default font your editing program chooses--they're lazy. Find something simple, professional, and less common than a default setting. Here's a great article with some good resume font suggestions: https://designschool.canva.com/b.... Choose one that suits your field.
Not using bold, italic, or underlined text: You don't want to overdo it, but using formatted text can make your document a lot easier to follow (e.g. use bold for your work position titles and the names of the schools you've attended).

Improperly aligning text:
This is probably the most common mistake people make when using editing programs. Do not use spaces to align text! It looks stupid, it makes it very hard to make changes, and it will never align your content properly. Learn how to use tables, columns, and margins to align text properly. This is easily Googleable.

Spacing inconsistently:
By default, Word adds extra space before and after bulleted/numbered lists and between paragraphs of the same style. You can change this in Word's paragraph settings. There isn't a wrong setting to use; just use it consistently, and make sure extra spacing isn't making your resume look sparse.

Not using bullets:
Remember, you want your resume to be as easy to read as possible. Use bullet points to draw the reader's attention to the beginning of each item on your lists. Ideally, try to fit each bulleted phrase into one line. If you need to use two lines for one bullet point, try to put that one last so it doesn't break the single-space flow of between the other bullets.

Using awkward categories:
Your resume should include sections like: Experience, Achievements, Awards, Community Involvement, Professional Skills, Certifications, and Education (though preferably not all of them). Put Education either first or last (always last unless you're applying for an academic position), and merge other categories whenever possible to simplify the document and save space (e.g. you might be able to list accomplishments under their respective "Experience" positions).

Adding a profile photo:
Unless you're applying for a modeling position, this is just weird. Leave the photo off your resume. If your employer really cares what you look like, they can probably find you on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Making it too long or too short: I find it's more common for a resume to be too long rather than too short, but I've seen both. It should be a page or two at most, and it should include only the most necessary information without any fluff. You should also make sure that there aren't any gaps in your work history (or to account for them as much as possible) as they could be a red flag for a hiring manager.

Going way back:
That job at the photo developing lab in the 70s probably isn't relevant anymore, even if you were the head honcho. Keep it contemporary. As a general rule, try to keep your work experience to the last decade, but if you did something really noteworthy outside of that time frame, it's still okay to include it--just use your discretion.

Cramming text to fit everything:
Have you ever seen a blog post or comment on a website that's just a huge wall of text? Did you read it? Of course not. Wall-to-wall text is nauseating and hard to follow. Use white space wisely to separate your resume into visually logical sections.

Sending in Word format:
Microsoft Word is notorious for rendering documents differently across platforms. In Word format (doc/docx), your resume will hardly ever look exactly the same on the hiring manager's computer as it does on yours. Use Word's "Save as type: PDF" option or use a PDF printing program (CutePDF is excellent) to generate a stable document.

CONTENT

Remember, a hiring manager will likely have a stack of resumes to consider, so s/he is only going to scan your document for a few seconds before deciding if it's worth a closer read. Therefore, your information must be clear, concise, enticing, and easy to understand at a glance. Here's a list of common content mistakes.

Including an objective:
Don't do it. A short personal statement is okay if it adds value (e.g. by articulating character traits that are important for the industry), but don't ramble on about what kind of job you're looking for. The hiring manager cares about the company's goals, not yours.

Listing content in the wrong order:
This one is simple. Put the most recent stuff first, and proceed in reverse chronological order (oldest stuff last), indicating each item with a start-year to end-year range (including the months is optional).

Ignoring job requirements:
Before setting out to write or rewrite your resume, familiarize yourself with companies for which you're interested in working. Get to know what they tend to look for and emphasize the pertinent qualifications you have. The more your resume is aligned with the posted job requirements, the more likely you are to get an interview.

Omitting contact info:
If you want the company to contact you, make it easy for them! Provide your full address, one phone number, and an email address in a prominent place (usually right under your name at the top). By the way, don't include "Address," "Phone," or "Email" before each item; the reader will be able to identify these without your help.

Using a "cute" email address:
This isn't your Myspace page. You're not cute. Get over it. Use your full name, your first name and last initial, or your first initial and last name. Don't use numbers, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, or other parts of speech. (Bad examples: robbyyy5, deanman, christinatina89, truetitan, princesspeach4u... you get it.)

Including personal details:
A hiring manager doesn't care about your age, birthday, or marital status. In fact, it might even be illegal for them to ask you about these things. So save the time and space. Don't include it.
Using personal pronouns: Your resume is obviously about you. Don't use "I," "me," "he," "she," "him," or "her" when talking about yourself. It makes you look like a dilettante.

Using annoying catchphrases:
If your resume contains clich descriptors like "second to none," "able to think outside the box," or "people pleaser," you need to do some rephrasing. Just describe what you achieved using strong verbs, and leave out the silly lingo.

Using a dated email domain:
I was reluctant to include this because I'm not sure how it actually resonates with hiring managers, but I always get a negative vibe from professionals who still use Hotmail or Yahoo, probably because those domains are so often associated with the immature usernames mentioned above. Personally, just to be safe, I would go with Gmail, Outlook, or a private or academic domain (e.g. firstname.lastname@mcgill.ca).

Highlighting duties instead of achievements:
A hiring manager cares less about what you were "responsible for" than what you achieved; reword points to emphasize what you actually did instead of what you were supposed to do.

Leaving out key details:
As briefly as possible, be specific. Don't say "Successfully managed a store with a team of employees" when you can say "Optimized store operations to increase sales by 10% and customer return rates by 1.3 times the annual average."

Being too modest:
This is the one time it's good to brag. It's great to be a modest, unassuming person in your daily life, but on your resume, you have to be the champion of your accomplishments. If it helps, imagine you're writing the resume for someone else--someone whom you respect and admire.

Using jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations:
Unless they are common and well-known in your field, spell things out for the reader or they might not know what you're talking about. This is especially true for proprietary, company-specific language (e.g. "Managed CAT for the ECLU department" ...you did what?)  

31 Incredibly Unprofessional Things People Do on Their Resumes
31 Incredibly Unprofessional Things People Do on Their Resumes
Microsoft Word is notorious for rendering documents differently across platforms.
www.inc.com
8 years ago

1. Being late too often.

2. Stealing from the company. I’m sure they don’t mean like office supplies—they mean like stealing-stealing…

3. Too many sick days. Yep—you get sick days—but companies don’t like when you use them, we just tell you that you should use them—it’s Jedi-mind-tricks, but HRish.

4. Falsifying time card. My personal favorite is having a “friend” clock out for you later in the day, when you left early. I get to fire both of you!

5. That’s not on my Job Description. I don’t think this one was real but someone at TheLaw.TV needed some more – I know this is fake because the only thing SHRM has truly taught HR Pros in the last 50 years is that one line on the bottom of every Job Description – I don’t even need to write – You know it! “Other duties…”

6. Drinking on the Job. Before noon.

7. Sexual Misconduct. 37.8% of people met their spouse at work according to an eHarmony totally legit survey. In that same survey, but unpublished, were how many people found their “next” spouse at work—at a slightly higher rate of 92.8%.

8. Surfing Porn. Nothing says “Fire Me” like boobs at work. On a totally different but same note, I’ve never had to fire a woman for surfing porn at work—that might be a separate post if I could find an HR Pro willing to share a female porn firing story!

9. Cooking fish in the break room microwave. (That’s like terrorist bad! You know who you are!)

10. Smoking pot in your car at lunch when I can see you from my office window. “Hi—me waving—I can see you!”

11. Wearing white socks with black or brown dress shoes. I haven’t fired anyone for this, but I’ve come close.

12. Fighting with the boss over some stupid idea you won’t let go of. But really, we should change up everything we do and become a charity because 50 years of running a profitable company is enough.

13. Taking credit for crap you didn’t do, but people who report to you did. I would actually go with hanging over firing on this one.

14. Asking for a salary increase after you just got your butt handed to you in your performance review. Gutsy, but stupid.

15. Listening to really weird Pandora/Spotify mixes at the office in an attempt to look cool. I have to admit I did this back in the day—last year—but it was rap because I wanted to look black, not cool.

16. Being “way” into anything in an over-the-top way. Think Transmeta-physical yoga ultra-marathoner—I only eat dirt and I’m obsessed with Pokemon. Come on, you’re fired.  

16 Stupid Ways Employees Get Themselves Fired! - Fistful of TalentFistful of Talent
16 Stupid Ways Employees Get Themselves Fired! - Fistful of TalentFistful of Talent
I'm pretty sure there are more than 8 stupid moves to get fired!
fistfuloftalent.com
8 years ago

It’s no surprise that most adults are overworked and overwhelmed but the counterintuitive reality is that many are not taking all the paid time off they’ve earned. Taking time off will actually help you be more productive and healthy in life and career.  

Time Off Helps You Thrive in Life and Career
Time Off Helps You Thrive in Life and Career
www.huffingtonpost.com
8 years ago