Common resume mistakes and how to avoid them

5 things people often forget to do on their resume

People don't work on their resume every day, and it shows. When you pull that old thing out to dust it off and get it up to date, people often make common mistakes that hurt their chances of getting an interview. Here are some things people often forget to do on their resumes.

Put your name on every page of your resume.

Sure you need to put your name at the top of the first page, and everyone knows that. But you need to put it at the top of every page as well, in case the pages get separated. What if your second and third pages were found with the first one lost? If they have your name, you'd at least have a chance at the job. Without your name, those papers will go straight into the garbage. It doesn't hurt to even include your name to the left in the footer for each page too.

Include the number and total number of pages on each page of your resume

At the bottom of the page there should be a number or a "Page 1 of 3" type number. Without this, again if pages go missing there is no way to tell how much or what is missing. At least if HR is holding "Page 1 of 3", they know there are 2 pages missing. If there was no page number listed, finding the second page might end the search or there could be no search at all.

Summarize your experience and skills at the start of your resume

Hiring managers are pressed for time. Your resume will only get a few seconds attention before it is either thrown away or saved for later. This means you want to put your most important information at the top of your resume where it will be seen first. That is the summary of your experience and skills. It is a brief version of the rest of your resume. After reading the summary, the hiring manager will decide to read on or not based on what's there. So only summarize the best!

Spell check your resume

Many hiring managers will not continue reading a resume when they find a spelling error in it. One typo and you go out the door. It's sad but true. In this day and age when everyone has access to a computer, and all computers have spell checkers on them, there is no excuse for badly spelled words. There is almost no excuse for bad grammar either, but it's harder for the computer to catch, so let's hope it's harder for the person from HR to catch too.

Check the format your resume is expected to be in

Often when you are emailing your resume to a company, they expect you resume in a certain file type. If you don't know what type this is, your resume will not be able to be read! For example if you assume everyone uses Microsoft Word, and send your resume in that format, a company that only uses Corel WordPerfect or other word processing software may not be able to read your resume. That means no interview for you!

If you follow these 5 easy rules, you will be well on your way to having a great resume that will open doors for you and be your first step on your path to success!

Learn more about this author, David B Hitchcock.
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