by J. Beth Trent

Created on: June 15, 2010

Many Americans can relate to sending out countless resumes, only to never receive an invitation to interview.  The past few years have been especially hard with more people competing for fewer jobs in a bad economy.  You may have found yourself wondering why you haven’t stirred any interest in your own job hunt.  Any idea what the number one reason is for resumes that never make it past a human resources department?  You might be surprised to learn improper grammar is the biggest deal breaker for hiring managers.  In fact, many companies are including grammar testing for their human resources personnel to ensure they can recognize these grammatical errors when they see them and can eliminate these resumes before they make it to a hiring manager's desk. 

In one recent study, there were countless errors in a sampling of over two hundred business letters.  Nearly 20% of the random cover letters and emails contained typographical errors and improper word usage.  Most common errors included the misuse of "there" and "their"; "who" and "whom"; "its" and "it's" and "conscience" and "conscious".   The fact is, the first round of eliminations in filling an opening includes a quick review of the resumes in search of anything that will allow a company to eliminate those with obvious errors.  It’s time consuming and costly to do anything else.  You might very well be the perfect candidate for an opening, yet a glaring typo could prevent an employer from ever knowing that.

So what is the solution?  In a time when a resume is competing with countless others, how do you ensure yours is even going to make its way to the hiring manager's desk?  One solution is by allowing a second set of eyes to take a look at your finished product; choose someone whose judgment you trust and who can easily spot common typos, poor sentence structures and verb tenses.  Another suggestion many career coaches offer is to avoid contractions within your resume.  For instance, instead of using “couldn’t”, opt for the more formal “could not”.  Remember, your resume is the first introduction a potential employer is privy to.  You have one shot to make it count. Taking the extra time to ensure your resume is perfect can often mean the difference between a polite 'thanks, but no thanks' letter or a phone call that includes an offer of employment." 

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