In most of my career coaching conversations, I often had to go beyond coaching the client on finding the development pathway or next career steps, to also assist them in improving their resume to support their job applications. As a HR profession, I also get to see a lot of resumes from Gen Z who wrote in to apply for internships. What is interesting is that 10 out of 10 clients or internship applicants, made the same 5 common mistakes in their resumes, regardless whether they are Gen X, Millennials or Gen Z.
Before we go into the pitfalls, let’s take a minute to understand the differences between a resume and a CV (aka curriculum vitae). A resume is typically a one-page summary of one’s background and work experiences relevant to the job he or she is applying to, whilst a CV is much longer document that includes all academic achievements, certifications and publications. In the Asia context, both terms are used interchangeably but most of the time, it is the resume that is required.
Pitfall #1 – Lengthy Resume
A general guideline is for the resume to be within a page. Sure, it is tough to fit so much information into a one-pager when you have several relevant experiences and all of those are important. Keep in mind that the HR recruiter or hiring manager usually make a decision to proceed with reading your resume within the first 4 to 7 seconds, a lengthy and wordy resume could just turn them off. If you really need to go beyond a page, please keep it to 2 pages.
Pitfall #2 – Poor Resume Layout
This is something not excusable as there are tons of attractive and professional resume templates which one could get their hands on just by Googling it. There are also free applications like Canva that has attractive resume templates. While some of these templates have wonderful graphic designs, keep in mind to find one that is clean, organised and professional. What would be important is to find an appropriate template with design that aligns with the job you are applying for. For example, a creative job opportunity would allow you to flaunt some colours on your resume.
Pitfall #3 – Writing Job Description Instead of Competencies and Accomplishments
While it is important to give the reader an idea what your past job scopes entails, there is no need to go into writing paragraphs of information on what the job is about. It is frustrating for the recruiter and hiring manager to actually plough through that information to make a logical assessment on the likely competencies you have acquired through that job experience.
Pitfall #4 – One Size Fits All Resume
It sounds like a lot of effort to customise a resume for each job application but this does not require you to do a major overhaul for each application. What you need is to tweak it to align your resume to the job you are applying for to make it stand out. After all, the job market is competitive and a general resume is not going to help you land an interview opportunity.
Pitfall #5 – Spelling and Grammar Errors
After all the efforts that went into the resume, the last thing we want it to stand out for the wrong reasons would be spelling and grammar errors. This is the easiest error to fix but often overlooked.
Look out for the next blog post for some resume tips to make your resume work for you.