The Top 10 Resume Mistakes to Avoid

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Applying for a job is a stressful activity on its own. But what is worse is losing a job offer because of simple mistakes in your resume that you could avoid.

Sadly, it’s too late to make amends.

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Now, you have to start a new job hunting exercise.

This is terrible, and no one should go through this pain.

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It is a known fact that your resume is an important document which potential employers use to determine your fit for the role.

As a result, you cannot afford to make mistakes in your resume. 

You must do your due diligence to avoid all unnecessary mistakes in your resume. 

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Therefore, learning about the common mistakes in resume writing will help you in your job application

Continue reading to learn about these resume mistakes to avoid. 

Resume writing mistakes to avoid when applying for jobs

What are the resume writing mistakes to avoid during job applications?

Here are some of the top resume mistakes to avoid during your job application.

1. Avoid typos and grammatical errors:

Typos and grammatical errors are the most common mistakes you must avoid in your resume.

If your resume doesn’t have perfect spelling and grammar, then employers will assume that you have no attention to details.

Also, they can easily conclude that you cannot write, or that you just don’t care about the job. 

This is not a very good first impression to give your potential employer.

Luckily, there is an easy way to prevent this mistake from occurring.

All you have to do is proofread your resume.

Look over your resume several times. 

Use grammar and spelling checkers like Grammarly to spot errors in your resume.

In addition, get a friend to take a look at your resume to catch any mistakes you may have overlooked.

If possible, read it out loud to yourself.

Just do whatever it takes to ensure you’re not submitting a resume with your own name spelled wrong.

2. Avoid adding unrelated work experience:

Avoid adding any work experience that does not relate to the available job position.

So, when writing your resume, you must be deliberate.

Only list work experiences and skills that are quantitative and specifically fits the position you are applying to. 

Your work experience should showcase your skills and achievements that are valuable to the organization. 

If your past roles appear unrelated, then you might consider listing just the skills and accomplishments that can be relevant to the job rather than all the responsibilities that you had.

For instance, if you are applying to a customer service role, but your experience is limited to working as a cashier, instead of listing details about running a register, you might highlight how you interacted with and helped customers.

3. Avoid cluttering texts:

If your resume is full of texts having different fonts, it will most likely be difficult for the employer to read through.

In fact, too much text is not appealing and can be very tiring to read.

So, make sure that you are breaking your texts apart with headings, paragraphs and bullet lists.

For more certainty, show your resume to several other people before sending it out. 

Ask each of them whether they find your resume visually attractive?

If they don’t find the resume visually attractive, then revisit and edit the document.

4. Avoid submitting a resume with less details:

Ensure that you are adding enough details to your resume.

For instance, you can include at least three to five professional experiences in your resume.

Also ensure that you explain in detail showcasing how you were successful in your last role.

Make sure you are using action words to amplify all the details in your resume.

Submitting a resume with less detail than the recommendation above may cause potential employers to look past your resume.

This is because a vague detail may not give them enough evidence to show why you are a good fit for their organization. 

5. Avoid using an unprofessional email address:

Unprofessional email addresses are now very common.

But you must never use such email to submit your job application.

Instead, use a professional-looking email address, such as one with your first and last name or a variation of it. 

If you don’t have a professional-looking email address, then you should consider creating one for your job applications. 

When you include your updated professional email address, your resume will appear formal and professional.

Also, it will be easier for the potential employer to remember your name since it is the same across all documents.

6. Avoid using jargons and difficult words:

You must understand that not all potential employers have the time to interview all their job applicants.

As a result, they may outsource this part of the recruitment to a third party recruitment agency.

This recruitment team may not know all the technical jargons that relate to your field.

As a result, they may not be able to understand the content of your resume. 

Besides technical jargons, avoid the use of hard vocabulary. 

Instead, use simple and easy to understand English words.

The more that you are able to explain complex work experience using simple words, the better a communicator that you are.

Interestingly, employers love employees who have good communication skills.

So, writing in simple terms and using less jargon will send the right message to the employer.

7. Avoid leaving off important information:

This mistake is mostly common with fresh graduates.

They are fresh out of school and so they feel like they don’t have any experience for a job.

As a result, they don’t mention those jobs that put an extra income in their pocket while in school.

If you are in this category of fresh graduates, then you need to stop making this mistake.

The fact is that the soft skills you’ve gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.

So, you must not make that mistake of downplaying your experiences and lowering your worth.

Always add these important pieces of information in your resume to give it life.

8. Avoid adding incorrect contact information:

You may have the best resume that suits the available job perfectly, but what if the employer cannot contact you for an interview? 

What if an email was sent inviting you for an interview but you never got to receive it?

This is exactly what happens when you provide the wrong contact information.

Many job opportunities have been lost because the job applicant missed a spelling in his email address.

There are also those who have provided the wrong phone numbers in their resume. 

This is why you must double-check your resume properly before submitting. 

Make sure that you don’t take even the minutest details for granted.

9. Avoid making your resume too long or too short:

In a previous tip, I mentioned that you should add enough details in your resume. 

Well, that does not mean that you should go on and on adding experiences that don’t matter.

Then at the end of the day, your resume goes above five pages long.

On the other hand, you must not try to squeeze your experiences onto one page, because you’ve heard resumes shouldn’t be longer.

By doing this, you may delete impressive achievements that would have given your resume a face-lift.

The fact is that there are no real rules governing resume length. 

The reason is because the people who will review your resume may be different and have their preferences.

So, to be on the safe side, you can limit the length of your resume to a maximum of two pages.

But don’t feel you have to use two pages if one will do. 

Also, you don’t need to cut the meat out of your resume simply to make it conform to the one-page standard. 

So, be intentional about your choice of words and only use words that will sell you and land you an interview. 

Conclusion

The competition for jobs is constantly on the rise everywhere because available jobs are only few.

As a result, potential employers tend to raise the standards of their job application process.

This helps them to eliminate unqualified candidates very fast.

So, to avoid being shuffled aside because of the mistakes in your resume, you must follow the tips above.

Please, share this article with everyone you know so that they too can avoid making these mistakes in their resume.

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