Community Employment Resource Centre

 

Resume Pet Peeves – Right From the Hiring Professionals

 

Top 20 Resume Pet Peeves (biggest one first) as reported by ResumeDoctor.com from interviews with several hundred recruiters/headhunters in various industries throughout US and Canada:

  1. Spelling errors, typos and poor grammar – even with spell check and grammar check, it is imperative that resumes and cover letters are proofread.  Both these tools are not completely foolproof.  For example, if a word is mispellt, but is still an actual word, the spell check will not identify it as an error (i.e. “on” is typed instead of “in”).  Any errors are directly reflected on the candidate and are deleted as they are seen as examples of communication style.
  2. Too duty oriented – all candidates with similar job titles have the same job duties.  It is important that the resume reflect one’s individuality.  This can be successfully accomplished by using specific, quantified personal achievements (what was accomplished for the company) instead of restating duties.   While candidates should demonstrate career vocabulary, it is a mistake to overkill the resume with buzzwords.
  3. Dates not included or inaccurate dates – without dates, a resume sends up “red flags” about a candidate’s background.  Common consensus among recruiters indicates that they like to have the company name, job title, and location aligned on the left side of the page with the dates on the right for easy skimming down the page.
  4. Incomplete contact info – odds of being contacted are increased if the candidate makes it as easy as possible for the potential employer to contact them.  Applicants should provide as many ways as possible for the employer to contact them.  This information should be easy to read and located at the top of the page and should contain the candidate’s full name, all phone numbers (home, cell and daytime number), home and email addresses (make sure the email address is appropriate, demonstrates professionalism and is not a work address).  A point to consider is to keep the contact information out of a header or footer.  There are two reasons for this:

Ø      Often the font size from templates is set very small making it difficult for receivers to read

Ø      Recruiters frequently use databases for storing candidate information, most of which can be transferred automatically through a applicant tracking system.  Information that is entered in a header or footer does not make the transfer so employers will have to enter the information manually

It is also strongly suggested that if a resume is two pages in length, one should include their name, phone number and email address on page 2.

  1. Poor formatting – it is paramount that a resume is clean, clear (readable) and not containing major formatting errors.  It should be noted that fancy formatting features may not display well on a computer screen and may not download properly into the recruiting database or job boards.  Keep in mind that only 1/3 of a page is visible on the screen at a time.  Be aware of the following formatting issues:

Ø      Red and green squiggly lines – these lines indicating spelling and grammar errors respectively, can be turned off through the word processor’s option dialog box.

Ø      Poor alignment of bullets and tab stops – bullets should be aligned cleanly on the page, not all over the place

Ø      Headers and footers – this info is not converted when sent electronically

Ø      Boxes, graphical lines and columns – these won’t be able to be saved in any recruiting database and will only create major formatting problems down the road

Ø      Templates and tables – these features turn into a mess when received electronically on job boards or by recruiting systems

Ø      Margins too wide – recruiters are frustrated when they have to use the horizontal scrollbar.  To help with many of the formatting issues, a good trick is to either save the file as a text only document (which puts it into notepad) or copy and paste the document into notepad.

  1. Functional resumes – many employers and recruiters still think unfavourably of this style of resume.  Employers do not like to guess in which roles skills were acquired or how much actual experience the candidate has with listed skills.  The functional resume is seen in a better light if the simple when, where, and with what effect facts are included in the accomplishment statements.  A good compromise would be to include an easy to read general/functional summary at the top of the resume with points customized to what the employer is seeking in a candidate and addressing the questions mentioned above.  Immediately following the summary, provide the reader with an easy to read chronological history of where and when experience was acquired.  Outlining specific accomplishments for an employer should be included in this area.  This in fact turns the functional resume more into a combination – a mixture of functional and chronological.
  2. Long resumes – a resume should never be more than 2 pages.  Resumes that are longer are seen as an unfocused career, a candidate with too many jobs, an inability to communicate in effective, concise manner.  Most recruiters are interested primarily in the last 5-8 years of accomplishments, 10 tops.  For candidates that have limited experience, the resume should not be any longer than one page.  Any information given on a resume should be relevant to the current position the candidate is looking to obtain.  If there is relevant information that goes beyond the 10 year limit, a candidate can include a section titled “Previous Employment” simply listing older assignments by title, company and date.
  3. Long paragraphs – keep resume details short, concise and to the point.  Recruiters/employers are way too busy today to read long paragraphs, they need bullets for quick access to information and experience.  Make sure the resume is easy to scan for skills and accomplishments, think of the resume as an ad copy to help keep it concise.
  4. Candidates that apply to positions they are unqualified for –it makes sense to submit an unsolicited resume when one’s background is in the same profession or industry as the listing because the candidate may fit other current or future job opportunities.  However, pretending one is qualified for a job when they are not, just wastes everyone’s time and effort.  If a candidate does not have direct experience, rather than “pretend”, it is the applicant’s responsibility to state in specific terms why their background makes a good fit for the job.  It should not be expected that the potential employer would take the time or make the effort to form a connection.  Another possibility is to include an opening comment along the lines of, “while my qualifications do not match your requirements, please accept the attached for your files in anticipation of future, suitable opportunities”.
  5. Personal information not relevant to the job – one should never include any information that could be viewed the wrong way or create an opportunity for discrimination, prejudice or misinterpretation.  Examples of this include:  age, height, weight, gender, marital status, religious or political affiliations.  In fact, hobbies should only be included if they are relevant to the job itself or the organization’s environment/culture.
  6. Employer or industry information not included – people are still trying to write resumes that are too generic.  This makes it difficult for the reader to identify the industry that the candidate is coming from.  One tip is to always consider who the initial audience is for the resume and to identify the  specific industries in the summary section.
  7. Lying or misleading information – Beware of exaggerating the truth!!  It is more commonplace for companies to do extensive background and reference checks prior to hiring a candidate.  Some of the typical items that are used to mislead potential employers are:

Ø      Inflated titles

Ø      Inaccurate dates to cover gaps of employment or “job hopping”

Ø      ½ finished degrees, inflated education

Ø      Inflated salaries

Ø      Inflated accomplishments

Ø      Open lies regarding duties and specific roles

  1. Objectives or meaningless introductions – rather than wasting prime space with a generic statement that many candidates use, the objective should be used more as a selling tool.  It should be one sentence that will grab the reader’s attention and should therefore be customized for each job opportunity and employer.
  2. Poor font choice – fonts should always be kept simple and easy to read on a computer screen.  Common fonts include Arial at a size of 10 point for the body of the resume with headings bolded at size 12 point or Times New Roman (often what is used in newspapers and magazines) at either 11 or 12 point in size.
  3. Resumes not sent as a WORD attachment or plain text file – resumes should not be sent as a PDF file, ZIP file, Mac file, etc as Word is the standard in business communications.  Another point is that most of the recruiter/employer databases cannot download these files which means that the resume cannot be retained for future consideration.  As a side note, when sending resumes electronically, the subject line should reflect the candidate’s name, not just “resume” (the name should be lastname, firstname, middle initial, if used).
  4. Pictures, graphics or URL links – candidates should be judged and compared on skills, experience and education, not on race, sex, age, physical appearance.  A second problem with pictures is that it is very difficult if not impossible to download them into the recruiter’s database and the size of the file is increased significantly which in turn increases the download time of the resume.  This second group of problems is shared with graphics and URL links.  Due to the fear of viruses, many systems are set up not to accept files with graphics, pictures, downloadable files, etc resulting in the resume being deleted before it is ever seen.  With regard to the URL links, they just clutter up the resume, as most potential employers will not spend the time to “click” on them.
  5. No easy to follow summary – because of the quantity of resumes employers/recruiters receive weekly, resumes have to have a way “grab” the reader.  The consensus among the professionals is, if the resume does not convey a match within 10 seconds, they move on to the next candidate.  This summary section should be customized for each position a candidate is seeking to obtain.  For technical resumes, it is imperative that a current Technical summary is included that is relevant for the position.
  6. Resumes written in the 1st or 3rd person – as a marketing tool and business correspondence, a resume should not be written in the first person as it is not a biography.  Writing in the first or third person tends to make a resume more verbose as well.
  7. Gaps in employment – no matter how legitimate, gaps in employment will solicit questions from potential employers.  In these cases, the candidate must be prepared to answer these concerns.
  8. Burying or not including important information in a resume -  it is not the potential employer’s responsibility to “find” the candidates information.  Often when a candidate attempts a generic resume, important information is omitted from the resume or it is buried and difficult to find.  The ideal place to highlight matches in requirements is in the summary at the start of the resume which means customizing each resume.