| 4/19/2005 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Your resume a first impression
Jenny Jones
Courier Staff Writer
Typographical errors and unclear formats are common mistakes people make when creating resumes. These errors can doom an applicant’s chance of landing a job.
There are several tips to creating an error-free resume said Margaret Krantz, director of Hanover College Career Center, said.
Job seekers will have an opportunity to submit their resumes and talk with potential employers during the 2005 Regional Job Fair on April 28. The fair will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Venture Out Business Center.
Krantz said the most common error people make on their resumes is not clearly responding to an employer’s needs.
“It’s absolutely critical that they understand just the kind of things that person (the employer) would want to know,” she said.
Applicants can find out what an employer is looking for by looking at a job description or by visiting www.bls.gov/oco to learn what most employers in a given field are after, Krantz said. “Do a little research,” she said. “You can’t be lazy.”
Krantz suggested tailoring each resume to meet the needs of a specific employer or goal. She said applicants should avoid using computer tools, such as Resume Wizard, because they offer formats that are too generic and that might not highlight one’s strengths. “They kind of force you to conform,” she said. “If you have a different goal, you write a different résumé.”
When writing resumes, it is important for applicants to consider the information they are including. Lissa Griffin, case manager at WorkOne, said the most common mistake she sees people make is including personal information such as family size and marital status.
“When doing a resume, that does not convey what your skills are,” Griffin said. Applicants should think about “why an employer would want to hire you. (Personal information) has no relevance.”
Griffin said applicants should include only significant skills, not everything they have done. “Summarize skills, group things together,” she said. “That’s a lot better selling point.”
Krantz said the length of a resume depends on the job a person is applying for. Generally, however, a resume should be no longer than a page. “Everything should be in their face,” she said.
Including too little information is also a mistake. Griffin said that if a person does not fill a page, it appears as though they have “run out” of things to say. A resume should be a page of normal type.
Aside from layout and structure, major errors that people make are typographical, Krantz said.
Applicants make typographical or grammatical errors usually because they do not read their resumes carefully enough and because they are oblivious to their own mistakes, Krantz said. Typos “are blind to us,” she said.
To help catch typographical errors, Krantz suggests applicants read their resumes backward and aloud slowly. She and Griffin also suggest having someone proofread resumes for errors. “Get one or two others to read it,” Griffin said. “You might not always pick up on” the errors.
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