Feb

12

How NOT to Get an Interview: Resume’ Errors

Posted by Dan

February 12, 2008 |

Employers may receive as many as one hundred resumes for every one available position. Highly competitive, highly salaried, and niche positions can receive many more. So, when an employer is looking for any reason to weed out your application from the pile into the circular file (the garbage), it is important to be sure not to make that decision easy for them. For the next few posts I’ll discuss a few key errors I’ve seen time and again in application packages. Today:

Poor proofreading: Failure to check your application, resume’, and cover letter for spelling and grammatical errors is a clear sign to your potential employer that you don’t think they are worth the effort. If the job they have to offer is a priority for you, you would put your best face forward.

One particularly memorable submission I reviewed was from an Ivy League applicant for a competitive slot at a national organization. Her error? She actually misspelled her own first name at the top of her resume’. A quick check of the signature on her cover page verified this mistake- and put her otherwise quality package right into the “no” pile. This bold-faced mistake in large type ended her chances before she began.

Another classic? The cover letter which emphasized the applicant’s “attention to detial.” That application did not go in the trash. We posted it on a bulletin board for interns as an example of what not to do. Pity the poor applicant whose name is forever tied in their minds with this laughable mistake.

If you know that you are prone to typos, use your word processer’s spell-check function. Follow that by a good read-through by someone you trust. Sometimes a second set of eyes is all it takes to catch those potentially embarrassing (or job hunt ending) mistakes in your resume’. Give your application a chance to get through the first reading and into the “must see” pile. Submit nothing but the best.


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