Illiteracy, the main drawback of a resume that can irritate any HR professional, is the elementary grammatical and spelling errors made by the applicant. Before the first meeting, which may still not be, a resume is the face of the applicant. Although literacy, for unknown reasons, is often not given due attention.
Some shortcomings, experts say rabota.ua, are directly funny.
“For example, I had to deal with a case when a girl indicated that she was“ not married ”or even“ unmarried ”. Naturally, because of these errors, the applicant loses all the chances of getting a new job. One way or another, such oversights can play a trick on him - they begin to take him less seriously, ”the experts said.
What mistakes are most common
Lack of clear goal or its mismatch
Separate resumes sent by applicants for a specific, clearly written position do not contain the main point: goals. Complicating the situation is that large companies are looking for employees for several vacant positions at the same time, and the “aimless” resume does not allow us to determine what the applicant is applying for.
There are also frequent cases when the purpose indicated in the resume does not correspond at all with the proposed vacancy.
“Often the goal described in the resume does not fit the vacancy for which it was sent, which indicates the carelessness of the candidate,” said Oksana Bochkovskaya, specialist in search and selection of personnel at the Information and Analytical Center LIGA.
According to her, when selecting candidates, the HR manager determines the most important requirements for this vacancy and evaluates the resume sent by the applicant. An exclusive set of requirements has been developed for any position: it may turn out to be education, work experience, special skills, etc.
“In our company, HR managers use key competencies in the selection. This approach facilitates and accelerates the process of searching and selecting personnel for open vacancies. Because in determining competencies, both the initiator of the vacancy and the personnel manager clearly determine what the candidate should know and what skills it is possible to train already in the company (taking into account the specifics of the business). In addition, the parameters are created to evaluate the work of a new employee in the company, and the criteria by which the trial period (adaptation period) is assessed, ”she said.
Lack of required data
Another common mistake - the CV does not indicate the required data, for example, the contact details of the applicant. Often there are no phone numbers, email address. However, there are cases when applicants forget to indicate even their own name and surname. “With all the desire, it’s simply unrealistic to invite such a candidate to a meeting,” Bochkovskaya emphasized.
Often, in sections of the resume devoted to work experience, the full names of the companies and their field of activity are not indicated. But from time to time, companies with the same or similar name can work in completely different market segments. Moreover, the addresses of the Internet pages of companies are rarely indicated, however, if there is a web address, the employer will seriously and easily become familiar with the previous job of the applicant.
From the data that is better to indicate in the resume - motives for a job change. An explanation of the reasons, on the one hand, will allow the employer to understand the candidate’s logic, and on the other hand, to assess how his requests correspond to the proposed vacancy.
Trying to gloss over a resume
According to assurances of personnel search specialists, applicants often indicate in a resume personal qualities, skills and knowledge that they do not actually possess.
“If you are not sure that you have these qualities, it is better to simply remove this section from the resume,” Bochkovskaya emphasizes.
Candidates like to overestimate their competence. Rabota.ua experts note that sometimes, with complete lack of knowledge of the English language, a candidate for a position indicates that he speaks it “with a dictionary” or even “fluently”.
“Such a trick can be easily revealed - it’s enough to ask a person something in English,” the experts said.
Inappropriate Information
A summary is required to describe the details, but only relevant: job responsibilities and professional achievements, diplomas and academic degrees in the field in which the applicant is applying for a position. For example, if the applicant was engaged in scientific activities and simultaneously worked in the field of marketing, then in a resume aimed at obtaining the work of a brand manager, one should not describe scientific achievements and provide a complete list of articles, publications and scientific works. The main attention should be paid to specific skills and knowledge that were obtained in the process of working as a marketer.
It is also important to ensure that the phrases used in the resume are clear and logical.
“Once, a girl secretary called“ driver management ”and“ file filing. ” In another resume, the applicant indicated “bicycle, swimming, girls, books” as his own hobby, ”said the Forsage consulting company.
In some resumes, there are completely inexplicable incidents.
For example, the portal rabota.ua once received a resume of a girl who applied for the position of HR manager. The applicant attached several of her photographs to the resume, while only one of them was business in nature, while the others were beach ones.
“Without a doubt, this case amused the experts on employment, although they did not arouse the desire to meet with the candidate,” the experts noted.
Avoiding Major Mistakes in Resume Writing
There are several main rules, adhering to which you can protect yourself from annoying mistakes when writing a resume.
- Be sure to check that your resume is written correctly.
- Be consistent: if you have used the abbreviation once, use it in the entire resume (however, it is worth listing all the names in full). Do not use special abbreviations, the decoding of which is known only within your company.
- Avoid long phrases.
- All resumes should be in the same style.
- It’s better to highlight the right headers.
- It is important that your resume be compiled in a maximum of 2 pages.
- If you apply for a position in a foreign company or the main competence is knowledge of foreign languages, then you need to prepare an option in the language of the country of the company.
- And most importantly, be sure that you can confirm all the information that is included in the resume.
Other than this, experts advise avoiding the exploitation of the pronoun "I".
In addition, it is necessary to select extremely specific formulations: you do not need to write templates in the resume, for example, “took part”, “was engaged in training”. It is worth pointing out specific achievements seriously, for example, "increased sales by 10%," "receivables were reduced by 18%," "trained 3 employees," etc.
In addition, passive forms should be avoided, for example: “I was responsible for ...”, “I found use of the following opportunities ...”. It is worth writing: “I was responsible for ...”, “I effectively used ...”.
Experts agree that the main thing in the resume is clarity, conciseness, literacy and honesty. If the applicant indicated the necessary experience, skills and is confident in each of the paragraphs of his own resume, then this is the first step to success.
