13 Resume Blunders That Can Cost You the Interview

We start with the mistakes that should be avoided at any cost in case you do not wish to lose the opportunity of being interviewed.

13 –Unprofessional e-mail id: cutie_catherine@coolid.com, pingme_peter@dumbmail.com, chocolicious_cake_jennifer@stupendousmail.com, etc. are not allowed at any cost.

12 –Skipping details: One of the biggest resume blunders, skipping information like employment dates, year of passing out from your college, etc., are a strict NO.

11 –Photo: Come out of the college zone. Your looks does not really matter in the professional market, unless of course you end up in a unscrupulous employer’s cabin for the interview. Avoid attaching your photo.

10 – Final layout: Do you know your impression is made in lesser than 5 seconds? It just takes a glance through your resume to make up the recruiter’s mind if they would prefer you or someone else by seeing their resume. Pay attention to aesthetics too at the end. Format well.

9 –Objective: This should actually be placed somewhere in the beginning only but given the other resume blunders people tend to make we decided to place on the 9th position. Keep in mind that an objective is a statement that any employer sees first and decides how much he can bank on you.

8 –Length of the resume: Well, now we are talking. Who was it who said ‘more is better?’ Kindly apply the principle of makeup here, less is more as long as you keep it relevant.

7 – Modest: Modesty pays everywhere. It does not mean you should not write your areas of expertise, you have to do that. But, writing statements like, I am the best team player and manager an organization could possibly have, etc., is certainly far from impressive.

6 – First person: What’s with using the first person in the resume? It is not an autobiography. You are supposed to maintain a formal decorum and there is no place for first person usage here.

5 – Wrong information: Be it a typing error or you forgot to update your recent postal address, email address, misspelled a company’s name, whatever it is; it is one of the biggest blunders one can make. It is like calling the rejection upon oneself. You are not allowing the recruiter to get in touch with you!

4 – Paragraphs: Are you participating in an essay competition? Why do you have to bore the recruiter and give him or her the pains to read through the entire thesis? Use bulleted points; it saves time.

3 –Resume format: This is the first step to analyze and think which format suits you and the job best. Select from the three conventional formats available, viz., reverse chronological, functional and combination. Note that you are supposed to select one that suits your experience as well as skills along with the job requirement.

2 –Irrelevant information: Why put something related to sports or your gun handling skills in a resume meant for the business process outsourcing company!? Relevancy rules and do not prove yourself to be a complete fool by putting non relevant information. It reflects bad on you.

1 – Spelling mistakes: This is as blunt as it gets, you are telling the recruiter you are not keen on taking up a job. For once, grammatical mistakes can still be understood but there is absolutely no scope for typing errors and similar mistakes. Especially when you make the resume in a soft copy where the software offers you default spelling checker, it is a big put off.