Keep that eraser handy!

What’s the single biggest resume mistake you can make that can quickly derail your chances at a job interview and thus a job?

I guess it depends who you ask but you can probably sum it up in a few different ways:

Spelling and grammatical errors: I’ve read resumes where someone has actually written “Attention to detial” as one of their skills. Stuff like that can be a real deal killer not to mention kind of funny when you think about it…although you’re probably not laughing if you’re the person who spells detail as detial and it sticks out of your resume like a sore thumb.

Typos: I tend to notice other people’s typos before I notice my own, so if you’ve seen any in my posts on this site I’ll apologize in advance. I’ll list typos separately from spelling and grammatical errors only because it might be a simple keystroke error and not an actual spelling or grammatical mistake that you’re unaware of but they tend to yield the same results i.e. they don’t look good! They tend to be noticed more by the person reading than the person writing. In other words, you really need to proofread what you write because your eyes might have a harder time finding your mistake(s) than a fresh pair of eyes does. Plus your Word spellcheck might not pick it up if your typo happens to be a real word, just not the one you meant to type.

So what is the biggest resume mistake you can make?

If you look at what I’ve written above, the biggest mistake is essentially a lack of attention to detail and not noticing mistakes and errors that you’ve made in your writing.

I have a hard time admitting it myself because I tend to be a fast typer and often don’t notice mistakes that I’ve made until I’ve read what I’ve written several times. If I don’t re-read what I’ve written I tend not to see these mistakes but I suspect other people reading it do! It probably doesn’t improve my credibility with them either even though chances are it’s just an oversight on my part!

But how many people actually re-read what they’ve written several times?

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve meant to type “their” but typed “they’re” even though I know the difference.

I also have a bad habit of typing a sentence and simply omitting a key word. I’ll just simply forget to type the word “the” or “a” and don’t notice that I’ve done it.

When you make these sorts of mistakes in your resume the problem is that it could be the defining point of how the potential employer sees you and remembers you by which is clearly not a good thing.

Sometimes a hiring manager is looking for a reason to weed people out – especially if they have a number of candidates to consider – and the quality of your resume might be one of the determining factors.

I remember early in my recruitment career having one person’s resume rejected outright by the hiring manager because of the (poor) quality of the person’s writing. In hindsight I should have told the person to fix it up or at least find someone to help them rewrite the resume but I sent the resume as it was (after a spellcheck had eliminated spelling errors) but the grammatical issues were enough for the hiring manager to say “no thanks” and the door was closed on this person’s candidacy as a result.

If you tend to be a mediocre writer or like me tend to be a quick typer who often makes mistakes that you don’t see the first time you check, be sure to re-read what you’ve written, use the spellchecker (but don’t rely on it solely) and if necessary get a second set of eyes to read over what you’ve written too. Getting a second set of eyes and a second opinion might help to avoid getting eliminated from the job search process at the resume submission stage and might also help you see where you’re consistently making mistakes so you can eliminate them.

I have to admit, spelling mistakes and typos really bother me. They bother me even more when I’m the one making the mistake in question since I pride myself on being someone who has a pretty good handle on these things. In that regard, if there are spelling mistakes, typos or grammatical errors on this site that I did not catch, I apologize. I tend to type faster than I think and have a bad habit of leaving out a word or two here or there so this is something I need to keep an eye out for.

Having said all of that, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people type the word “loose” instead of “lose” and wonder what they were thinking ie. “How much money did you loose?” Even funnier is when I see someone referring to another person as a “looser.” I believe that’s irony right there.

Having already admitted that I do make my share of typos (sometimes when typing too quickly, I might type “they’re” when I actually meant “their” and trust me, I do know the difference) and yet for me, the red flags really go up when I see resumes with typos in them.

My first thought is “I guess this person hasn’t heard of the Spelling and Grammar” feature on Word. Some resumes I’ve seen are so beyond help, that I wanted to give up immediately if not for the fact I knew the person was a great candidate. Hey, other companies had hired them so why wouldn’t one of my clients want to do the same?

Perhaps it’s like when we hear about people graduating from high school without being able to read. Maybe every teacher they had said “the next teacher they have will help them learn to read” and then next thing you know, they’re graduating but can’t even spell “graduating.”

As a recruiter I’m torn when I read a resume with typos. I’m not a professional resume writer and neither are most other recruiters so they shouldn’t be expected to rewrite or proofread your resume. Once I sent a resume to a client as is, without doing a spell check first. Of course, this was the time when the resume in question had multiple spelling and grammatical errors and the hiring manager noticed right away. This person didn’t get an interview.

Moral of the story: Use the spell check feature on your word processor program before sending your resume, cover letter and other correspondence to people who can judge you based on your writing. If you’re not a strong writer, get help from someone who is. Use a professional resume writing service if needed.

If your writing is so bad that it might be costing you jobs or promotions, you might consider a writing course(s) or something else that will help you improve your writing.

You have nothing to loose.

I mean lose.