Career Advice: Don’t Kill Your Resume With Dumb Errors

By

Ramon Greenwood

Don’t doom your resume and cover letter to the trashcan by sending them out with dumb errors such as misspelled words.

“If you make errors on your application materials, the assumption is you’ll make errors on the job,” says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps.

3-fourths of the executives surveyed by Accountemps declared just one or two typos in a resume kills an application. Four out of ten declare that one typo means the axe.

Incomplete sentences or missing words can also kill your chances for acquiring even a cursory review of your resume, to say absolutely nothing of significant consideration.

There’s no excuse for such errors. You can steer clear of them by taking these steps:

1. Run your documents via the spell-check on your laptop or computer. (Keep in mind this is not fool-proof. Your laptop or computer is not going to know regardless of whether your mean there or their.)

2. Stay away from cliches and catch phrases that may well be well-liked for the moment.

three. Read your covering letter and resume aloud. Track word for word with a pencil. This is the time to check your punctuation.

4. Set your materials aside for at least 24 hours. Go back and repeat actions 1, 2 and 3.

five. Have a third party read your supplies for context, as well as the kind of errors we are considering here. Get their opinion as to whether your presentation makes a logical case for your application.

Of course, it is finest that this third party be a expert career coach, but that might not be probable. Any review by yet another pair of eyes is greater than no review at all.

As a final step, take an objective look at your materials. Are you utilizing high quality paper for the printed versions? (No colored stock.) Is the typeface a standard 1? Are you sending your application to a actual live individual with a title? Are your contact points correct and readily offered?

It’s difficult enough to get your covering letter and resume seriously considered with out making dumb killer errors.