Five Resumes Practices That Lead To Rejections
A resume is meant to give a candidate a chance to get an interview in a company. If it achieves this, then it is a success. There are several factors that determine the success of a resume, but it takes just one bad practice or mistake to get a resume rejected. Given below is a list of five resume practices that get resumes tossed immediately into a pile of rejected applications, even without a single look at the qualifications of the candidate. If your resume makes use of any of the following, your job search will be very hard indeed.
1. Too many technical buzzwords
Buzzwords are trendy and complex-sounding words that some people like to throw around on their resume in order to get it to look more professional. Doing this, however, puts your application at risk. Firstly, using buzzwords without knowing their proper application can make you use them wrongly on your resume. This, in turn, can change the entire meaning of the statement where the buzzword is used. The key rule of resume writing is to keep things simple. Use simple language and short sentences to convey a clear meaning. You can check out resume examples at sites like Resumewiki.com to get a better feel for this.
2. Inflating work experience
It is common knowledge that most candidates inflate their experience a little bit, and this is forgivable as long as the inflation is minimal and supported by a good reason, and the candidate is good enough for consideration. However, you should draw the line on how much you inflate your experience, even if it makes your resume less than perfect. In fact, most recruiters view seemingly perfect resumes with a lot of skepticism. Of course, you should definitely showcase your skills and experience if you have them, but exaggerating to make your resume look perfect will put you in more trouble.
3. Using fancy title
Companies have different rules for the titles of their employees, so there is no consensus on what a good or bad title should be. However, putting up a fancy title on your resume may only incite negative remarks from a recruiter, especially if the title itself is obscure and difficult to understand. Here are some thumb rules you should follow:
*Keep the title as simple as possible
*Only use the title given by the former employee so that your references will confirm it
*If your title is too complicated, simplify it so that your roles are easier to understand
4. Lying on your resume
You may have heard of exceptional stories where candidates got their dream jobs after lying about their experience and/or qualifications on your resume. However, these stories are just that- exceptional. On the flipside, there are many more stories of candidates getting rejected and employees being fired from their job due to lying. In fact, many have been fired after working in a firm for a considerable amount of time and getting promoted to senior-level positions, all because of lies on their resume. The reason for this is quite simple- you can never trust a person who lies on his/her resume.
A resume is the first official contact that a company has with a candidate, and lying at the first stage itself is never appreciated. On the other hand, recruiters tend to be appreciative of those who are honest in their resume, even if it is a little flawed.
5. Showing too much variation in experience and career focus
Resumes that lack career focus rarely make it through. Such resumes include memberships in several clubs without any promotional position in any, experience in several industries in a short time span, but none of which amount to anything useful. An example of this statement is given below:
Experience in various fields over the last three years, including detailed knowledge in the following areas:
* Marketing
* Sales
* Finance
* IT
* Manufacturing
Such a statement confuses the recruiter and can make the candidate look confused as well. It also shows very clearly that the 'knowledge' gained over here is just a basic understanding, and the candidate is just an amateur in all the fields. Instead of going for a 'Jack of all trades' resume, write a resume that shows your skills relevant to one specific career path. Focus on your career and update your resume accordingly.
- -- Posted by KH Gal on Tue, Dec 4, 2012, at 12:24 AM
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