Job Hunting Tip #18: The Don’ts of Resumes

These four don’ts are the kiss of death on any resume.

1.      Don’t hide important information at the end.    If you graduated Phi Beta Kappa or you won a national championship, don’t list these things under Honors and Awards even if Honors and Awards fall at the end of the standard resume template you’re using.  Make it easy for a recruiter or employer to figure out that you are a superstar.

2.     Don’t overstate your value.  You should be confident; however, don’t let your confidence slip into arrogance.  I generally throw away resumes that state that an entire organization was saved by the 22-year old waiter.

3.     Don’t have typos. Do I even need to remind people that this is a no-no?  You should reread your resume several times as spell-check doesn’t catch the errors like “he” versus “the” or “in” versus “on.”

4.     Don’t be bland.  You get one shot to sell yourself with your resume, so make it count.  Some people worry so much about fitting into the standard resume format that they become one of 100 other resumes that look just alike.  Don’t go crazy and print on perfumed paper, but produce the most professional, eye-appealing resume that you can.  How it looks matters.