Avoid These Resume Traps

Your resume represents a concise summary of your personal brand, and it relays vital information to prospective employers about your experience, skills and qualifications. Mistakes on a resume, both big and small, can doom your chances of landing an interview because hiring managers and recruiters want to make sure you have an eye for detail. Avoid these seven easy mistakes to make your document easier for hiring managers to read and process.

1. Sending With an Unprofessional Email Address

Use a professional-looking email address when sending your resume. Consider one with your name and job title in it or just simply your name with a string of numbers. Avoid cutesy ones that reveal things about your hobbies, your family or something that has nothing to do with work. For example, "JaneSmith.JobApplication@gmail.com" sounds a lot better than "LuvCutePuppyVideos@gmail.com."

2. Making an Irrelevant File Name

When uploading your resume to an email, call it an appropriate file name. Often, a hiring manager or recruiter will save the file under a similar file name. Make sure it says your name and resume in the file name so there’s identifiable information that recruiters can easily see.

3. Overlooking Grammar Mistakes, Misspelling and Typos

Imagine a potential supervisor reading your resume thoroughly, and then coming across a glaring typo that makes him pause before reading onward. That typo means you lack an eye for detail and are a bit careless. Both traits are undesirable in a candidate. Even though you made an honest mistake, you had several chances to look over a resume before turning it in. Have a few friends examine your vital document. A second pair of eyes may have some insights that you missed.

4. Having Too Much Information

Putting too much information on a resume wastes the time of a hiring manager. Leave only the most relevant information on your resume in terms of previous jobs, top-level qualifications and skills. For example, your summer job mowing lawns when you were 16 may not be relevant to a job where you'd manage a team of 15 salespeople.

5. Showing Gaps

Revealing gaps in your experience can raise a red flag, but you can fill in those gaps with several activities. Think about volunteering, freelancing or getting temp jobs to fill in the gaps before returning to a full-time position.

6. Hopping Between Jobs

Job hopping can alert potential employers that you don't spend more than one or two months in a particular position. Consider leaving off jobs that don't pertain to the position at hand. This is especially important if you have a lot of information on your document already. Leaving a job for greener pastures is common thanks to plenty of job opportunities in 2018, but you don't want to come across as someone who's not loyal to a particular position.

7. Using Vague Language

When listing your skills and accomplishments, avoid vague language as much as possible. Back up your statements with hard facts. Instead of saying "Managed a sales team," say you "Supervised a team of 10 people who saw a 10 percent gain in sales for five straight quarters."

Avoid these seven easy mistakes to make on your resume. You may find that you get more interviews in the long run.

Photo courtesy of bm adverts at Flickr.com