Have you been sending out resume after resume, only to find yourself wondering why you're not getting interviews? Maybe your resume contains some fatal flaws of which you're unaware. Here are 10 of the top reasons your resume isn't working the way you want it to.
No Contact Information
If you don't provide your email address, a job recruiter isn't likely to bother to get in touch with you. When your resume isn't working, make sure your email address is business-appropriate. Ditch that old Hotmail or AOL address, and get one that's more up-to-date.
No Accomplishments
If your resume only lists job duties and responsibilities, how can anyone know what you actually achieved? Find a way to quantify your achievements to make yourself shine.
Too Much Fluff
Hiring managers don't have the time or energy to wade through a resume packed with padding. All that resume fluff doesn't make you look good, and it ticks off job recruiters. When your resume isn't working, strip it down to its key elements, and take the time to make it look elegant on the page.
An Objective Statement
Placing an objective statement at the head of your resume was all the rage back in the 1990s. Now it just makes you look as if you're stuck in the 1990s.
Unprofessional Content
Delete your age, birthdate, gender and any other personal information that employers aren't supposed to use in making hiring decisions. Get rid of information that doesn't belong in the workplace, including hobbies and anything about your family. Their presence automatically means your resume isn't working.
Unfocused Content
Are you tweaking your resume for each job you go after? If not, now's the time to start. On a case-by-case basis, get rid of job details that don't apply, and streamline to highlight the ways in which you are the perfect fit for the specific job for which you're applying.
Wrong Format
When you graduated from college, maybe you were told to write your resume in a functional format that eschews a chronological job history. That format may work for a student with no job history, but once you've established yourself, it only aggravates hiring managers. Rewrite your resume when it isn't working.
Poor Design
Bad resume design takes two forms. One version is the resume that's cluttered and hard to read with no sense of style. The other weak resume-design choice occurs when job applicants overdo things with colored paper, lots of fonts and overuse of fancy design elements. Avoid both extremes.
Mention of References
If your potential employer wants references, he knows to ask for them. Don't list references on your resume, and don't use the phrase "References available on request." On the other hand, if you have a great contact within the company, lead off with this information in your cover letter.
Hard-to-read Clutter
The cluttered resume is the one most hiring managers don't bother to read. Get rid of paragraphs in your resume, and replace them with bullet-pointed lists instead.
Follow these tips, and make some changes to your resume to see if it makes a difference in the response you receive. When your resume isn't working, the phone stops ringing, so take a clue from the silence, and find a new way to make yourself look great on paper.
Photo courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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