Cover Letter and Resume Mistakes to Avoid

A cover letter and resume helps sell your personality, skills and credibility… And if there are mistakes in spelling, if the resume utilizes unprofessional clip art, or if the layout makes discerning the info inside impossible, then chances are the resume has just sabotaged your potentiality for employ at the company in question.

Mistakes of any form can still occur even with the best computer spell-checkers. Don’t let these mistakes happen to your resume:

Example: Things like ‘there/they’re/their’ etc.

Be sure to watch out for errors in the contact info: The smallest blunder here, even on a top-notch resume, could keep a hiring director from being capable of getting a hold of you.

They’re busy people… they likely won’t try beyond the first phone number or email destination — if it’s incorrect, you won’t be getting that all-important call for an interview.

Poor layout and confusing
arrangement of info

The terrible truth is the cover letter and resume you’ve worn-out the better part of the day preparing will receive 8-10 seconds of a hiring manager’s time.

Make sure you clearly order your information, mark important segments, and have a linear job history.

Make it instantly unmistakable what position you are applying for, and how your skills fit into that position.

NEVER make the person reading the resume have to look for basic information like education, job history etc.

Do your cover letter and resume say you’re a good fit for the job?
It really doesn’t matter if you’re qualified for the job or not — what’s important is if your resume states you are. And even if you have all the qualifications in the universe, it won’t serve you if your resume does not list those!

Remember: A resume is not a life story. And it doesn’t require you have every last position you’ve ever maintained in your life. If particular jobs aren’t related to the position at hand — dump ‘em!

Don’t mass-mail your resume!

If you’re mass-mailing your cover letter and resume, you’ll probably discover that your resume might be disqualifying you simply because it is not relevant.

The problem with this approach is that you’re burning bridges with only the click of a mouse — you only get one shot in most cases, and it’s essential to see it as an opportunity to deliver the goods, not as some other email address to add to your cover letter and resume email spam-blast.

Improper or Impertinent Information

If your personal hobbies aren’t connected to the position, don’t include them. They’re unneeded. Make sure your resume is as simple as possible — resumes that are too over-embellished easily get on job recruiter’s nerves because it makes the info within to a lesser extent understandable, not more.

No private information beyond what’s necessary (address, name, phone, email) should be volunteered.

Even past jobs that are irrelevant to this position could be viewed ‘inappropriate’, nevertheless, this is left up to the resume preparer’s free will, since a strong job history is highly valued.

Poor Paper Selection/Graphic Components

Uninitiated resume writers frequently believe that a different colored paper will spruce up their cover letter and resume.

This is a bad mistake. Nothing screams ‘unprofessional’ as much as using colored paper for your cover letter and resume. If the paper’s tone is dark and your text is light — what we call “reverse type” — it makes the resume almost out of the question to read.

Using mediocre-quality clip art
is another big blunder

Clip art is certainly not common on resumes, and if you are in any way uncertain, play it safe — use a standard layout and a standard font choice (Arial, Verdana and Times New Roman are most easily readable), common paper color (white or slightly off-white) etc.

In fact, always use white, or somewhat off-white paper. Everybody should strive to look like a professional in the eyes of a potential employer, and colored paper is an assured way to diminish your professional credibility to someone you’ve never met. Not the most satisfactory way to start!

That’s all for today, folks! More cover letter and resume tips to follow shortly.