Five Frequent Resume Mistakes and How to Evade Them

Everyone who has ever tried knows that writing a good, strong resume is not always the easiest task to accomplish. You need to include so much information that you can often leave things out. Everything from your career objective to your references and qualifications should be in your resume. Below are a few of the most common mistakes found in resumes today.

- Including references to personal web sites. Many people wonder what might be wrong with giving a job a personal website if it pertains to your work. Maybe there is some sort of sample piece on there that your possible employer may want to see. Unfortunately, most times there is also pointless personal information on these websites as well. That can waste your potential employer's time and they may even find it as inappropriate. Anything that contains your picture, blog, jokes or other non-work related things is considered inappropriate. The only website you should include is a website made to show off your professional portfolio or a copy of your resume. You may even be better off printing these things out and bringing them with you in order to make things easier.

- Making your font size smaller in order to fit everything onto one page. Most everyone knows that a resume looks best when it is not over two pages, and looks even better on one page. However, creating a nice format for your resume, and fitting all the necessary information onto one page can be a challenge. You should never have a font smaller then ten points. You should also make sure that you are using standard fonts. Times New Roman and Arial are the most common and professional looking fonts. Instead of making your font size smaller, simply revise and edit your resume to make everything fit.

- Referring to a company or school by the wrong name. Some people make this mistake without even noticing that they did it. They may list the common name, instead of the legal name on the resume. This can make the company or school hard to find, and make confirming the information difficult. Even common names that any employer will know, like NYU for example, and abbreviations should be left out; so that you do not look sloppy or give the impression that you do not pay attention to details.

- Long paragraphs depicting your experiences. The best way to list your prior responsibilities is to use bullets. Starting these bullets with action verbs like "managed" or "developed" is the best way to accomplish this. Full sentences are not necessary, just like paragraph formatting is not necessary. Attempting to use paragraph form often leads to rambling unnecessarily and repeating yourself. Not to mention it will make your possible future employer's job much harder, having to sift through the resume for simple facts.

- Finally, typos are the most common mistake. Before you hand a resume in you MUST proof read it. In order to look better then your competition you want to put your best foot forward. Any resumes containing grammatical errors or numerous spelling mistakes is likely to be taken much less seriously. Sometimes it can be hard to proof read your own work because you already know what it should say, so your mind sees what should be there. Asking a friend or family member for help is a good way to get your proof reading done.

As you can see, writing a good, strong resume is not always as easy as we would like it to be. In order to place yourself above your peers, be sure to check over your work very closely. Do not give out non-work oriented websites. Try to make sure you are not rambling and are giving the much needed information in a way easily understood and located by your future employer. Following these steps will help you on your way to a strong resume you can feel confident about.