4 Resume Mistakes That Could Cost You the Call
When it comes to resumes, there is no shortage of unwitting and costly mistakes made by well meaning job applicants. Unfortunately, many people don’t really know how to construct a resume that will make a powerful impact and achieve the desired results while being free of errors.
Today I want to discuss resume mistakes that go beyond the usual fare. There are a few critical resume errors that actually make it downright impossible for a hiring manager to call even if they want to – no matter how good your resume is. These mistakes are related to contact information.
You MUST make sure that anyone who receives your resume can contact you easily. It seems obvious, but here are a few tips to ensure that anyone who reads your resume will be able to follow through.
- Provide Correct Information: Proofread your resume CAREFULLY. Make sure that if you have moved recently or changed your email address, it is updated. Be extra careful with online versions. I have seen job boards that leave older contact information intact in various sections of the candidate profile. Be sure to update all areas where your contact information might appear.
If hiring managers try to call and get a disconnected number or they attempt to write to you and an email bounces back because you didn’t spell it correctly on your resume, they aren’t going to try too hard to find you; they will simply move on to the next candidate.
- Add Your Contact Info to Page 2: If your resume gets shuffled around a busy office, there is always a possibility that the first and second pages will be separated. What if someone picks it up and is looking for your information and they can’t find it? You definitely won’t get a call then!
- Keep Contact Info Out of Headers and Footers: Some applicant tracking systems cannot read the content in an MS Word header or footer. If a recruiter converts your Word doc to a text file, any information in the header or footer will also be lost. This is serious. For this reason, it is best to put all contact information directly on the page.
- Area codes: If you live in a country that has an unusual prefix, be sure to include the correct information necessary for someone to dial your number from any part of the world.
Imagine this: You send out 20 resumes only to discover that 10 out of the 20 hiring managers could not even get in contact with you. Be careful with all of the content on your resume, and always be sure your contact information is 100% accurate.
One comment
This blog's author, Debra Wheatman of Careers Done Write, provides executive career services including resume and cover letter preparation, job search / interviewing strategies and professional branding including how to effectively use LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media in your career.
Visit CareersDoneWrite.com to learn more about how we can put your career in gear with interview catching resumes and professionally written career documents.
Debra, I really liked your article. I can relate through my own experience to the contact information being either in “header” or “footer”, luckily they had my current email id. This was before I moved into an HR role. Post that I did realize most of the mistakes applicants make, not to forget the one I had in the past