Did you just stumble upon an opening for your dream job at your dream company?
Is that job opening closing today?!
Take a breather! Sending in an out-of-date resume right off the bat could definitely hurt your chances of scoring your dream gig. We’ve written a quick post for you this week so you can get the most important quick fixes done before submitting a down-to-the-wire job application!
Triple-check your spelling, grammar and formatting.
This one should go without saying – the second a recruiter or hiring manager reads a typo in your resume, they’ll more than likely remove you from consideration. Along the same lines, if a recruiter sees one of your dates is formatted a little differently than the others, or if there’s another syntax error, he may assume “attention to detail” isn’t one of your strong suits. Save yourself the trouble and make sure spelling, grammar and formatting are all copacetic.
Ditch the objective and references statements.
These two are probably the least time-consuming of them all – if you have an objective statement, references or “References available upon request” on your resume – delete them! They’re considered outdated at this point, and employers nowadays will be looking for a resume that’s in touch with current professional trends.
Provide numbers as proof.
If you have a little more time on your hands, try to provide any numbers you can think of for any of your positions. If you’re in sales, this could be pretty easy – how many client accounts did you manage? What was your largest sale? Even if you’re in a different field like advertising or even software development – how many people did your ads reach, or how many people use your program? If you’re a manager, how many people do you manage? Try to quantify your achievements as best you can.
Leave high school in the past.
This one’s not very time-consuming either. If you have ANYTHING about high school on your resume, take it off! (Unless you’re applying for university, of course.) You’re submitting a job application in the professional world, and odds are that no recruiter or hiring manager will care that you started the Frisbee club at your high school or that you got an A in macroeconomics. Keep it relevant and up-to-date!
Edit your verbs.
All of your job bullets should begin with an action verb, such as “supported,” “managed” or “implemented” (and in present tense “support,” “manage” or “implement”). Make sure you don’t use the same verb twice, and make sure you don’t use any boring verbs like “did,” “assisted” or “helped.” If you’re in a huge time crunch, don’t be afraid to right click in Microsoft Word and find some synonyms in the Thesaurus!
Send it to a friend.
If you can, send your resume to a friend before you send it to a potential employer. No matter how many times you read your own writing, sometimes you just don’t catch your own mistakes. Giving your resume to a fresh set of eyes will ensure none of your errors were mistakenly overlooked.
Now go grab that dream job you’ve always wanted, and good luck!