5 Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Written by Shelby Oyer

College is a time when everyone is working on perfecting their resumes in preparation for landing that perfect internship or job. While many places on campus can help you craft a killer resume--like the LACD and CCO offices--here a few mistakes, suggested by Skip Freeman from Personal Branding Blog, that you can learn to avoid at home.

1. Confusing Layout/Design
While having a creative and unique resume can be a good thing in the right industry, if it's too much, it will only hinder you. Don't get too excited with bolding, italicizing and underscoring. Too many colors, graphics, words or a confusing layout that's hard to skim will also make employers far more likely to toss your resume than actually read it. 

While you want your resume to stand out from the crowd, make sure it's still easy to read and skim. If you're not looking into a somewhat artistic career, consider making your resume more unique by simply using a different font or atypical layout rather than changing the entire thing to look like an infographic. If you are going down a more artistic path, employers are more likely to appreciate a creative resume rather than feel overwhelmed by it, but still be sure it's easy to navigate. 

2. Grammatical Errors
While some minor grammatical errors may get overlooked by the unsuspecting eye, do be careful of more obvious ones like misspellings, lack of proper capitalization or missing words. 

Double- and triple-check your resume to make sure everything is properly spelled and punctuated. Have a friend or two look over it as well to catch anything you may have missed.

3. Lack of Clarity or Focus
Do your best to make it clear to employers what you have to offer them and what you are looking for. Making them guess the significance of your previous work experience or how your listed skills fit in with their company is something to try to avoid. 

Do your research. Find out what skills and goals the company you're applying to has and tailor your resume to them. Make sure you highlight how you've acquired those skills in previous positions so it's clear to your prospective employer why you're right for the job and why they're bothering to read your resume. 

4. Incomplete/Incorrect Contact Info
Believe it or not, some people may have a stunning resume but don't get the job simply because they can't be contacted. 

Make sure your contact info is both complete and up-to-date to avoid missing out on an opportunity simply because you moved or changed your phone number. Also, some college students feel the need to include both a permanent and current address. This isn't actually necessary and may confuse employers about how to contact you if they wish to mail something. Just include your current address and make sure you update it every time you move. 

5. Length
Many employers won't even bother reading your resume if they don't like the length of it. In nearly all instances, your resume needs to be limited to one page and one page only. I've personally seen resumes thrown out simply because they're two pages long, regardless of if the candidate was qualified or not. 

Don't let this happen to you! Adjust the margins to 0.7" all around if you need more space. Cut out everything even remotely insignificant. Do what you need to do to make your resume exactly one page long. 


This is my take on Skip's article. Read the complete article here.