As a dedicated job seeker, you’ve probably spent hours writing,
tailoring and blasting your perfectly polished resume. You’re confident
you have done everything right: The flawless document is confined to one
page; includes a clear objective; and lists a plethora of soft skills.
But as it turns out, contrary to popular belief, those features don’t necessarily make for an ideal resume.
Here are 12 resume writing myths:
Myth: You must reference references. “While
references will likely matter further into the interview process, noting
on your resume that ‘references are available upon request’ will not
make your resume stand out,” says Jacob Bollinger, lead data scientist
at Bright.com, an employment site with more than 2.5 million job listings.
Myth: You must keep your resume to one page. Not
true! “Page count is not as important as the number of words on the
page,” Bollinger says. “The number of words actually affected recruiters
in a bell curve manner. So what’s the magic word count that keeps
recruiters reading (aside from your work experience)? About 390 words
per page.”
Ann Baehr, an executive resume writer and founder of Best Resumes of New York
says one page resumes are best for early career job seekers. “Even
then, if there is a lot of valuable information that simple cannot fit
on one page, a second page is fine. I have done plenty of two page
resumes for early career professionals and it has never been an issue.”
Myth: Spelling errors immediately disqualify you. It
is very important to proofread your resume before emailing it out, but
spelling and grammatical mistakes do not necessarily mean your resume
ends up in the trash, Bollinger says. Recruiters are more focused on
work experience to determine fit. “A good habit is to re-read your
resume whenever applying. Fresh eyes can catch mistakes previously
overlooked.”
Myth: Using graphs are a waste of space. Tina Nicolai,
a resume writer and executive career coach, says graphs tell a
compelling story of financial earnings, savings, turnarounds, and more.
“Graphs are a fantastic method of grabbing a person’s attention,” she
says. “We are living in a point and click society. Apps are causing us
to have a shorter attention span. By including a graph, we are able to
tell a story quickly and succinctly to hiring leaders and recruiters who
may not have time to read the entire resume.”
Myth: Fancy formatting matters. As it turns out, it
doesn’t. “Many of the resume parsers used by job-apply services will
destroy any formatting you use on your resume,” Bollinger says. “Even
bullets on a resume can sometimes cause encoding problems. The best
format to use is the simplest.”
Myth: You need an objective statement. Once it was
imperative that you start your resume with a statement declaring your
career objective. However, Bollinger says Bright found that having an
objective statement didn’t make any difference in whether a resume was
deemed qualified or not. “Recruiters are more interested in your
experience and qualifications and are likely to skip over this section
entirely,” he says.
Myth: Include all of your soft skills. “In an
attempt to match a job ad’s requirements, some job seekers overuse the
listed soft skills, such as ‘strong team leader,’ without placing enough
emphasis on accomplishments,” Baehr says.“Many job seekers go as far as
copying entire sentences from a job ad into their resume practically
verbatim. Collectively, this creates a generic resume.”A resume with
achievements that tells a story is best, she adds.
Myth: Never use color. Nicolai says color makes a
statement and is an extension of your personal brand. “In today’s career
world, a fully functioning and eye-catching resume includes an
inclusive marketing strategy including splashes of color and tightly
written copy. All colors, when used appropriately, have their place on
resumes; from CEO’s to entry-level.”
She says when using color and the universal meaning of color, we are
telling the prospective employer a bit more about our brand and our
commitment to deliver.
“In short, your resume is your ‘soup can or cereal box label.’ If a
company is shopping you, do you want to show up as a generic label, or a
label with a brand promise?”
Myth: Achievements should be highlighted in a separate section.
“Recruiters tend to focus on your overall work experience and are
looking for related achievements from each position you’ve held,”
Bollinger explains. Laying out your achievements in a separate section
will likely cause recruiters to skip it in order to get to the meat of
your work experience, he says. “To really put your achievements front
and center, include them in a list under each relevant position.”
Myth: Targeted resumes are too narrow. Targeted
resumes are both necessary and smart, Nicolai says. “Recruiters have
little time to read through the piles of resumes. Do yourself a favor
and take the time to focus your resume on the exact position you are
seeking. If you build a comprehensive strategy into the content, layout,
and design, you can build a targeted resume that can be used when posting for multiple (similar) positions.”
Myth: Hit the thesaurus for action verbs. “No need
to break out the thesaurus,” Bollinger says. “Bright’s research has
shown that it’s not necessary to come up with three different ways to
say that you’ve achieved your goals at every position you’ve ever held.”
So, don’t worry about coming up with a new action verb for every bullet
point; it’s ok to reuse them. Just make sure you’re showcasing your
skill set and qualifications to make the biggest impact.
Myth: Full name, address, email and phone number are required.
Having a contact section has no impact on a recruiter’s decision to
take your resume out of the slush pile, Bollinger says, “However, if you
want to land that interview, make the recruiter’s job as easy as
possible and include as much contact information as you are comfortable
with sharing.”
By Jacquelyn Smith
