Welcome back to our yearly expose of resume horror stories.
Resume Horror #1: Inappropriate Portfolio
A young man applied for a job interview as a graphic designer for a consulting firm in the gas and oil industry. His resume included a link to his portfolio—which consisted of lovely pictures of nudes and landscapes. If you are providing a portfolio, make sure it is aligned with the goals and customers of the company.
Resume Horror #2: Nonexistent Links
A woman with lots of experience was applying for a job as a copyeditor. Her resume included links to previous online projects, but some of them were so old that they no longer worked. If you provide links, limit them to the most relevant and recent, and make absolutely sure they are working.
Resume Horror #3: Ego First
Enthusiasm is a great quality, but one job applicant for a leadership role took it a little too far by spending most of his resume boasting about his success as a marathoner. While companies want to know you are well rounded and determined, they also appreciate restraint. Plus resume space is limited; you should use most of it to show that you have the skills, education, and experience the company specified in their job posting.
Resume Horror #4. Detail Overload
Yes, the old rule demanding a one-page resume is out the door. But one executive assistant decided that allowed her to detail every task she performed over the past 10 years—creating a highly repetitive resume of four pages. If you are going to send someone a four-page resume, make sure you have the interesting content to justify it and that you are as concise as you possibly can be.
Resume Horror #5. Where and When did you Work?
The applicant updated his old resume but forgot to change the verb tense (from present to past) for his older job in Florida. Even worse, he failed to change the employment dates of the Florida job. The resume seemed to say he was holding down two full-time jobs at once—the old one in Florida (“2005 to Present”) that he actually left in 2010 and the current one in Illinois (“2010 to Present”).
Want to avoid becoming a resume horror story? Contact Robin’s Resumes® today.