Proofread Your Resume, Please!

Before you send out your resume, you must proofread it. The task of proofreading a resume includes not only a spell or grammar check, but also a check on its visual presentation, readability, and rationality. A resume is a business document. It is sort of a business proposal. In a resume, you are proposing that the employer should interview you because you would be a good employee. When your resume has language, a presentation or rational errors, you are only hurting the case you are making for your employment value.

At this time of year, a lot of hiring and job searching occurs. So, I am getting a flurry of resumes to review. Lately, the results have not been great. With a sigh, I can only suggest to all job seekers, proofread your resume, please. Let me go through several real examples to illustrate the lack of proofreading that is occurring.

1. BULLET FORMATTING

•        Education

o        Times High School 2001-2003

o        State Area Technical Center

§         Multimedia Program 2002-2003

o        Central High School 2003-2004

o        Williams High School 2004-2005

§         Graduated May 21, 2005

o        Gary Technical College 2007-2008 

What's wrong with the above resume section? There are three layers of bullets and the section has too many lines. The owner of this resume used this bullet technique for the entire resume. There are about 100 bullets over the entire resume! Too many bullets make a resume hard to read. If you are unsure of a resume style, pass your resume around to teachers, family or friends. You may get some valuable feedback prior to sending your resume to a recruite.

2. PARAGRAPH FORMATTING

Whenever I receive a resume that is 6 pages long, I know someone hasn't taken a hard look at it. Six pages is not a rational length for a resume. Most resumes are 1 or 2 pages long. For a few people, it goes up to 3 pages, which is common for technical people who have equipment lists or project descriptions that are included in a resume. For this example, I saw the following:

James Wilson

10008 Main St. #362

Rialto, CA 90034

311-903-0000

name@name.com

The large spacing was a red flag for not setting the paragraph formatting on the menu bar of most word processing programs. In this case, the paragraph was set to leave a 16 point space after a line. No wonder the resume was 6 pages long! Single space everything on a resume. If you need a space between job entries, then insert a page return. 

3. BLOCKS OF TEXT

A resume should be presented in a manner such that a recruiter can skim the information quickly. Using lists, bullets, and textual emphases help a recruiter digest your career information quickly.  But, in this example, the resume owner did not give a thought to the readability of the resume:

Acme Tool Company, Dixon, IL

Assistant Pricing Coordinator - July 2010 to Present

Duties: Complete all price changes with use of hand held pricing tools and computerized scanners. Operations of store point of sale computer system, handle customer transactions while following company policies; procedures as associated to each transaction. Presentation of company Extended Service Plans on each qualifying product sold and benefits of HFT Club Membership to all customers. Assist in the replenishment and filling of merchandise on sales floor, set-up and replacement of displays, advertised items, missing labels, signs, and ad tags issued by outs program manager. Work in all new merchandise on a weekly basis, complete and post PC log. Detail each store section and perform POG verification while maintaining store appearance and cleanliness of displays and merchandise, shelving and display areas. Assist in training of new hires (management, cashiers, sales floor and warehouse personal). Other duties as assigned.

No one is going to read much less skim this block of text. You have to proofread your resume for readability. This person did not. So, she risks being passed over for another candidate who ensured her resume was easy to read.

4. PROOFREAD OUR RESUME FOR COMMON SENSE

A resume should be proofread for common sense. Re-read your resume statements. Do they make sense? Do they have meaning to the recruiter who will review your resume. Here's a recent example of an Objective that illustrates this problem:

Objective
To help everyone with anything they may need; also to work with all associates as a team member.

I surely will not fault the resume owner for highlighting the importance of team work. But, team work is not a resume objective.  As I cited above, a resume is a business proposal of sorts. This business proposal has a goal. The goal is to persuade an employer to hire you for a specific position. So, the objective must include some reference to a job that the employer is trying to fill. So, the objective as written is nice nonsense. Take some time to re-read what you have written. Does it make sense or nonsense? If the latter is the case, it's time to rework the language.