You could have all the skills experience to make you the best candidate for a role, but if you’ve made sloppy mistakes on your resume, or not taken the time to write it in a way that will get you noticed, it could cost you the job.
Recruiters generally make up their mind about a candidate within 60 seconds of glancing at their resume, so it could be something as small as a spelling error that gets your application discarded.
So what makes a stand out resume and what are the most common mistakes that job seekers make? Ayers have the answers.
CV and Resume Statistics:
- Recruiters spend an average of 3.14 minutes reading a candidate’s resume and they have generally made up their mind within the first minute.
- 1 in 5 recruiters will actually reject a candidate before they’ve even finished reading their resume.
- 5% of applicants are dishonest when describing their previous roles or the time they spent in a job.
- 10% of job seekers have applied for 50 or more jobs without hearing back.
What are the top reasons that recruiters reject a resume?
- 59% of recruiters will reject a candidate because of poor grammar or a spelling error. Though these mistakes seem small, they indicate that the candidate is sloppy and hasn’t taken the time to proofread their resume.
- Over 50% of recruiters will reject a candidate if their resume is full of cliches. You need to differentiate yourself from the crowd, cliches are boring.
- Over 40% are also put off by too much design, such as snazzy borders, inappropriate fonts, clipart images…..or even an emoji!
What are the top 10 resume cliches that recruiters hate?
- “I can work independently.” – Most people can!
- “I’m a hard worker.” – Yes, aren’t we all?
- “I work well under pressure.” – Congratulations you tough cookie!
What makes a great resume?
- Read through your resume at least 3 times to make sure there are NO spelling or grammar mistakes and it all reads smoothly. Get someone else to check it over too, in case you missed something and to get a second opinion.
- Keep your resume as professional as possible. Photos are not necessary and fancy fonts make it look slightly unprofessional. Stick to a simple font such as Calibri or Arial, use bullet points for easy scan-ability and ensure that they layout is consistent throughout. Try to keep it to a couple of pages long.
- Ensure that your contact details are correct and up to date.
- Tailor your resume for the job, mentioning keywords and skills that are included in the job advert.
- Use specific examples of achievements from each role.
Top image: Shutterstock
