It's second semester. If you haven't had your resume and cover letter critiqued and proofread, it's time to take them to the career center for a professional opinion. This is the time of year that prospective employers see an increase in the number of resumes from job-seeking college and university seniors.
The first step for many employers is to narrow the field of candidates by looking for some reason—typos, misspellings, grammatical mistakes—to discard resumes. Errors in a cover letter tell potential employers that you don't pay attention to details.
A career services counselor may spot—and eliminate—inappropriate information, typos, and misspellings in your resume and cover letter, saving these important documents from the reject pile.
The web site Resumania.com features some of the resume and cover letter bloopers collected by Robert Half International (RHI). Here are some Resumania classics—that you don't want to include in your resume—with Resumania's comment in italics:
Resume
- Skills: Excellent memory; strong math aptitude; excellent memory." But how's your math aptitude?
- "Experience: Professionally watered 22,500 office plants." And never lost count. Impressive.
- "Other activities: Along with the project engineer, I worried a lot." Glad you weren't alone.
- "Reason for leaving: Want to be facing Times Square so I can read the news." It's important to keep current.
Cover letters
- "Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you shorty!" Hey, let's not get personal.
- "I'll need $30K to start, full medical, three weeks of vacation, stock options and ideally a European sedan." No corporate jet?
- "I need just enough money to have pizza every night." But those toppings can get pretty expensive.
- "I have never had a single blemish held against me and my IQ is off the charts." And have never been accused of excessive modesty?
- "I'm submitting my resume to spite my lack of C++ and HTML experience." Don't be so hard on yourself.
- "I am quick at typing, about 25 words per minute, 35 with caffeinated coffee." How 'bout with espresso?
- "I have unsuccessfully raised a dog." His bite is worse than his bark?
- "Being in trouble with the law, I moved quite frequently." We appreciate your candor.
- "At the age of 12, I began hustling newspapers like many other great Americans had done. The only difference was that they became great."
Thanks for letting us know.
- "I prefer informality like wearing sports shirts and sandals for footwear in the summer. I prefer setting my own pace. When things get slack I like the right to walk out and get a haircut during working hours." A pioneer of the business casual movement.
- "In my last position, I got nowhere as part of a 60-person herd. Consequently, I did not give the company my full effort and received no chance of advancement in return." Funny how that works.
- "Please don't regard my 14 positions as job-hopping. I never once quit a job." Uh-oh.
- "Worked long shifts to make myself, and my company, a lot of cheese." Sounds like you're ready for the "rat race."