Dos and Don'ts When Submitting a Resume - East Idaho News
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Dos and Don’ts When Submitting a Resume

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GETTY B 071112 Resume?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1341999035125iStockphoto/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — Looking for a job?  Well, make sure your resume doesn’t have any spelling mistakes.  You may also want to consider transforming your resume into a Rubik’s Cube.

In a new CareerBuilder survey of nearly 2,300 hiring managers in the U.S., 61 percent say they would automatically dismiss a candidate whose resume includes typos.

Other mistakes to avoid:

  • Resumes that copied large amounts of wording from the job posting: 41 percent of hiring managers would dismiss an applicant for making this mistake.
  • Resumes with an inappropriate email address: 35 percent.
  •  Resumes that don’t include a list of skills: 30 percent.
  • Resumes that are more than two pages long: 22 percent.
  • Resumes printed on decorative paper: 20 percent.
  • Resumes that detail more tasks than results for previous positions: 16 percent.
  • Resumes that include a photo: 13 percent.
  • Resumes that have large blocks of text with little white spaces: 13 percent.

While it’s important that your resume stands out from the pack, you don’t want to make it so unusual that it turns off the employer.  Here are some examples of awkward applications cited in the survey:

  • Candidate’s cover letter talked about her family being in the mob.
  • Candidate applying for a management job listed “gator hunting” as a skill.
  • Candidate’s resume included “phishing” as a hobby.
  • Candidate specified that her resume was set up to be sung to the tune of The Brady Bunch.
  • Candidate highlighted the fact that he was “Homecoming Prom Prince” in 1984.
  • Candidate claimed to be able to speak “Antartican” when applying for a job to work in Antarctica.
  • Candidate’s resume had a photo of the applicant reclining in a hammock under the headline “Hi, I’m _____ and I’m looking for a job.”
  • Candidate’s resume was decorated with pink rabbits.
  • Candidate listed “to make dough” as the objective on the resume.
  • Candidate applying for an accounting job said he was “deetail-oriented” and spelled the company’s name incorrectly.

Conversely, here are some examples of applications that made a positive impression on employers and led to hires:

  • Candidate sent his resume in the form of an oversized Rubik’s Cube, where you had to push the tiles around to align the resume.
  • Candidate who had been a stay-at-home mom listed her skills as nursing, housekeeping, chef, teacher, bio-hazard cleanup, fight referee, taxi driver, secretary, tailor, personal shopping assistant and therapist.
  • Candidate applying for a food and beverage management position sent a resume in the form of a fine-dining menu.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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