Resume Problems: Don’t Fall into the Trap!

Reviewing resumes on a daily basis means we see all kinds of resume trends and habits—some good and others not so much. Our goal here is to look at a couple things so seemingly obvious that they have become common pitfalls.

Watch for Errors with the Basics

Let’s start right off with the punchline: It’s hard for opportunity to come knocking if it doesn’t know how to contact you. Always make sure you list your phone number and email on the resume. After you’ve done that, check it to ensure it’s correct. Lately, I’ve had quite a number of resumes with phone numbers missing a digit or some with an extra digit. Also common enough to mention are resumes that lack an email address. Anything that makes it harder for a recruiter to contact you certainly works against you.

Some Tips for Indeed

Most job boards require the applicant to attach a resume. And naturally, employers see this document when searching the job board database. In addition, this is the document that employers see when an applicant applies to a job.

With Indeed, however, you can actually have the job board create a resume for you. In this case, it uses the information you entered to create a pdf resume. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. However, you should most definitely have a look at this document and do some quality control.

That Resume Could Be Your Achilles’ Heel

Not long ago, I had an experience with an Indeed-generated resume. I chose not to contact the candidate because the experience listed was simply not in line with the job I had. However, that same candidate recently sent the version of the resume they created themselves. It was beautifully formatted and included a great deal of fantastic experience. I immediately called them to get the process rolling.

Why this is so important

Turns out, this individual simply hadn’t completed all the fields online, so Indeed didn’t have much to work with when it created the resume. As you can imagine, it’s quite likely this issue has impacted this candidate with other employers as well. So point being, there is nothing wrong with Indeed or this feature. However, be sure to review the Indeed resume to edit as needed before it goes public.

So in summary…

These topics are very simple but are arguably some of the most important details to run through a quality control check. They have a direct impact on the likelihood you receive a call or an email from a recruiter to start the interview process with you.