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Resume Do’s and Dont’s: Remember to keep it simple!

January 22nd, 2010

Have you ever been watching professional sports and wondered to yourself: How do they get there? Let’s use soccer players as an example. Everytime that I watch a professional soccer match I don’t see them doing cart wheels and back flips, but what I see them doing the simple fundamental things perfect. You should try and apply that mentality when making your resume. In my experience, people take the resume a little to seriously. What I mean by that is that they take way to much time making sure that it is perfect and has everything that they need, but they seem to forget that the sole purpose of a resume is simply to get the interview. Reflecting on my tenure in this industry and the hundreds of people that I have met and the thousands of resumes that I have done, I have concluded that there are a number of factors that come into play.

The first must of making a resume is the ability to use a computer. Simply put, your resume needs to be done on computer therefore, if you do not have the fundamental basics in terms of computer skills, then I would suggest soliciting help from a professional. To find a local ERC in your area, log on to www.lmer.ca.

People have many different ways to construct a resume depending on your computer skills and an even simpler way is to use the Microsoft Templates. These are very simple and easy to use and they should have everything that you are looking for. For those of you that are ready to go, let’s get down to business.

Resume Dont’s!!!!!!!!

Spelling mistakes!!! This is the easiest thing to avoid seeing as the computers all have a spell check. Handing a resume to an employer filled with spelling mistakes is the easiest way to have it thrown in the garbage.
Grammar errors- if your grammar is poor, I would suggest having someone proff read your resume to insure that the grammar is proper.
Any personal information- your resume is employment related only. The purpose of your resume is to get a job interview, so the writer feels that putting your hobbies is irrelevant and it is irrelevant simply because it reflects your personal life, not your professional one.
Specific personal information- do not under any circumstances put the following on your resume: your photo, SIN, marital status, sexual orientation, age and anything else that would be of a specific personal nature.
Previous employer’s contact information: many of the resumes that I have seen dictate the previous employer’s address, phone number and manager’s name. This is inviting people to contact them. The employer that you are applying with can only contact your references and previous employers with your consent, so always keep that in mind.
References- don’t put your references on your resume, save those for the interview.

In summation, please remember that when you are sending out your resume, you are sending it someone that you do not know. Hence, you are emailing or faxing your personal information and being aware of that should help you to avoid disclosing personal information.

Resume Do’s

Skills- make sure that when you are constructing your resume that you put down as many skills as you can. You are going to get hired on your experience not your education most of the time. Furthermore, most employers are not interested in what you know more so on what you can do.
Employment related only- as mentioned above keep your resume to employment related only
One or two pages- the writer personally feels that any resume can be done on one page. If you have years of experience and a professional designation, the two pages should suffice, but for youth no more than one page.

Hopefully, these simple yet effective techniques can help you along the way. Happy job hunting!

(P.S. did you notice the spelling mistakes that were purposely put in the blog?)

Posted by: Tyler McAuley

Filed under: Employment Essentials for Youth

Resume Do’s and Dont’s: Remember to keep it simple!

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