How NOT to Write Your Resume

11 Tips On What NOT To Do When Writing Your Resume

• 1. Using a Word template to design your resume.

  Not only do they usually look cheesy, but formatting is a nightmare. You can't easily vary from the design without screwing up all your spacing. Use the resume templates for inspiration, but stick to your own style and keep it consistent. Don't use any fancy fonts. No matter what, send your resume as a PDF so it looks the same on any computer.

• 2. Including an Objective.

  Your objective is to get the job. Obviously. Instead, try starting with a short summary of your career and skills. Very short, which leads to the next point. Check out our resume examples and resume samples in the looks below to see some really good instances of resume summary statements.

• 3. Writing too much.

  Get to the point. Employers don't want to waste time reading a lot of meaningless babble. Only include the most important, relevant information. Don't write run-on sentences or long lists of adjectives. When employers are going through a huge pile of resumes, they don't want to stop and decipher anything. Get to the point.

4. Not showing results.

Don't just list all the responsibilities you had at your previous jobs. Show how you were an asset to the company. The most important thing a future employer wants to know is what you will do for them. Say how you came up with a new idea, saved your past employer money, got a specific result, or anything that is a quantifiable detail.

5. Aging yourself.

Don't put a date on your education/degree. The important thing is you have it, not when you got it. Look at the resume examples and resume samples in the links below to get a better idea of how to present this part of your document.

6. Getting off track.

Don't let your resume go on longer than one page. If you take a look at a few different resume samples – you'll see that all of them are typically one page or less. Take out anything that your employers won't really care about, like how you volunteer for your daughter's Girl Scout troupe. Only include volunteer activities if they are relevant to the type of work you do.

7. Wasting space with outdated jobs.

It's great that you've been employed since you were in high school, but most likely your current employers don't need your entire work history. Most recent and significant ones are probably enough, remember, no more than one page.

8. Including a picture.

Come on, it's not a beauty contest.

9. Stating your salary.

Your past salaries aren't necessary and may too quickly put you out of the running just by being too below or too above your future employer's idea of pay.

10. Forgetting your contact information.

Don't leave out your cell number or your email. Give your employers two options for contacting you. Assuming they'll just reply to your email isn't enough. To get more ideas of how to create an eye-catching header that includes all the relevant information, look through our resume examples and resume samples.

11. Typos, poor grammar & spelling errors

There is absolutely no excuse for errors in this area. Use grammar checker have a friend check your work and proofread several times before hitting send. If you don't mess up in any of these ways, you'll be in a good position to smoke your competition. These are some of the most common resume mistakes, and if you don't make them you're already proving yourself to be worth an interview, at least.

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