What to Do and What Not to Do!
When it comes to resumes, people don’t know where to draw the line – they either have too much information or not enough.
Here are some basic do’s and don’ts:-
DO’s
- Be thorough and precise, but don’t “waffle on”
- Put your job history from most current to oldest (not the other way around)
- Be clear with what your position was, when you held that position and what duties you carried out
- Carry out a spellcheck! There is nothing worse than a resume full of errors, but don’t always rely on the spellcheck function. It is always good to read through your resume word by word from start to finish.
- Be creative, both in words and format
- Keep the format the same throughout – don’t change fonts, font sizes, etc
DONT’S
- Use tacky and cheap graphics (no-one is interested in Clipart!)
- Have a cover letter then goes on and on – your cover letter should be no more than 1 page long
- Apply for jobs that you are not qualified for – you are wasting not only the potential employer’s time, but yours also
- Lie – the worst thing you can do is lie – don’t say you can do things, that you can’t
- Include irrelevant information – no-one needs to know your weight, passport number or marital status
- Try to be too fancy – use a professional and easy to read font
- Use a resume template – no two resumes should be the same!
Be sure to have a look at our detailed run down on writing the best resume for you.