Five mistakes to avoid on your resume
While writing your resume, put yourself in the shoes of the application committee (or even a potential employer) – would you enjoy reading a 3-page vortex of activities that barely help you understand the candidate? Your college application resume is supposed to give them a snapshot of all relevant achievements and involvements – think of it as you briefing the reader on all the achievements that they need to hear in order to make a decision. At the same time, you also need to seem like a fitting, impressive candidate and avoid making mistakes on your resume.
That is how a proper application resume is written for top universities and colleges.
Are you wondering how you can achieve this end on your application resume?
Avoid These Application Resume Writing Mistakes to Get Accepted at Top Colleges
1. Writing a ‘One Size Fits All’ Resume
This is among the most common application resume writing errors that students and professionals make. Do not write the same resume for all the school and companies you will be applying to. Instead, do your research and only put in content that is relevant to what they are looking for. If the university emphasizes community involvement, highlight them more prominently.
2. Not Being Specific – Beating About the Bush
This is another major mistake that candidates make. An instance of this mistake can be:
- Worked with a team of industry experts
This does not mean the same as, or even has the same effect as saying:
- Organized and managed a team of industry experts to optimize monthly financial audits and saved the organization 20 lakh rupees over the quarter.
You see, the second one tells more about what was done, and what the results were. Picking up from this point, we move on to our third.
3. Speaking Only in Terms of Job Descriptions, and Not Achievements
Always avoid putting in a bland line about your job description as the only placeholder while writing your resume. Instead, let the reader know what you achieved and quantify it. In doing this, you draw their attention to proven results of your work, and thus, provide a better idea of the good work you have done.
4. Describing Things in too Much Detail
While it is important to be specific about achievements and quantify them on your resume, it is also important that you do not go on writing lengthy paragraphs about your jobs. To be concise about everything is extremely important. Explain everything in short, succinct points and mention only things relevant to what is required of you.
5. Using No Action Verbs
The last, but major mistake that any given applicant can make on their resume is to use bland labels for all that they put on there..
For instance, under job description, people often just write a variation of the following:
1. Blog Writing
2. Social Media
This only serves to label you position, and tell the person reading your resume, nothing at all. Avoid this resume writing mistake. Instead, write it like this:
1. Wrote 2000-word blogs in SERP optimized manner
2. Handled social media pages (Facebook, Quora, Twitter) and increased engagement from 1000 followers to 13000 followers.
Have you made similar mistakes on you resume? Do you want some guidance? Here are some handy resources and services:
Sample Resumes
Resume Builder
