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Common resume mistakes

Posted on September 12th, 2013 Read time: 1 minutes

A recent study by CareerBuilder revealed the top mistakes candidates make on their resumes. While some were egregious, such as a resume submitted by a worker a company had just fired, others represent preventable mistakes. Recruiters who work with a consistent pool of temporary workers may wish to pass along these results as warnings against careless applications. The factors most likely to cause a hiring manager to dismiss a candidate from consideration based on their resume included:

Omissions and errors in style
Many problems with resumes are simply due to inattention and a lack of proofreading. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said typos would end a candidate's chances to advance in the recruitment process. More than one-third of respondents would discard a resume that seemed too generic and not tailored for the specific position. A similar number would disqualify a candidate who had no list of skills on his or her resume. Wording copied directly from the job posting would be off-putting to 32 percent of respondents.

Other gaffes
Other mistakes are errors in judgment more than anything else. More than 30 percent of respondents preferred not hire someone who used an inappropriate email address. Including a photo with a resume would spell the end of a potential employee's candidacy for 13 percent of respondents.

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