7 Detrimental Resume Mistakes 3 – 4
3. Too Much Formatting, Not Enough Content – Resume writing is not a graphic arts contest. Alison Ringo expounds on this point by saying, “your resume should showcase your strengths, not how many bullet point styles you know about.”
While everybody should strive to have a well-formatted resume, many job seekers come home from the resume writer with three pages of pretty formatting, but empty content. As a matter of fact, the best job seekers tend to have resumes that are sometimes on the more subtle side rather than overly eye-catching.
Remedy – While there is no reason to strip your resume of its good looks, keep in the mind that too much fluff can go against any job seeker in the same manner that a poorly worded resume can.
Stop focusing so much on what the paper looks like. Rather, focus on the story it tells.
4. Thinking Outside of the Box When Applying to Corporate – The more corporate a company is, the less any wants to stand out on their resume. This is despite the company’s call for “entrepreneurial-minded individuals.”
The reason being is that the first person to peruse your resume is trained to look for only a certain number of things prior to passing the document on to a more senior member. As one could image, fancy graphics and Microsoft Word artistry are not high on the skill checklist.
Rather, there are a few key points the initial screener is set out to seek and the rest is put aside. However, if you stand out as a potential “red light” to this individual meaning that your “entrepreneurial antics” can get them in trouble, you’re not going to be submitted.
Remedy – If you think this entrepreneurial and outside the box, chances are that you are not going to be happy in such a structured environment. It is recommend that you either strip down the fanciness of the CV or continue to look for jobs at small, more intimate companies.