Top 8 Silly Mistakes You Should Avoid
in Your Resume Objective
By Fergus O’Sullivan
You are a true professional, hard worker, and just a good person. You are a welcome employee for any decent company and can cope with every complex (almost insoluble) task. But, in practice, everything is different: your resume has been posted on recruiting sites for more than a month now, and the head-hunters still do not call you...
Please do not get upset, and for sure, do not give up! With a 90% probability, the problem is in your resume objective.
A resume objective is a section in your resume where you should briefly explain your experience, career prospects, and willingness to work in a new company. So, a well-written objective part guarantees an invitation to an interview. But how to limit common and silly mistakes that will interfere with your professional ambitions? Read our tips!
1st Mistake: Grammar and Spelling
Grammar and spelling mistakes are the most common. Failure to comply with primary language rules characterizes you as an uneducated and very inattentive person. Such qualities are not suitable for people who positions themselves as professionals.
The problem is that almost all grammatical mistakes are very primitive. And most often, you made them not because you do not know, but rather just did not notice. Therefore, do not neglect to proofread.
2nd Mistake: Lack of Goal or Wrong Goal
If you do not specify what position you are applying for, your resume objective has already begun with a gross mistake. Why? Because in this way, you force the recruiter to read and delve into all the information you provide in order to understand what kind of work position you are suitable for. In other words, a resume without a goal is extra work for the reader.
The more specific the goal, the more likely you will be invited to an interview. Because as a rule, any employer is interested in hiring properly oriented employees who know their goals and have at least minimal career ambitions.
3rd Mistake: Focus on Responsibilities Rather than Results
Undoubtedly, it is essential to list your responsibilities from previous jobs. However, it would be best if you do this in the "work experience" section, but not at the resume objective. In resume objective, you have to describe your professional achievements and accomplishments. You can also mention what separates you from other employees and which qualities or/and skills make you a valuable employee.
Focus on achievements and results! Do not be afraid to indicate your awards or grants. It will increase your chances of getting the desired job.
4th Mistake: A Lot of Text
A resume objective, in which the candidate describes in detail his / her personal life, achievements, hobbies, marital status, habits, cars, and so on, is often not perceived seriously. More than that, it can look ridiculous and even comical. In this case, the recruiter will not answer you, or even worse, will show your paper to colleagues and will make fun of it. To avoid this, you should remove excess information from your resume objective.
Extra information includes skills and character traits that are not directly related to work. It is great, if you dare and jump with a parachute, your favourite pastime is walking around the city at night, and you give part of your earnings to an animal shelter. BUT this is redundant information for your employer.
If you still doubt what data you should include in this section, take a look at these general resume objective examples.
5th Mistake: Inaccurate Information
It happens that applicants provide some approximate information. For example, in a resume objective, a potential employee writes that he coordinated the work of the department, which consisted of 20 specialists. But during the interview, the candidate says that there were 25 people under his leadership. Twenty or twenty-five - the difference is small, but for the recruiter, inaccuracy will be a sign of carelessness or untruthfulness of the applicant.
Indicate only specific information. If you do not remember something from your past work, you have 2 options:
- Contact the former boss and clarify the questions you need;
- Do not provide information that you are not sure about.
6th Mistake: Keywords
The keywords in the resume are the building material and the basic terms of the entire text of the document. However, many candidates insert keywords only into 3 sections:
- education;
- work experience;
- professional skills.
Our advice is to use relevant keywords in the resume objective. It will increase your chances of beating ATS (applicant tracking system).
If you are in doubt about the keywords to use, look at similar resumes or open work vacancies (recruiters often write the necessary keywords in job descriptions).
7th Mistake: High or Low Self-Esteem
A right candidate should not have problems with self-esteem. If you agree to a scanty payment because you are highly interested in the work position, it will not play in your favor. A person who does not value his / her work is unlikely to benefit the company. In case you overestimate your capabilities, you may also be left without a job.
What is the middle ground? Do not give yourself an assessment, because a recruiter can do it for you. Also, you should not show excessive interest in the vacancy and insist that "you are ready for anything" to get this position. Know your price!
Also, HR experts advise avoiding the use of the pronoun "I."
8th Mistake: Nothing About the Future
Most resumes consist of facts of the past, and almost do not concern plans for the future. Candidates mistakenly believe that the resume "is only about the past experience." It is true when it comes to the "education" or "work experience" sections. However, in the resume objective, you should talk about your plans for the future. The employer needs to know your career ambitions and strategies.
Conclusion
Remember, it's impossible to create an ideal resume because different employers have different ideas about a perfect document. But you should definitely avoid the mistakes we discussed in this article.The price of resume objective mistake is high: being a competent specialist meeting the requirements of a vacancy, you may not receive an invitation for an interview from a prospective employer and, as a result, lose the opportunity to get hired.
Never cheat future employers in resume objective or during interviews. The truth always comes out (sooner or later). And in this case, you can be dishonored and fired. It's better to say that you don't know something, but learn quickly and are ready to show good results in a short period. Good luck!