The vice president of Google’s human resources explains how to avoid making the same mistakes if you want to be called for an interview.
In my career, I have reviewed a huge number of resumes from people applying for different jobs. Over 20,000 resumes have been reviewed by me. Google can sometimes receive more than 50,000 resumes in one week.
Some people are great, some are fine and others are terrible. Worst, I’ve seen the same mistakes made by candidates over 15 years. Only one candidate can reject your application. It is saddening that many of those who are turned down for making these stupid mistakes appear to be highly qualified. Hiring managers are strict in their demands for the best candidates. Even if you are a talented candidate, the hiring manager will reject you and pick another candidate.
Although this topic has been discussed a lot on LinkedIn already, I believe we need to do more. Your resume probably has at least one of these errors.
These are some tips to help you avoid your application being rejected for an error.
Although it seems obvious, it is still a common occurrence. In 2013, a CareerBuilder survey found that 58% percent of resumes contained typographical errors.
People who are more careful with their resumes are more likely to make mistakes. They may have made many changes to get it right the first time. You might have a wrong subject or verb, a misspelled date, or a misaligned dot. These errors are often found on resumes of highly qualified individuals on a daily basis.
Employers can interpret typographical errors as a lack attention to detail, which is a sign of a candidate’s lack for quality. What’s the solution?
Take the time to read your resume carefully. Reversing the order of things helps you concentrate on each line. Ask someone to correct it.
One page per 10 years of work experience is a good rule of thumb. This is not an easy task, right? Employers won’t read a resume that is three, four or ten pages long. As Blaise Pascal wrote:
“I would have written a shorter letter to you, but I don’t have the time.”
Summary resumes demonstrate your ability to organize, prioritize, and communicate the most important information about you. Consider it this way: A resume’s only purpose is to get you an interview.
Your resume is key to your first interview. The resume is not important until you arrive at the interview. Don’t write too much on your resume.
A clear, legible resume is important if you’re not applying for a job as a designer/artist.
You should use a font size of at least 10, with margins of at most 1.25 cms. Use white paper, black ink and even spacing between lines. Include your name and contact information on every page. You can check the result in Word as well as Google Docs. After you have saved it, attach it to an email, and open the preview. You might notice a change in the format if you open the document on different platforms. It is also a good idea to save the document as PDF. The format will not change no matter where it is opened.
An employee at a large consulting firm once sent me a resume. The company had a strict confidentiality policy that prohibited the release of customer names. The candidate stated on his resume that he provided consulting services to a large Redmond software company.
Your employer has a conflict of interest (keeping trade secrets confidential) and your employer’s (showing that you are able to find a better job). We must have the minimum skills to communicate with customers if we are to succeed in sales. This is a mistake. Even though the candidate didn’t mention Microsoft specifically, any reviewer could have figured out what he was referring too. We reviewed the resume and found that between 5-10% contained confidential information. This means that as an employer, I shouldn’t hire these candidates, unless I don’t want my company’s trade secrets to be circulated via email.
Keep in mind what the New York Times has to say: Don’t put it on you resume if it doesn’t appear on the NYT homepage.
This is truly heartbreaking. It is a bad idea to put a lie on your resume. This is a common mistake that leads to people being fired, even CEOs. People lie about their education (three credits of college are not a degree), their average grades (I’ve seen hundreds of people round their averages up but never an accidental round down), and where they studied (sorry – an online certificate does not mean that you have studied at the University of California, Seton Hall, or any other university). They lie about their work experience, their sales results and the size of their teams.
Three big problems exist with lies:
Your resume is already a mess. Don’t make it worse. Hiring managers always look for the best candidates so don’t send a sloppy resume.
Good news: Because most resumes are filled with mistakes, you can avoid them and still make a good impression.
