Resumes are a pain in the butt. They are annoying and painful to write, and tedious for recruiters to read. But your resume is your best and in most cases only       chance of getting your foot in the door at any organisation you apply to. Often qualified candidates are rejected because of simple mistakes.

So without further ado, here is is my list of resume bloopers.

1. Incorrect Spelling and Grammar.

Eg “Led the Day-to-Day Execution of 450 People and all Their Associated Work” (True example)

I know, it seems obvious. You would be surprised at how many people make simple spelling and grammatical errors on their resume. Spell Check, proof read, spell check again, and get a friend to read over your resume. They may pick up on something you don’t

2.  Incorrect or inappropriate contact details.

Real examples include emails such as This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I’ve also had the pleasure of hearing novelty voicemails on job seekers mobiles starting “Hi, John can’t come to the phone right now, he was out partying hard last night and is still hung over.” As you can imagine, I hung up immediately. Make sure you have an appropriate voicemail message. Make sure you have voicemail! There's no point applying for a job if a recruiter can't get hold of you.

3.   Not having your most recent job on the first page

The first thing a recruiter or hiring manager wants to look at is your last job. There is nothing more painful than going through 4-5 pages of meaningless drivel about personal attributes, career goals, and favourite school subjects before getting to employment experience. Your first page needs to be impactful, well laid out, and contain only relevant information for the job you are applying for.

4.  Having a long shopping list of daily tasks and generic skills

Your resume needs to focus on selling yourself as effectively as possible. The best way to do that is to provide a combination of specific key responsibilities and quantitatively based achievements. At a basic level, a company wants you to make them money or save them money. Keep this in mind when detailing your experience.

5.  Including personal details on your resume, such as date of birth, marital status, number of children and religion.

There are three reasons I don’t recommend doing this

-  It is entirely irrelevant to a person’s ability to do a job. Any job.

-  You are risking discrimination based on these factors. It’s unlawful, but it happens. Focus on highlighting the skills and experience that make you perfect for the role you are applying for.

-  It takes up valuable, and unnecessary front page real estate on your resume. Imagine your target audience reviewing your resume. They will scan it for not much more than 10-15 seconds, looking first for reasons to reject you (see points 1-4 of this article), then quickly scanning to see if your recent roles might match the selection criteria. The first page on your resume is your best chance to impress; give the recruiter incentive to read more!

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