3 Ridiculous Mistakes A Candidate Commits While Preparing His Resume that Can Get Him Rejected in a Job Interview

 

3 Ridiculous Mistakes Candidates Commit While Preparing their Resume

 

 

How many of you know the role of a Resume in a job interview?

 

Most first time job seekers think that the role of a Resume is to get them a job.

 

No!!! 

 

That’s far from the truth. Even though a Resume is required to get a job, the role of a Resume is not to get you a job.

 

The role of a Resume is to get you an appointment with the interviewer. To get you qualified to attend a job interview.

 

That’s it!

 

When you send your Resume through email, depending on how you have presented yourself in your Resume you may be shortlisted for an interview or you may be rejected.

 

And also: When you attend a walk-in job interview you are expected to walk in with a proper Resume.

 

You will never get an appointment letter just because you have sent in your Resume.

 

This is very important for the first time job seekers to understand.

 

Unfortunately, many first time job seekers don’t understand that Resume is not just a few pages of printout, it is a document that works as a marketing material for them. 

 

Result?

 

They don’t take their Resume sincerely and seriously. They don’t invest time preparing it, reviewing it and finalizing it.

 

It’s high time a job seeker understands the value of the presentation of his Resume.

 

How Well You Prepare Your Resume Tells How Dedicated You Are To Your Career.

 

Let’s dive right into the blog and understand the three silly mistakes a candidate makes in his Resume that destroys his first impression.

 

Grab a diary and a pen. You may need to take good notes.

 

3 Ridiculous Mistakes A Candidate Commits in His Resume 

 

1. He Writes Things In His Resume that He Is Not:

Within minutes your interviewer can make out whether you have copied your Resume or it’s your own creation. All he has to do is look at the language and ask a couple of questions.

 

For example, a candidate mentions that his strength is that he is a ‘Team Player’. But when the interviewer asks him a question on being a team player he goes blank.

 

Another point I would like to underline here is that many candidates use sophisticated English words like resilient or assiduous under the sub-heading of Strengths. When the interviewer asks the meaning of the word the candidate becomes speechless.

 

This clearly tells the interviewer that the candidate sitting across has not invested time in preparing the Resume and also for the job interview.

 

2. He Writes Something In His Resume Just Because He Has to Fill a Format:

 

Your Resume is not just filling in a template with best possible answers. Do you even know what you are writing?

 

Some candidates take the format or template of a Resume and start filling it without understanding. They just copy paste from their friend’s Resume or from a website. They don’t understand the meaning or the context in which the statement has been made from where they are copying. 

 

In some extreme cases I have also seen candidates take a professional email from the internet, just change their personal information and keep everything the same.

 

One of the most common examples of being careless in preparing a Resume is ‘Career Objective’. The candidate doesn’t understand the meaning of the two words – ‘Career’ and ‘Objective’. He just blindly copies it from the internet and pastes it in his Resume. If there is a spelling mistake in the original content, the same spelling mistake is visible in the Resume too. 

 

Reading the career objective and listening to the candidate, the interviewer immediately comes to know that the candidate has copy pasted it from the internet.

 

3. He Takes a Printout or Sends as an attachment in an email Without Checking His Resume for Spelling Mistakes:

 

Most of the candidates are too lazy to review their Resumes. They think that whatever they have written is all correct. This small ‘not reviewing habit’ of their Resume can leave a wrong impression on the interviewer.

 

It’s obvious that if a candidate didn’t have time to prepare his Resume, he will also not be prepared for the job interview.

 

Not only spelling mistakes, you could do some silly mistakes too. Like, instead of writing your 10-digit mobile number, you may skip one digit and only write 9 digits. Or, you may write your email id that has a spelling mistake.

 

I have seen candidates coming to attend job interviews scheduled at ten and crowding at the printout shop at nine-thirty to take printouts of their Resume.

 

For candidates appearing for a job interview is one of the most important moments of their lives. That also they push it for the last moment.

 

This leads to yet another mistake that they overlook.

 

Here, I would like to add that overlooked mistake as it's crucial in creating a first impression.

 

4. He Takes a Printout of his Resume Which is Shabby, Unaligned and even Faded:

 

I have seen such Resumes many times during my interaction with candidates who come for a job interview.

 

I have to address this negligence on the part of the candidate as this is very important. 

 

If you are a first time job seeker and are reading this, then I would like to talk to you directly.

 

Listen, the shop from where you take the printout doesn’t care that it's your Resume, something of value. For him it is just a piece of printed paper. 

 

And also, nowadays the printout cost has reduced a lot. Some places it is as cheap as one rupee per page. The printout cost being so cheap the candidates also don’t care whether the printout is proper or not. They accept whatever is handed over to them.

 

This also sends a message to the interviewer that the candidate doesn’t value what is important for him in a job interview process.

 

The candidate should understand that the value of that printed page is not one rupee. The cost for the printout may be one rupee but the value of the printed paper is so much that it can get you hired or rejected.

 

And also: Before the interviewer reads your Resume he is going to see your Resume and if doesn’t like what he sees on the paper in his mind he will reject you.

 

When I ask the candidate during an interview why the printout was not aligned or why it was shabby, the candidate puts the blame on the shopkeeper and says that the shopkeeper only gave me this kind of printout.

 

Remember…

 

If you can’t get for yourself a neatly printed Resume how will you do a job properly? It’s all about habit.

 

So that was 3+1 Ridiculous Mistakes a job seeking candidate commits while preparing his Resume.

 

This is not a complete list. There are many mistakes that a candidate commits when it comes to preparing a Resume that can impress the interviewer. I wanted to keep this blog short so that it can help the readers remember and not commit these mistakes in future.

 

In the coming blogs I will cover more on this topic. 

 

In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you that I write a lot on interviewing and hiring skills on this blog. So if you are a person preparing for job interviews make sure you bookmark my website and make it a daily habit of reading one blog every day that will give you deep insights and tools required to crack the job interview. 

 

How to Take This Forward?

 

Understand the fact that your Resume has the power to showcase your talent and help you get hired in your dream job.

 

I repeat: Your Resume is your Marketing Material that you send out to land a job interview.

 

Spend some quality time working on each and every aspect of your Resume. Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer and ask yourself - ‘If I received this Resume will I call this candidate for a job interview?’

 

If you find it difficult to judge your Resume, ask someone who is better qualified to judge your Resume. Don’t be shy or afraid to reach out to qualified people for help.

 

“Don’t try to cut short your time on preparing your Resume because in the form of your Resume you are writing your near future.”

~ Rakesh Prasad

 

I wish you all the best in your journey to get hired in your dream job.

 

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