Writing your resume and cover letter can be a tricky business. You’re trying to tell a potential employer what you can offer, yet at the same time try to let a little bit of your personality shine.
Various sources say that, on average, a recruiter/hiring manager spends only 60 to 90 seconds looking over each resume. You’re on the bubble to make a 60-second pitch to someone who could be looking at hundreds of resumes for just one position. When it comes to your cover letter and resume, there’s no room for mistakes. Really.
Resumania is a distribution that I see every Monday in our local newspaper. Established by Robert Half (of Robert Half International, Inc.), it is basically a collection of the errors that people fail to spot and fix in their cover letters, resumes and so on. In fact, there are hundreds of submissions on the site with a snarky response to each mishap.
For example:
“OBJECTIVE: To find a challenging and rewarding job in a _______.”Should we fill in the blank?
“COVER LETTER: I would love to interview for the position of (insert job title here). If you grant me an interview for (insert job title here), I feel confident you’ll see why I’m the right person for the job.”Due to your failure to proofread, we can’t help but (insert polite rejection line here).
“EDUCATION: High school degree or equivalent.”Which is it?
When I first started reading Resumania, I prayed that they were making this all up to be, well, humorous, but upon reading the rest of it, I realized that you just can’t make this stuff up. It’s bewildering!
I’m sure we all have resume blunders that we can think of and laugh.
Here’s mine:
I applied for a position in Washington, DC last year with a performing arts organization. I called to find out the recruiter’s name, had the website with his name in front of my face and still managed to spell his last name wrong not once, not twice, but three times! I didn’t catch this blunder until after I had sent it along. Spell check didn’t catch it. I was mortified to say the least. I sent a quick email 15 minutes later apologizing profusely. I’m not even sure if that’s what did me in or if it was something completely different, but I am still glad that I caught the mistake and sought to correct it.
I think it speaks volumes if you step up and proactively seek someone out to admit that you made a mistake. While it may not get you the job or interview, you’re one who can be held accountable.
Lesson learned: I check my resume and cover letter over at least ten times (give or take) before sending it along. I’d rather be a crazy perfectionist than risk the circular file. 
As I stated, the worst part about it is, spell check doesn’t even catch all of your mistakes! Therefore, it’s good to have a red pen on hand to rip apart your own work. It’s not so much being overly critical of yourself as it is learning from your mistakes and improving upon them. In addition, find a trustworthy friend or two who will give it to you straight with no bull just because he/she is your friend. He/she is going to know how important this is to you and will be more inclined to help you sell you. After all, even if it doesn’t seem like it, saving yourself from the automatic circular file with a polished resume and cover letter puts you one step closer to that job.
