Job hunting is undoubtedly one of the most stressful and anxiety inducing exercises that anyone must endure throughout their adult life. In a global economy in which more and more roles are made redundant via automation, the time that people spend unemployed or between jobs has increased.

If you aren’t landing any interviews you apply for, it’s logical to assume that your resume is the culprit. Over the decades, the unspoken rules and trends surrounding resume preparation have fluctuated greatly, leaving some people confused about what’s expected by today’s employers.

Professional resume writing experts, like Roland Coombes from Resume Solutions, make it their job to know the recipe for resume success in today’s job market. For many people, it’s easier to simply engage a professional agency to prepare their resume rather than try to perfect it on their own.

With that said, let’s look at some of the main resume faults that jeopardise your chances of landing and nailing that interview!

Spelling and grammar mistakes

Obviously, your resume needs to be technically perfect in terms of spelling and grammar. Even a single typo or minor grammar error can be picked up by an employer who will automatically draw conclusions about you such as “they’re lazy” or “they don’t seem to care”.

Lack of specific information

Another common resume mistake is listing accomplishments and experience without providing any details. For example, saying that you “managed a large team” is rather vague and not as effective as saying that you “supervised projects of over 20 people at a company with $3 million annual turnover”.

If the second option sounds boastful – good! Your resume is not the place to be modest.

This also ties into the mistake of going with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to job applications, where you send a generic resume to as many different employers as you can. This approach might work with entry-level jobs at fast food restaurants, but this kind of resume will be very quickly dismissed by larger employers who are recruiting. You would work a bit harder for high paid job positions.

Focusing more on responsibilities rather than accomplishments

It’s great to provide information on what your responsibilities were in prior roles as it lets prospective employers know what you can be trusted with. However, the employer isn’t just looking for someone who can do the bare minimum, they want someone who can excel and add value.

If you really want to stand out, follow up explanations of your duties with details that demonstrate your skill. For example, instead of writing “reorganised the file system” you could say “completely re-categorised over a decade of mismanaged files”.

This demonstrates that you’re someone who thinks critically about their job and is perceptive of redundancies. This makes you attractive to an employer who likely wants to avoid hiring someone without any initiative or drive.