Weve all had to do it at some point in our lives: sit down and write our rsum. To some people, its the easiest thing in the world to do. For others, its the hardest, scariest thing to have to face. Neither one of those points of view is correct. A rsum is not hard to do, nor should it be a scary prospect. But its also not always easy.

The one thing to keep in mind when writing your rsum is that it should represent you. That means that anything on there, good or bad, is the first impression that any potential employer will have of you. Most people who write their own rsum make very common mistakes. Some of these are obvious, others are not so clear. But Im going to list a few of the most common mistakes people make that you should avoid, to make sure that your rsum doesnt take a quick trip to the Recycle Bin.

Poor Spelling or Grammar: In this day and age, with very useful spell checkers (which also check for grammar), youd think that rsums would be error free. But there are 2 things to consider here. One is that while spell checkers are great, theyre not perfect. Certain words will slip by, so its up to you to proofread (or better yet, get someone else to proofread) your work. Secondly, the spell check is useless if you dont run it! So I advise that you first run your spell checker, and then have someone else proofread your resume. If there are spelling and grammatical errors on your rsum, you already have one strike against you, before the hiring manager has even considered calling you.

Bad Formatting or Fonts: Another major mistake people have is in formatting their rsum, and using inappropriate fonts. A rsum is a visual conveyance. If its hard on the eyes, it will turn people off. Make sure your alignments are all correct and neat. Sometimes people think that a fancy font will get them noticed. And theyre right; it will get them noticed, but usually for the wrong reasons. Bad fonts can look unprofessional, be completely unreadable, or both. Stick to using a very simple font, like Arial, for your rsum. Its easy to read on paper or on a computer screen (where most rsums are viewed these days).

Inappropriate E-Mail Address: This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. Try to use an e-mail address that looks professional, such as john_doe. Avoid using e-mail addresses such as toughguy01 or fsexxxymama06. Theyre very unprofessional, and its easy to get the wrong impression from names such as this. There are many free, web-based e-mail services out there now, so if you dont have one, be sure to create a professional e-mail address to use on your rsum before you start sending it out.

A Vague Objective: This may not seem too harmful, but its definitely something to avoid. Most people put an objective on their rsum that goes something like this: To obtain a position that will allow me to use my relevant skills and experience. This is a useless objective. Its simply stating the obvious, and it doesnt say anything at all about you thats of any value. Its vague, clich, and a waste of rsum space. Now look at this objective: To obtain a position in a large CPA firm that will allow me to use my relevant skills in auditing and public accounting. Still very simple, but much more specific. Reading that, you know exactly what this person wants and what they have to offer. Make sure your objective tells the reader something about what youre looking for, and what you bring to the table.

Consistency: This applies to a few different aspects of the rsum. For example, if you have one job duty at a specific job in the past tense, then all job duties at that job should be in the past tense, and vice versa (Managed vs. Manage). This could also be considered a formatting issue, but make sure if your job title is in bold, all of them should be in bold. If the company name should be italicized, make sure all of them are in italics. Again, a rsum is a visual thing, and little things like this will stand out to the reader, and may put them off.

Writing your own rsum is not always easy, but if you do decide to tackle it, keep these mistakes in mind, and make sure youve avoided them on your rsum. Theres no such thing as the perfect rsum, but by avoiding these mistakes, youll be a lot closer to it.

Jason Stroming
http://www.acrnyc.com