Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Resume typos may just cost you the job

The subject of grammatical gaffes, typos, misspellings and the like transcends into the world of resume writing.

If you've ever worked on a resume, you know how time consuming it can be (in my case, it's been weeks!). Why spend all that time on it just to have it ruined by a typo or a misspelled word? As they say, you only have one chance to make a first impression. When it comes to your resume or curriculum vitae, you'll want to put your best brand forward by highlighting only your skills and accomplishments, not your inability to proof what you publish.

It's no secret that talent teams use certain "filters" to narrow down their candidate pools. Maybe the candidate doesn't have certain key words; or adequate experience for the role. Throw in typos and misspellings onto your resume, and you're giving your prospective employer a reason to eliminate you from contention (by the way, this is that moment when you kiss that job goodbye).

Don't take any chances. Eliminating typos and misspellings is probably the simplest step in your resume-creation process. If somebody helped you write your resume, make sure to spell check; better yet, get a friend or colleague to proof it for you. You're simply too close to it and you'll miss stuff.