A computer program scanned 100,000 resumés for errors. And the #1 thing to be careful about is starting two sentences in a row with the same word.
Like, you might say you “managed client portfolios.” Then the next line says you “managed freelancer submissions.” It’s not really a “mistake,” but it makes you look lazy. Here are the top five mistakes people make on their resumé . . .
1. Starting back-to-back sentences with the same word. 13% of resumés had that one. It was more than twice as common as any other error.
2. Using unnecessary filler phrases. Like instead of just saying you “brought in new clients,” it says you “worked in a diligent manner to bring in new clients.”
3. Leaving out apostrophes. Specifically, possessive apostrophes. Like if you say you exceeded your “manager’s expectations,” the word “manager’s” needs an apostrophe.
4. Not using commas after conjunctive adverbs, like “however” or “nevertheless.” One way to avoid it is to just not use words like that. They sound kind of clunky anyway.
5. Agreement errors with numbers. Which is usually just a typo. Like saying you brought in “seven new accounts last year,” but you write “seven new ACCOUNT.”
A few more mistakes people made a lot were misusing hyphens . . . repeating the same word by mistake, like writing “the” twice in a row . . . using the word “a” when you need to use “an” . . . and not capitalizing the “I” in the word “I’m.”
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