By Amy Joyce
The Washington Post
We all have those job-seeker cringes. Tripping into a potential boss just as she extends her hand to shake. Calling an interviewer by the wrong name. Sending a resume with the wrong telephone number.
Those resume gaffes can do more than induce cringes. They can keep us from jobs that we are qualified for.
Resolutions for a better life are taking their first timid steps into the new year. Professionals ready to move into better jobs and college students applying for internships mean resumes are being written. And so many of them will be riddled with errors. Despite our best efforts, we often either don't know how to write the ever-elusive succinct rundown of our lives or we work a huge error (or several) into those summaries.
Matt Salo, director of the health and human services committee of the National Governors Association, will never forget the resume he received several years ago from a recent college graduate. This person did not have much work experience, so he added a bulleted list of skills:
- Strong Work Ethic
- Attention to Detail
- Team Player
- Self Motivated
- Attention to Detail
Salo did not call him back, although he sometimes wishes he had called to point out that "attention to detail" was listed twice.
"You really feel torn," Salo said. "You want to call these people up and say, 'Stop sending out this resume.' But you don't. There are so many of them."
Another resume that Salo received beat the attention-to-detail guy. A woman sent her resume and cover letter without deleting someone else's editing, including such comments as "I don't think you want to say this about yourself here" and notes that pointed out grammatical and spelling errors. "Apparently she had just taken what she got back and forwarded it along," Salo said. "Needless to say, that person wasn't hired, either."
Several readers recalled their horror stories of applying for jobs with "public" in the title and realizing after they sent out multiple resumes that they had omitted the "l." I hope misery really does love company in this case, because it apparently happens often.
Next: Pay attention to dates >
