Résumé Help - Basic Grammar Skills are a Must!
If you are the best in your field, but your résumé reflects poor grammar, you may not get many interview requests. Good communication skills are expected and in most cases the résumé is the first indication of those skills. If you read through today’s example, you will make assumptions about the candidate’s abilities based on his presentation.
The document is loaded with random incorrect capitalization of nouns and verbs. He uses different forms of verbs within the same section, changing from present tense to past tense. He uses progressive tense (managing) mixed with present tense (manage). Most readers of résumés are not expert grammarians. However, as speakers of the English language, we are very intuitive when something does not sound right or flow well on the page. That’s what happens when reading this example. This is bad for the candidate’s brand. It also distracts us from absorbing his message.
The other major issue is a very common one. The most frequent oversight on a résumé is not including measurable achievements. This candidate would benefit greatly from telling us more about the scope of his projects and providing quantifiable results. Also, he could connect what he did to the client’s bottom line to illustrate that he thinks beyond the task.
The good news is that this candidate has worked with one of our professional writers and now is distributing his newly-minted résumé. You can do the same. If you are struggling with your résumé, click here for more information. Or, use our many pages of advice to create your résumé on your own. If you would like, send it to me for advice.
If you would like a résumé critique, please contact Debra Wheatman at debra@careersdonewrite.com or visit us at http://careersdonewrite.com. The Résumé Help blog appears weekly on Mondays.
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