How can a busy business owner or hiring manager scan through resumes to quickly eliminate the “B” and “C” players in order to focus on the candidates with “A” potential? Look for these ten common resume mistakes candidates make and throw ‘em out!
1) Typos, misspellings and grammatical errors.
This is a classic case of lacking attention-to-detail. Not many jobs exist where being detail-oriented is a luxury.
In my previous world as an advertising sales manager, we had so many moving parts and communication points between the start and end of the business cycle. Contacting a potential client, closing the sale, creating an ad and publishing it correctly all required laser focus. Attention-to-detail was not a luxury, it was a necessity.
If the candidate doesn’t bother to double check the resume and submits one with typos and errors, it's indicative that they may not be able to execute the job properly due to the amount of detail required to be successful.
2) Non-customized (general) resumes
There’s two types of candidates in the world; those that just need a job and those that have a real interest in working for your company. You want to find people that are interested in what your company does and want to be a part of your team. If there is no mention on their resume of how they would fit in specifically with your company, chances are they are a serial applicant, not a serious candidate.
3) Excessively long resumes
A qualified worker should be able to tell a solid story of their qualifications, work/school history and how they’d be an asset to your team in one page; two pages maximum. If they are rambling on and on, they are trying to overcompensate for their lack of real skills, or maybe they are a professional job jumper. Either way, it’s probably not the best fit.
4) Visually unappealing resumes
5) Mismatches with company culture
Company culture is a very important concept when you are trying to get a bunch of individuals to work together as a team. If there is a personality that doesn’t gel with the others in the group, the chance for tension to be present increases. With tension comes reduced productivity. Look for cues in the verbiage of the resume to determine if the candidate will be a good cultural fit for your company.
For example let’s say you have a customer-service department made up of individuals who are extremely people-oriented. If a new person joins the group who keeps to herself, the likelihood of her assimilating into the group is reduced. And if her behavioral style just isn’t sociable, then the adapting she’d have to do to fit in would likely make her very uncomfortable. This scenario would likely not be a good fit.
6) Lacks professionalism
While skills can be taught, common sense cannot. If someone submits a resume and it’s filled with emojis, the word “like” filtered throughout the copy or if the candidate’s email is babygirllovestoparty@noname.com, it’s probably wise to keep looking.
7) Makes it difficult to contact
A candidate needs to make it as easy as possible for a prospective business owner to contact him or her. If you have to work to find the contact information, or if the phone number goes to a voicemail that is full, it’s a good indication that this person probably doesn’t have their act together. You want to teach your new employee how to do their job, not basic life skills, so best to move on to other candidates that are more prepared.
8) Over-exaggerated qualifications
While we want to hire the best candidates possible, it’s pretty easy to spot when someone is over-exaggerating their qualifications. If you are a restaurant owner hiring for a busser or server and the person possesses a couple of PhD’s it’s probably not going to be a good fit. Either they are providing inaccurate information, are highly unmotivated to live up to their potential, or already looking for their next job. Keep looking.
9) Lacks personality
To be fair, not every job at every company requires personality to be successful. But if the position you are hiring for does benefit from a personable candidate, look for personality clues in the words on the resume. Jobs such as sales executives, customer service reps and anyone in the public eye need to have some level of communications skills and personability. Skills can be taught but personality cannot, so find someone that has this qualification for the position you are trying to fill.
Another helpful hint to the business owner: check the candidate’s social media pages or do an internet search on the person. If you can’t really gauge what the person may be like from the resume, you can learn a tremendous amount about a person by viewing his or her digital footprint.
10) Incomplete information
If the resume appears incomplete, seems rushed or has gaps (especially pertinent to employment) it can be an indicator of a number of issues. The person may lack attention-to-detail. They may lack focus. They may not be serious about your job; just hurrying to fill out another resume. Whatever the reason, an incomplete resume indicates the person is not all that serious about wanting to work for your company. You can do better.
Conclusion
Hiring and training can be a very time consuming part of a small business owner’s world. Getting it right the first time is vital so time can be better spent on other facets of the business. Don’t waste your time bringing in bad or unqualified candidates in for interviews when you can vet them out in advance by looking for clues that signal they may not be right for your organization.