We’re starting our CV / Resume writing tips series with one of the most frequent mistakes candidate makes when preparing their resumes, which decreases their chances to secure an interview.
There are many important points to consider when creating or updating your cv that may be aware of:
- Your CV must be up-to-date
- It generally should not be longer than 2 pages (3 pages is ok if you have a lot of experience, but a recruiter will rarely go through the entirety of your cv/resume if it is longer than 3 pages)
- No spelling mistakes!
- It should be in a hard-to-read, complex format
These points are pretty trivial, but there is one thing we frequently see in resumes that many candidates are not aware that it decreases their chances of getting an offer.
Let’s see in detail our resume writing tips;
1 Big Mistake To Avoid When Preparing Your CV / Resume: Using Adjectives
More and more, many companies rely on data and analysis in their day to day operations. Metrics and bid data analysis is a part of their core business. Furthermore, they use quantifiable data in all their processes to evaluate employees’ performance and potential promotions.
Compare these two scenarios: During performance evaluations with his/her manager, Employee 1 says “My sales processes netted a large increase in improving the sales of our headphones and greatly reduced complaints from customers” vs Employee 2 reporting “The processes I built helped increase the monthly sales of our headphones by 10% while reducing the customer complaints by 25%”. Do you see where we are going with this?
Using adjectives instead of quantifiable metrics in your resume to point your achievements is one of the most important mistakes candidates makes in their resumes.
So, put yourself in place of the manager that is doing the performance evaluations. You have a new slot approved for a new hire. Would you want to invite a candidate who knows how to quantify his achievements or rather go with a candidate who use a lot of adjectives like “great, large, significant” but fails to show how big the impact was?
We as humans, are not used to use metrics in our daily conversations with friends and family, and it is not a habit for us to use metrics-based facts daily
So it may not come natural to switch to a metrics based communication in a work environment for many of us, but it is important to remember how companies operate on a data analysis viewpoint.
How to make your resume adjective-proof?
The easiest way to achieve this is to skim your resume, and try to find any adjectives that describe and achievements. Many adjectives we use in our daily life are as simple as large, important, significant, big, small, considerable, critical, vital, and serious. Try to find if you have any of those in your resume and find out if you can replace this with metrics-based facts.
What if I don’t have any metrics based data / achievements to report?
A lot of us may not have a 50% increase in sales to report or 25% savings in overhead, and that is OK. If you don’t have specific business metrics to report, try to think about experiences that can be quantifiable and integrate them into your resume. The Muse and Monster.ca has some great advice on how to find quantifiable data to improve your resume.
So there you go, today we covered some resume writing tips, now you know one of the most important mistakes that you need to avoid when preparing your cv/resume. We hope it was useful. Please come back and check our blog page in the future as we will continue to share important cv / resume writing tips in the following days / weeks.
