Avoid These 10 Resume Mistakes

As a resume writer, I see hundreds of resumes, and the vast majority of them are much weaker than they could be. I see the same mistakes over and over. This article describes the 10 I see most often. All are easy to fix.
Don't make these resume mistakes:
1. Resume lacks focus.
A sharp focus is an extremely important resume element. Given that employers screen resumes for between 2.5 and 20 seconds, a resume should show the employer at a glance what you want to do and what you're good at. In a recent study by Career Masters Institute, employers wanted resumes to show a clear match between the applicant and a particular job's requirements. A "general" resume that is not focused on a specific job's requirements was seen as not competitive. In an even more recent study by CareerBuilder.com, 71 percent of hiring managers preferred a resume customized for the open position.
One way to sharpen your focus is through an objective statement. Your objective statement can be very simple and straightforward; it can be simply the title of the position you're applying for, which can be adjusted for every job you apply for. Or you can embellish your Objective statement a bit with language telling how you'll benefit the employer. Something like:

Objective: To contribute strong ________ skills and experience to your organization in a _________ capacity.

In this day of being able to manage our own computer files, you could have several versions of your resume that are essentially the same except for the objective. A specific objective is always better than a vague or general one. You can read more about resume objectives in our article,Should You Use a Career Objective on Your Resume?

To sharpen your focus, you can also add a section called something like "Summary of Qualifications," "Profile," or the like. Such a section can contribute to powerful resume opener that draws the reader in; it can be part of the top third of your resume that showcases your best selling points, catches the prospective employer's attention, and immediately demonstrates your value as a candidate. "Think of this section as an executive summary of your resume," writes my partner, Dr. Randall Hansen. "Identify key accomplishments that will grab the attention of an employer."
You can use your Profile/Summary section to position yourself for each job you target by tweaking the wording to fit each type of position.
2. Resume is duties-driven instead of accomplishments-driven.
Resumes should consist primarily of high-impact accomplishments statements that sell the job-seeker's qualifications as the best candidate.
Never use expressions such as "Duties included," "Responsibilities included," or "Responsible for." That's job-description language, not accomplishments-oriented resume language that sells. After all, if you were an employer and wanted to run a successful organization, would you be looking for candidates who can perform only their basic job functions, or would you want employees with a proven track record of accomplishments? In these days in which most resumes are placed into keyword-searchable databases, you won't find employers searching resumes for words like "responsibilities," "duties," or "responsible for."
Instead, focus on accomplishments that set you apart from other job candidates. In each job, what special things did you do to set yourself apart? How did you do the job better than anyone else? What did you do to make it your own? What special things did you do to impress your boss so that you might be promoted? What were the problems or challenges that you or the organization faced? What did you do to overcome the problems? What were the results of your efforts? How did the company benefit from your performance? How did you leave your employers better off than before you worked for them? How have you helped your employers to:

• make money
• save money
• save time
• make work easier
• solve a specific problem
• be more competitive
• build relationships
• expand the business
• attract new customers
• retain existing customers

Accomplishments are the points that increase reader's interest, stimulate a request for a job interview, and really help sell you to an employer -- much more so than everyday job duties. In the above-cited study byCareer Masters Institute, content elements that propel employers to immediately discard resumes include a focus on duties instead of accomplishments, while documented achievements were highly ranked among content elements that employers look for.
For more about how to identify your accomplishments, see our article,For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments. You may want to use our Accomplishments Worksheet to help you brainstorm your achievements.
Some job-seekers list accomplishments in a separate section or isolate accomplishments from duties/responsibilities when describing their job functions. I don't support this practice because everything on your resume should be accomplishments-driven. If you label only certain items as accomplishments, the reader's assumption is that the other things you did were not accomplishments.
Be sure also that the accomplishments you list support your career goals and that you tailor them to the job you're targeting with this resume.
3. Resume items are listed in an order that doesn't consider the reader's interest. 
"The Resume Ingredients Rule," set forth by Donald Asher, author of numerous resume books (see our Q&A with him), says that information on a resume should be listed in order of importance to the reader. Therefore, in listing your jobs, what's generally most important is your title/position. So list in this preferred order: Title/position, name of employer, city/state of employer, dates of employment. I can't tell you how many resumes I've seen that list dates first. Dates can be important to some employers, but they're generally not as important as what your position was and whom you worked for.
Education follows the same principle; thus, the preferred order for listing your education is: Name of degree (spelled out: Bachelor of _____) in name of major, name of university, city/state of university, graduation year, followed by peripheral information, such as minor and GPA. If you haven't graduated yet, list your information the same way. Since the graduation date you've listed is in the future, the employer will know you don't have the degree yet.
By the way, the Resume Ingredients Rule is also the reason that experience and education are listed in reverse chronological order on your resume; it's assumed that your most recent education and experience are most important and relevant to the reader.
Also consider whether your education or your experience is your best selling point and which should therefore be listed first. Generally, brand-new graduates list education first, while job-seekers with a few years of experience list experience first. When job-seekers add value to their education by attaining an MBA or other graduate degree, they often switch education back to the more prominent position because it now becomes the hot selling point. In fields such as science and higher education, in which education remains a more important selling point than experience, education tends to be listed first consistently. In many countries outside the U.S., education is also considered more important than experience.
4. Resume exposes the job-seeker to age discrimination by going too far back into the job-seeker's job history.
The rule of thumb for someone at the senior level is to list about 15 years worth of jobs. Age discrimination, unfortunately, is a reality, and even more likely, employers may think you're too expensive if you list too much experience on your resume. Similarly, don't provide the date of your college graduation if it was more than about 10 years ago. Read more in our articles, Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Strategies for Older Workers and Positive Attitude is Key When Fighting Prejudice Against Older Workers.
5. Resume buries important skills, especially computer skills, at the bottom.
There are few jobs today for which computer skills are not important. Yet many job-seekers, even those in technology fields, tend to tack a "Computer Skills" section to the end of their resumes. If computer skills are relevant to your field, list them in your Summary or Profile section. That way, they'll catch the reader's eye in the first third of your resume. If you are in the technology field, list your technical skills in a separate section called something like "Systems Proficiencies," but be sure it's on the first page of your resume. You may want to set your skills up in a reader-friendly table, as in these samples: IT Resume and New Grad IT Resume.
Similarly if language and international-business skills are important in the type of job you seek, list them in your Summary or Profile section, not at the end of your resume.
6. Resume is not bulleted.
Use a bulleted style to make your resume more reader-friendly. In the above-cited study by Career Masters Institute, use of bullets was the 2nd-highest ranked preference by employers, and density of type (paragraphs rather than bullet points) was ranked highly as a factor that would inspire employers to discard a resume.
Use bullets consistently. Some job-seekers bullet most of their resume but don't bullet the Profile/Summary section, for example. Or they will list the overall scope and responsibilities for each job in an unbulleted section before beginning a bulleted section describing accomplishments. Given that the reader can't easily discern a rationale for why some material is bulleted and other material isn't, it's best to bullet consistently throughout the resume.
7. Resume uses a cookie-cutter design based on an overused resume template.
Most resumes created from a Microsoft Word template are instantly recognizable to employers as such. There's nothing wrong with that except that employers have seen a million of them, so they don't stand out. The employer immediately senses a certain lack of imagination in the job-seeker. These templates are also somewhat inflexible and contain problematic formatting. "Using a template or any kind of boilerplate to demonstrate your value to a company is the worst thing you can do to yourself when job hunting," says Nick Corcodilos of Ask The Headhunter. "You're supposed to be uniquely qualified so the company will choose you instead of some cookie-cutter drone -- right? Do you really want a template?"
8. Resume lacks keywords.
Job-hunting today increasingly revolves around the mysterious world of keywords. Employers' reliance on keywords to find the job candidates they want to interview has come about in recent years because of technology. Inundated by resumes from job-seekers, employers have increasingly relied on digitizing job-seeker resumes, placing those resumes in keyword-searchable databases, and using software to search those databases for specific keywords that relate to job vacancies. Most Fortune 1000 companies, in fact, and many smaller companies now use these technologies. In addition, many employers search the databases of third-party job-posting and resume-posting boards on the Internet. Pat Kendall, president of the National Resume Writers' Association, notes that more than 80 percent of resumes are searched for job-specific keywords.
The bottom line is that if you apply for a job with a company that searches databases for keywords, and your resume doesn't have the keywords the company seeks for the person who fills that job, you are pretty much dead in the water. To read more about keywords and how to identify the best ones for your field, see our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness.
9. References are listed directly on your resume.
Never list specific references directly on your resume. List them on a separate sheet, and even then, submit them only when specifically requested by an employer.
Even the phrase, "References: Available upon request," is highly optional because it is a given that you will provide references upon request. If you couldn't, you would have no business looking for a job. The line can serve the purpose of signaling: "This is the end of my resume," but if you are trying to conserve space, leave it off.
10. Resume's appearance becomes skewed when sent as an e-mail attachment and/or resume is not available in other electronic formats.
Have you ever noticed that when you send a resume (or any document) as an attachment from your computer to someone else's computer, it sometimes doesn't look the same on the other person's computer as it did on yours? Maybe it has more pages on the other computer, or maybe Page 2 starts at the bottom of Page 1, or maybe the fonts are different.
If you are regularly sending your resume as an e-mail attachment, you may want to experiment with sending it to friends' computers to ensure that the formatting appears consistently from computer to computer.
Beyond a resume that can be sent as an e-mail attachment, it's crucial these days to have at least one type of electronic version of your resume for sending via e-mail and posting to Internet job boards. It's an absolute must these days because, as noted earlier, 80 percent of resumes today are placed directly into keyword-searchable databases. Read more in our article, The Top 10 Things You Need to Know about E-Resumes and Posting Your Resume Online. A text version of your resume is the most common and preferred format for electronic resumes. Read more about them and about other electronic formats you might need in our article,Your E-resume's File Format Aligns with its Delivery Method.

by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_mistakes.html

11 Mistakes to Avoid During a Divorce

Mistake 1 - Expecting fair and cooperative behaviour from your spouse

Most people facing a divorce are emotionally vulnerable and upset, and many are in a state of denial. People often tell their solicitor that "my spouse would never behave in that way". Although a good divorce solicitor will do their best to prevent disagreement and encourage collaboration, sometimes this is not possible.

Our advice - be aware that your spouse may be looking out for number 1. Once you are involved in a court case, you are part of an adversarial system. You may wish to adopt an attitude of lower expectations, expecting the worse and be surprised. However if yours is the sort of marriage where you think you can sensibly negotiate with your spouse, where you are both thinking realistically and are prepared to compromise to reach a reasonable settlement, we recommend you give serious thought to the collaborative law process.

Mistake 2 - Having totally unrealistic expectations or demands on what you are gaining from a divorce

Too many people start divorce proceedings expecting that they will get everything they want. Often those demands are exaggerated. Since finances, children, property, a business or a pension are in dispute, you will need to make your demands reasonable and not expect that you will get everything.

Our advice - the key in approaching divorce is to have realistic expectations, focus on problem solving and do everything you can to help your own case.

Mistake 3 - Withholding information from your divorce solicitor

Some people do not trust their solicitors, even though the solicitor is representing them. By withholding information about their future plans or financial assets, they try to maintain control over the situation. Some try to pull the wool over their solicitors' eyes but most end up fooling themselves.

Our advice - you need to present a clear slate of what your motives are and if you want your solicitor to do an effective job, they need the whole truth.

Mistake 4 - Allowing emotions rather than logic to rule your legal decisions

Many people going through divorce are emotionally distraught, or they think they are right 100% of the time and they are being victimised by some evil person. If you let your emotions gain control rather than reason and logic, you will undermine your own case.

Our advice - become reflective rather than reactive. Anxious people often don't hear what is said correctly nor do they express themselves well.

Mistake 5 - Not asking appropriate questions or signing documentation without asking questions

Many people are intimidated by the divorce process and even sometimes by their own solicitors, and instead of asking questions accept everything in blind faith. That doesn't work. Instead make sure that you ask as many questions about your settlement as you would if you were buying a car or a house. Be thoughtful and analytical.

Our advice - ask your solicitor for an honest view of what your chances are to obtain assets, home and money. Decide what it is that you really want, and then ask questions of your solicitor to make sure you do everything to get what you realistically want.

Mistake 6 - Expecting the legal system to be fair and the court will see things from your point of view

No matter how much you think you are right, the judge can see issues from another viewpoint, not always yours. Furthermore because of procedural rules, judges often rule on limited information. They don't care if you are nice.

Our advice - don't expect that your viewpoint, no matter how fair and reasonable, will prevail. The more skeptical and balanced you are, the better you can solve problems and obtain the most favourable outcome.

Mistake 7 - Not checking facts or figures given to you

Contrary to popular belief, solicitors are human. They make mistakes. Equally your spouse may not have given the correct information or be withholding information.

Our advice - although many people are intimidated by complicated court forms, or simply want the divorce sorted as soon as possible, you must read all documents to ensure accuracy. Once something enters a judges' memory, or worse still, is incorrectly recorded in a court order, it may be too late to correct.

Mistake 8 - Allowing too much time to pass

Understandably too many people going through divorce proceedings don't want to be bothered by rules and court deadlines. They might just ignore the problem and hope that it will disappear.

Our advice - although you should never be rushed into anything by your solicitor, don't unnecessarily postpone decisions or put off providing requested information. Especially don't delay providing information ordered by the court. Equally if the court order is made and you need to enforce it, don't allow too much time to pass.

Mistake 9 - Not taking independent financial advice

Divorce proceedings involve all your assets, including property and pension, all of which have tax implications.

Our advice - make sure you understand the consequences of divorce. Do you know whether child maintenance is tax deductible? Likewise the best method of handling your new financial situation? Do you have the correct life assurances and the best pension plan for your new life?

Mistake 10 - Not knowing your own financial position

Many people in a divorce, especially woman, have no idea what they really have financially.

Our advice - you need to make sure that you are aware of every asset and investment, from pensions through to life assurance, and make sure you have full documentation. Make sure that you have duplicates of all the necessary documentation - this information will put you in a better negotiating position and should save you money as your solicitor won't have to bill you for time spent down-tracking down the documents. Read every financial statement and make sure you understand them - if not make sure you ask.

Mistake 11 - Don't assume that you know what your future financial position will be

Many people assume that there is a straight 50/50 split of the family assets. Whilst this may well be appropriate in long marriages where there are no dependent children, it may not be appropriate in other cases - eg. short marriages, cases with dependent children or where the parties earning potential are significantly different. An equal division of family assets is not necessarily fair.

Our advice - Don't assume your spouse will act in a certain way, and don't agree something with them without first taking legal advice from a specialist family law solicitor.

http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/11-mistakes-to-avoid-during-a-divorce-1533012.html

Independence Day

12 Travel Mistakes Not to Make

Travel mishaps can happen to even the most seasoned travelers. When one frustrated Fodor's member recently vented about booking the wrong flights for an upcoming trip, several fellow Forums posters empathized by disclosing their own slip-ups. Here are a few of the do's and don'ts that came out of this group confession.

Do look carefully at flight times and dates before booking
"I made our reservations for Peru, have been wanting to go all my life. Got a great deal on Delta, $808 per person round trip from D.C. Booked and paid. Then realized 3 days later that I had booked a return flight at midnight on Sunday morning instead of Monday morning. It was the midnight timing that got me confused. Called Delta, and cried profusely on the phone when I was told that the rate change means that each of us has to pay $500 to change the ticket." -- shared by emd
Tip: Sometimes even double and triple-checking travel dates will fail you. Be loyal to the airlines with inexpensive flight change policies and responsive customer service to alleviate your booking anxiety.

Do hold your tongue and check your flight's seating chart
"I had asked for a window seat on a flight from Saigon to Paris, and was issued with boarding pass 9C. Realising "C" could not be a window seat, I took it back and had it changed. Too late, I realised I had previously been upgraded to business class, on a long, long flight, and had now successfully downgraded myself. The check-in lady had said not a word, either time, but it was my mistake for not realising. Too stupid for words!" -- shared by Carrabella

Don't postpone travel to a destination with favorable currency exchange rates
"Now, the most stupid travel mistake...not going to Europe even more often when the exchange rates were even better!" -- shared by dukey
Tip: If the dollar is your home currency, you may wish to consider:

Don't cancel the credit card tied to your reservations
"Canceled my credit card when I got mad about a rate increase, only to realize as we're trying to check into a Paris hotel that doing so caused the hotel to cancel my reservation.." -- shared by TravelNut
Tip: Make all flight, hotel, and car reservations with one single card to reduce the number of cards connected to your future travel plans. Be sure to print reservations in advance and make a note of the card you used to book them.

Do take a good look around your car before setting out on a road trip
"Long solo road trip for work with many tolls. I called my husband in frustration and told him that he better make sure I had the EZPass before I go on another trip again. He was very calm and told me that I did in fact have the EZPass. Yup. There it was...right behind my rear view mirror. I double paid—a lot." -- shared by reneeinva

Do a mental run-through of your departure day ahead of time
"I made pre-cruise reservations very early last year knowing that the Miami Marathon was going on. Reserved in Fort Lauderdale using free points and thought we'd shuttle back to airport and take cruise shuttle to Miami pier. Somewhere in the 6 months that followed I forgot and we took a taxi to the Fort Lauderdale port. Imagine my surprise when the biggest cruise ship wasn't there! It then hit me...oh yeah, it cruises out of Miami! It was an expensive taxi ride, but my husband knew better than to say anything...verbal or nonverbal (such as rolling eyes, etc). -- shared by LLindaC
Tip: Don't let a rocky start spoil your trip. Toast your agreeable travel partner when you are finally at sea or in the sky— at least you made it!
Do consider the season of your destination
"I took an around-the-world trip by myself when I finished all my schooling. I had been extremely busy and didn't have time to thoroughly research the destinations. My biggest surprise was arriving in Sidney, Australia in August and not realizing it was their winter. I traveled extremely lightly and had the equivalent of a large gym bag of clothing. My solution to this was to wear ALL my clothes to stay warm. I looked like a bag lady when attending Evita one night at their beautiful Broadway style theatre." -- shared by ncounty
Don't assume just any hotel in a beach destination will do
"Years ago I planned what I thought was to be a beach vacation for my non-traveling boyfriend and myself, but booked us into a downtown hotel in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (not having researched the lay of the land). Boy I laid on that bed and cried. Fortunately a kind bellhop told us "You need to go up to Puerto Plata instead" and somehow helped get us on a bus and to the other side of the island." -- shared by suze
Tip: Plug the address of your hotel into Google maps for a quick look at where it is in relation to the rest of your destination.
Do book a room for every night of your stay
"I do have to be careful when booking consecutive hotel stays. More than once, I've left us without accommodation because I've thought "ok, we'll check out of this hotel on X and into that hotel on Y" not realizing that leaves us without a hotel room on the night of X." -- shared by goddesstogo
Don't assume your hotel room's rate won't change
"Last year, on my way to Bangalore, India, I stopped in Paris and stayed at a nice room in the Tim Hotel in Montparnasse. I had reservations for a different hotel in the area for my return, but the Tim hotel's location was so convenient for catching the Air France to the Airport, and besides, they agreed to keep an extra bag I would not need in India, that I decided to cancel my reservations at the other hotel. Big mistake. I thought they would charge me the same rate (an internet rate) of my previous stay, and did not check beforehand. Besides getting a lousy room, they overcharged close to 100 euros because there was a big sports competition in Paris that night (can't remember what sport)." -- shared by Brazilnut
Do update your driver's license
"Not renewing my drivers license on time—seems that rental car agencies prefer to only rent their vehicles to legal drivers! It was 4 weeks after I had delivered my daughter...and that minor detail was the last thing on my mind...until I was rejected!" -- shared by miller20621
Do carry a good map with you at all times
"Hopped on a bus in Honolulu convinced I knew where I was going. Ended up at a deserted strip of businesses in the dead of night on the other side of the island, where the driver told me 'this is as far as I go' and laughed himself silly when I told him where I was headed." -- shared by Melnq8

http://www.fodors.com/news/story_3214.html

The 10 biggest mistakes people make on twitter

If you missed the first installment in this series on the 10 biggest mistakes people make on various social media websites, you can see it here: 10 biggest mistakes people make on Stumble Upon. For this article, I am looking over the ever popular twitter. In 140 characters or less you can keep people updated with your lives. Micro blogging times ten, you could say. Twitter is a great tool, not only for making connections with a large amount of people, but it is also a great tool to promote yourself, build your brand and help others while you’re at it. However, some people get it all wrong. I’ve done a few items on this list too, and have worked to change it and hope by the end of this article, you’ve picked up a couple tips on how to better your twitter experience as well.

Adding too many people at one time

So you want to promote yourself as a social media expert, yet you’ve got 100 people following you, while you’re following 15,000? How does that really portray you? It not only makes you look desperate but it also shows that you’re not on twitter to build relationships with people, only to gain a vast amount of followers in order to spam them with your links. Take it slow, let the follows come naturally.

Tweeting too many personal tweets

If you’re tweeting 3-4 times a day about what you ate, where you slept at and what movie you’re dying to see, the odds of people reading your tweets and catching the hidden gems you drop about your business and other links to other great resources is very low. A lot of people use twitter to connect for business purposes and I know personally, I do not like following people who tweet with 80% personal notes and 10-15% their own links and only 5% other resources.

Not tweeting enough personal tweets

Get this through your head – we are not robots :) People do have to see a personal side of you or you seem unapproachable and distant from the people you’re following. For instance, I like to tell a lot of jokes, so when I tweet with people and am talking about business, I mix in some jokes and random funny things with my business and resource tweets. It’s got to be a good blend though, so don’t fall into a non stop comedy fest :) Balance is key.

Using the default twitter layout

If you’re after attention but you seem to be growing your network at a slow rate, don’t blame everyone else. Blame your default twitter layout. If you are a professional and want to be seen as so, take a few minutes to either create an information packed twitter background, or at least something with some style. Who knows, you might even get featured in an article about twitter layouts and end up gaining a lot of subscribers because of it!

Not using a distinctive twitter avatar

This is one of the biggest mistakes I made when I started using twitter. I used the robot head that I have on my blog design company website and virtually no one could make the personal connection to me with that as my avatar. I have since changed it to the image I am using now on all social media websites and have seen an improvement in my personal branding.

Only tweeting about yourself

Are you the type of person who checks in on the twitter grader and sees the biggest words you tweet about as “I’m”, “Me” and “I” then you need to read this one very close. Tweet about other people. Spread the love. Pay it forward. If you want people to ignore you, tweet about yourself all day. If not, then start talking about some other people and pass along useful information you see along the way.

Using auto Follow / auto Direct Messaging scripts

Scream at the person who just added you with these scripts, letting them know you’re a spammer and you don’t care about the community. Listen, twitter, along with every other social media website is driven by the community being sociable with each other. If you jump into random conversations only to spam them with your services, it’s going to be much harder to brand yourself as a credible source. So, please, please, please do not use these scripts.

Selling in your tweets

You want to tell people about the services you offer? Do it in your bio. Put your URL there and leave it at that. Focus your time on creating quality filled tweets and interact with the people you would like to do business with. If they like you, they’ll look into what you do and hire you because they enjoy what you’re saying and believe you are a valuable source, not just someone who spams the twitter world with random “buy from me” tweets.

Not leveraging the power of a Re-Tweet

This ties in with the only tweeting about yourself mistake because when you RT (re-tweet) a message, it not only shows your twitter followers that you’re on the look out for quality links and they need to pay attention to you, but it also shows the person who you’re re-tweeting that they are smart, intelligent people who you enjoy listening to. It’s a win/win situation.

You are not following me yet!

OK, OK. Shameless self promotion here. Yes, I am on twitter. Yes, I would love if you were to follow me. Yes, I would probably cry for a week if I found out you read this article and then DIDN’T follow me. So help me keep my feelings inside. Head over to my twitter profile and follow me. I’ll follow you back :)

http://www.guerrillafreelancing.com/the-10-biggest-mistakes-people-make-on-twitter/