While looking for a job, the first leg of your preparation involves putting together an impressive resume. You need to create a resume that will not just catch attention of the recruiter but also create a lasting impression. Whether you are just out of college looking for a fresher job or an experienced professional looking for jobs in India for senior profiles, your resume speaks a lot about you. So, you would want you come up with an impeccable document that effectively sells your skills in front of the interviewer even before you have met him. While you will get a lot of ‘What to write’ advice from experienced people on preparing a resume, there is also some ‘What to avoid’ advice that you need to be able to produce a winning resume.

In this article, you will read about some popular mistakes that can be spotted on jobseekers’ resumes. You need to avoid making these mistakes.

1. A focus-less resume

No matter how much time you put in to prepare your resume, always remember that a recruiter will spend not more than 20-25 seconds to screen your resume and deciding whether or not he wants to read it in detail. So, a resume that lacks focus is hard to go past the screening in that first glance. If you list information randomly and without a clear objective and strong messaging, your resume will lose out. From the first line itself, you have to make it clear what value you can bring to the organization. You have to map your skills to the benefits that the organization can derive by hiring you. Don’t talk vaguely. Talk in a crisp and sharp manner by clearly stating your career objective followed by your relevant experience and skills. In fact while applying to different companies for

2. A duties-driven resume

While listing your experience in the past, you would be tempted to write about all the duties and responsibilities that you undertook in that job role but the recruiter is not interested in treading that. He wants to know your accomplishments so make your resume talk about your accomplishments and achievements during your past work experience rather that just talking about the duties. This will instantly set you apart from the rest of the candidates. Enlisting responsibilities looks like writing about a job description. You should write about what you did at your job to make an impact and bring success, make more money, save time or expand the business. This is what the recruiter is interested in knowing.

3. Items listed in a mechanical order

While most jobseekers believe that all information should be listed in a chronological order, this can be a wasteful exercise many times. Unless you had an eventful and successful career throughout, you might as well want to write items in an order that would interest the reader. While it is important to mention the dates, it is more important to first write about the stuff that is directly relevant to the job requirement that you have applied to. Always mention those experiences first that are important to the recruiter reading the resume. Similarly, write about those important skills and education first that are relevant to the job role. Don’t bury your most important skills and salient selling points towards the end of the resume. If you have essential computers kills or have learnt a foreign language or any other courses that will aid you perform better in this job, enlist it before other qualifications. This way, the recruiter will be interested in reading the resume because he would know that you are the right person for the job.

4. A non-bulleted resume

No body has the time and inclination to read elaborate paragraphs about you, no matter how qualified or experienced you are. Thus, bullets are sacrosanct for your resume. There is no way you can avoid the usage of bullets in your resume. Bullets make the information more reader-friendly and it is easier to glance through it. Also, use bold sub-headers wherever you can. Make the usage of bullets consistent and not haphazard.

5. A resume riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes

It is a big put off to read a document with spelling and grammatical mistakes and more so if it a resume. It immediately sheds light on the competence and the preparation of the jobseeker so this is one mistake you must avoid. Make sure your resume is proof-read by an expert or a senior before you prepare the final copy. Sometimes, a typing error or a slip can ruin your resume. So, get it checked for any such mistakes by one or two people before you forward it to recruiters.

Keeping these few things in mind, you can prepare a ‘hire-me’ resume that will talk positively about you in front of recruiters and help you get the job you have been looking for.