5 ways to sabotage your resume

Unless you’re a professional resume writer, creating a winning resume isn’t easy. Writing a good resume takes time and effort, but writing a bad resume—one that’s bound to go unread and end up in the trash—is easy. In fact, the easier it is for you to write your resume, the greater the chances that you have sabotaged your resume.

Here are 5 surefire ways to sabotage your resume:

1. Use soft skills descriptions on your resume
Soft skills are claimed by almost all candidates and they are so common that hiring managers pay no attention to them. Don’t bore your reader with these tired and overused phrases. After all, you would not write that you eat too much lunch, that you are lazy, that you are afraid of change or that you argue a lot with your colleagues.

Here are a few you may have already included on your resume:

• excellent communication skills
• motivated by his goals
• strong work ethic
• multitask
• nice presenter
• goal-oriented
• detail oriented

Instead, write descriptions that are action-based and demonstrate these abilities rather than just claim them; show don’t tell

For example, instead of simply saying you’re a great presenter, you could say something like Developed and presented over 50 multimedia presentations to C-level prospects, resulting in 35 new accounts totaling $300,000 in new revenue.

2. Give away your age.
Many older workers are facing that terrifying moment known as early retirement and fear age discrimination. One trap many people fall into is believing that they can counteract this by showing that they are not ready for the nursing home. Instead of helping your resume, you’re messing with hiring laws and may make the problem you’re trying to hide stand out in neon letters.

Age, health, appearance Phrases to avoid:

• young
• energetic
• youth
• athletic
• fit
• healthy
• professional appearance
• ripe

Read this: Young-at-heart healthy executive ready to make a difference instead of playing golf all day. Fit and fit marathon runner seeks job as xxxxxxxxx, the person might as well have written a 57-year-old man terrified of ageism and worried he’d be passed over for a younger candidate.

3. Use a passive voice on your resume.
The problem with the passive voice is that it is just that: passive! Your resume should have punch and shine and make you look like a proactive achiever. You can’t do that while using the passive voice.

Passive voice indicative phrases:

• responsible of
• homework included
• served as
• actions covered

Instead of saying Responsible for managing 3 direct reports, change it to Managed 3 direct reports. It is a shorter and more direct mode of writing and adds impact to the way the resume is read.

4. Go over the top
The passive voice should be avoided, but also exaggerated sentences. Action verbs are great, but make sure you don’t overdo it.

Here are some exaggerated phrases you see on resumes:

• numbers smashed through the ceiling
• electrified sales team to produce
• pushed the closing rate by 10 percent

Shock value does just that, shock. It’s not the feeling you want the reader to have, so remember to keep your resume professional and don’t overdo it.

5. Myers-Briggs and DISC profiles
If you’ve ever done one of these personality and style profiles, such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator or the DISC profile, you can be very proud of the results. The truth is that employers and recruiters are more interested in performance results. Don’t inadvertently pigeonhole yourself by including your profile results on your resume.

Extra error, not reviewing your resume.
You would never dream of writing on your resume you don’t pay attention to detail, or you can’t spell, you don’t know grammar or punctuation. I don’t know the difference between: they and there or where and wear, so why would you let your resume demonstrate such things?

Just doing the spell check once is not enough, you have to manually check it and then check it again. Give it to a second or third person to review as well.

A resume is a marketing document for your career just as a brochure is a marketing document for a product or service. Make sure you market yourself how you want to be perceived.