If you a job Seeker I am sure you have had all the advice on how to ace your interview with a grand CV. Strong formatting, plenty of organization and inclusion of all of your relevant work history and experience are all musts. What you don’t see often, however, are those examples of truly horrible, awful, just plain old bad resumes. Here is an example:

 

The Bad Resume:

Jane Daniel

janedan@gmail.com

Objective

I want to be successful and move up in my career to make a lot of money.

 

Experience

Salesperson, TV Depot, Los Angeles, California

Hired and managed employees

Managed inventory

Customer service

 

Education

UON, Nairobi

Class of 2016

Bachelor Degree

GPA 4.0

Jamhuri  High

Class of 1999

High school

 

Hobbies

Skiing, swimming, archery, traveling

References Available Upon Request

 

The Resume Breakdown

Resume Header

The resume header is uninspiring from a design aspect; it also lacks relevant contact details.  Your header will be the first and most accessible piece of information on any resume. Be sure it contains your name, address, phone number and email contact details.

Objective

An objective statement should be succinct, relevant and help the interviewer or hiring manager understand your goals and motivation for applying for the specific position.  An improvement on this “bad” objective statement could look something like:

To use my experience as a sales manager and knowledge gained through my bachelor’s degree in marketing to earn a marketing job from a major electronics development company.

Also, did anyone catch the misspelling in the word “successful”?  Typos in a resume are a major red flag for an employer and are inexcusable for anyone with spell check or that professes to have superior “attention to detail” skills.

Experience

Listing your prior job responsibilities in the experience portion of your resume isn’t an effective method for communication just why you’re the right candidate for the position.  Be sure to use active sentences and highlight your relevant accomplishments. A great example of better wording here would have been: “Effectively managed team of team of salespeople resulting in exceeding sales goals for 12 months running.”

Education

Where to begin on this section?  While your education background is important, it shouldn’t be the focus of your CV, especially if you have less than stellar results to show from your endeavors.  Here are a few areas where this resume was particularly bad:

• If you choose to use abbreviations in your resume, be sure they are standard across your resume
• If your GPA isn’t going to make the grade, it’s best to leave it off entirely.
• Unless it’s your highest level of education, the name of your high school, or the fact that you obtained a diploma, isn’t relevant and shouldn’t be included on your resume.

Hobbies

Hobbies are a much-contested area when it comes to specifics on your resume.  The general rule of thumb in today’s modern job market is that if it isn’t relevant to your profession or the position you’re applying for, exclude them.  Instead, focus on professional certifications or list out community service activities you participate in to show an extra level of involvement and dedication.

References

Most modern hiring managers know that if they want to see your references they should ask the individual candidate.  Including the tired “references available upon request” line takes up valuable resume space that could be used for extolling your virtues as a candidate.

Overall

A resume should be short, informative snapshots of your skills and experience.  Irrelevant or unprofessional information should be avoided at all costs. Beware of typos.  Give your resume one or more proofreads before hitting send and consider asking a trusted friend or advisor to take a second look.  You only get one chance to make a great first impression; so be sure a bad resume doesn’t tank your chances at scoring that job or career.

Next time make sure your CV is grand!!!

 

By Jane Daniel

Communication Officer –Jobsikaz Afrique

---

Share

0 Likes | Login to Like