Given the current environment, many marketers are dusting off their resumes and trying to remember what they actually did over the past several years. Applications for jobs are at record highs, and many talented marketers are on the market. To add to the mix, a marketer\u2019s resume is judged by a higher standard.<\/p>\n
Typically, recruiters and hiring managers can\u2019t spend more than a few seconds browsing your resume before they move on to the next one. Don\u2019t let these common resume pitfalls derail your chances of getting that interview.<\/p>\n
1. Don\u2019t state the obvious.<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course getting a job is the objective of your resume, so there\u2019s no need to say it. We recommend you avoid headers like \u201cCareer Objective\u201d or \u201cGoal\u201d. Instead, opt for a header like \u201cSummary\u201d or \u201cCareer Profile\u201d, followed by a sentence or two that succinctly summarizes your experience and tells your story.<\/p>\n 2. Give the reader \u201cvisual breaths\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a fancy way of saying \u201cwhite space is your friend\u201d. As we said earlier, your resume has only a few seconds to grab the recruiter\u2019s attention. If it\u2019s jam-packed with copy, the reader is likely to feel overwhelmed and click \u201cpass\u201d. Use white space to create digestible bites.<\/p>\n This applies to margins too. If you had to use .2 margins to fit your resume to two pages, get rid of something.<\/p>\n 3. Keep it straight with parallelism.<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope, we\u2019re not talking about geometry. Parallelism means each of your resume bullets should begin with a verb. So \u201cManaged\u201d, \u201cLed\u201d, \u201cSpearheaded\u201d. Do not mix and match with other parts of speech. And make sure you use active verbs \u2013 \u201cManage\u201d packs more punch than \u201cManaging\u201d.<\/p>\n The rule of consistency also applies to your entire resume – the type of bullets you use, the way you format the dates for each position, whether your bullets end with a period or not. (Geeky grammar rule: if the bullet is not a complete sentence, then no period.)<\/p>\n 4. Break up with the ampersand on your keyboard.<\/strong><\/p>\n Your resume is a formal document. Ampersands (&) have no place on that piece of paper. Spell out the word \u201cand\u201d unless it\u2019s an official title such as \u201cVice President, Sales & Marketing\u201d.<\/p>\n While we\u2019re playing English professor, let\u2019s also talk about numbers. The golden rule \u2013 any number under 10 should be written out. \u00a0So \u201cseven\u201d not \u201c7\u201d. (Hint: check out the title of this post.) The editorial exception is for percentages \u2013 7% is cool.<\/p>\n