The most common resume mistakes that I see on a daily basis are all related to content. Structure and format hang people up a lot, too, but even the most beautifully laid out resume in the world is useless without the content that makes an employer pay attention.<\/p>\n
What can you do to ensure an employer wants to call you? Two things: show<\/strong> the employer you have the skills through the tasks you performed, and prove<\/strong> your abilities through the accomplishments you achieved.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll show you what I mean.<\/p>\n Responsible for answering phones and filing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A sentence like the above example doesn\u2019t provide any context to understand the role you played in the organization. Passive phrasing like \u201cresponsible for\u201d is too vague and doesn\u2019t tell a story. What exactly did you do? What skills did you use? What can you do as a result of this experience that could translate to the next one? These are the kinds of things an employer wants to know.<\/p>\n Often I\u2019ll ask a few questions about a student\u2019s experience and find they did far more than answer phones and file, which generates multiple statements to showcase skills and accomplishments:<\/p>\n –Managed front desk operations for a busy office, handling multi-line phone system and calendars for four senior leaders Passive phrases encourage you to merely list the duties of your position, rather than explain the skills gained as a result of that position (see also: Assisted with, helped with,<\/em> and worked with)<\/em>. Students often use these phrases when they didn\u2019t have sole responsibility over a task or project. You\u2019ll need to re-frame how you\u2019re thinking about your experiences to get past this mindset:<\/p>\n –Think about what you can do now that you couldn\u2019t do before you started that position.
\n–Coordinated travel arrangements and tracked expenses using Excel
\n–Revamped filing system to improve efficiency and prevent lost client data<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n–Consider the actions you took and the results of those actions.
\n–Describe your experiences so that they tell the story of your time with that organization and focus on the skills that the new employer is hiring for.<\/p>\n