Most embarrassing interview moment in my job search:
Interviewer: on your resume it says you do this ____ and this_____. What exactly does that mean?
Me: Um…. um… it says that? Where does it say that?
I had no idea what it meant. I had borrowed a resume from my dad, who had his resume professionally written.
I edited a lot of it, but in the list of characteristics or skills or strengths, I left most of it there. I was a general manager and though the stuff he had there applied to me, too.
It did, to a degree, but when questioned on one specific thing, I choked. I made a mistake and was surprised to be questioned on it.
No, I didn’t get the job.
But from now on I’ll carefully think about the resume, my personal marketing document.
PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ THAT STUFF?
Yes, they do. Even though we’re told they spend a max of 10 seconds on a resume, they might actually find something and call you on it.
So, read yours today. Make sure it fits you 100%. Look for:
- Things you might get questioned on, like I was. Can you answer questions, preferably with stories, on every single thing on your resume?
- Typos and grammar. I know, I know, you’ve done this before. Here’s a tip I got from a friend who proofread a catalog regularly: “read it backwards.” There’s something that happens when we read forward… we can easily miss spelling and grammar mistakes. Somehow our brain skips over them because the brain knows what it is supposed to say. But if you read backwards you read one word at a time, out of context. Try it the next time you have to proofread something.
- Proper resume language. Like, in the bullet points we’re told to start them with action verbs, instead of something more passive.
These are just a few things to look for. Clean it up, make it tighter, and as a favor to me, make sure you know what’s on your resume 🙂
