The Fatal Resume Errors College Students are Making

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Today’s CareerSparx guest post is by Cheryl Minnick, a career counselor and internship coordinator at The University of Montana.

Cramming the highlights of your college education, work experience, community volunteerism, international travel, campus leadership, academic honors and professional internships … phew … onto one piece of 8” x 11” paper can be tricky. Trickier yet is knowing what to add and what to ax. Should you include your high school football wins or successes on the track team? Probably not … unless it draws attention to your unique offerings for a high school coaching or teaching position.

Failing to tailor your resume to a job opening is — next to spelling, grammar, punctuation or language use mistakes — a fatal error. Recruiters quickly scan resumes to decide your value proposition and potential fit. The key is to tailor your resume so it showcases your professional uniqueness and articulates what you can do for the employer, the areas of expertise you bring and your themed competency categories that focus on your major successes, skills and abilities. Four other frequent errors college students make on their resumes include:

1) Misrepresenting the Degree Earned

Do you know the degree you earned? Bet it wasn’t a bachelorette degree. Did you earn an AA, BA or BS in business? Was it in simply business or in business management? Did you complete an “emphasis,” “option” or “concentration” within your major? Did you complete a complementary “minor?” Don’t guess — review your college catalog, official transcript or diploma for accuracy. Nobody wants to hire an employee who misrepresents themselves or fails to fact check.

2) Including Years of Attendance

Recruiters want to know when you will graduate or when you graduated, because they want to know when they can hire you. Honestly, they care less about how long it took and more about the value you might add to their company. Including on your resume “B.S., Business Management (2006-2010)” tells the recruiter you attended college four years from 2006-2010; it does not tell them you graduated. It is much clearer to write, “B.S., Business Management (May 2010).”

3) Using Resume Wizard in Word

In our current economy with a reported eight people for every one job, using a template to create a document identical to millions of other recent graduates’ resumes is a straight route for your resume to the circular file. Create a strong, distinctive marketing document by reviewing current resume books, making an appointment with a career counselor in your college’s career services office or hiring a professional resume writer. You aren’t like everyone else — so, showcase your varied experiences uniquely.

4) Including Irrelevant Hobbies

Hobbies, interests and volunteer activities should only be included if they support the position you are applying for, buoy your qualifications and/or add to your resume. Your West Virginia cousins, the Hatfields, are no doubt thrilled you won a blue ribbon at the fair for marksmanship, but a hiring director may find it intimidating, perhaps even menacing … unless, of course, you are applying for the police force, CIA or a security company. If you traveled abroad and volunteered to help build a school for orphans and you want a teaching job, then by all means, add that experience to your resume. You want the recruiter to ask you about your experience with children, not your blue ribbon for riflery.

Cheryl Minnick, a career counselor and internship coordinator at The University of Montana, is one of only 33 Nationally Certified Resume Writers in the nation, and owner of The Paper Trail Career Consulting. She specializes in helping students identify their unique career talents and assists them in securing meaningful employment, crafting remarkable resumes and memorable cover letters. Samples of her creative cover letters and tailored resumes were published in “Step-by-Step Cover Letters“  by Evelyn Salvador and in “Designing the Perfect Resume (Resumes That Pop!)” by Pat Criscito. Her job searching tips are featured in “The Twitter Job Search Guide” by Susan Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan and Deb Dib, and soon, her resume samples may be featured on AOL/Emurse. Cheryl can be contacted via e-mail at cminnick@mso.umt.edu.

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