Smart Women Society: How to write the perfect resume and CV mistakes

An Australian career coach has revealed the three resume mistakes you should never make if you want to nab your dream job.

The faux pas include having a resume longer than two pages, adding a picture of yourself and full address and including all of your past work experience.

The tips were shared to TikTok by Smart Women Society, a page dedicated to helping women ‘win at life’ and find success.

 

An Australian career coach shared the three resume mistakes you should never make if you want to get a job

What are the 3 common resume mistakes you should never make?

1. Having a resume longer than two pages

2. Including a picture of yourself or address

3. Including all of your past work experience

The career coach said resumes should never be longer than two pages because ‘recruiters look at your resume for an average of seven seconds’.

‘Keep it to the point and succinct.’ 

The second common mistake is including your picture or full address as ‘the recruiter only needs to know the city and state that you live in’.

The final mistake is including all of your past work experience.

‘Only include stuff that’s relevant and valuable to your application,’ she said. 

Followers of the Smart Woman Society were grateful for the advice.

‘Thanks for the tip,’ one woman said.

The society make career game plans and templates for budgeting to help women plan and save, they also share job advice and budgeting tips online.

How to sound more confident at work: 

* Replace: This might be a silly question

   With: I wanted to ask

* Replace: Let me know if that makes sense

   With: Do you have any questions?

* Replace: I just wanted to see if you finished x

   With: Do you have an update on the status of x?

* Replace: I’ll have [task] finished by x, if that’s okay

   With: I’ll have [task] finished by x

* Replace: If you have time, could you…

   With: I’m looking to have x done by [date], is this possible for you?

* Replace: Sorry I don’t understand

 With: Can you please expand on that for me?

(source: smartwomensociety) 

They previously shared advice on what to wear to a job interview

‘Look at the company’s website or social media pages and get a feel for what their staff wear to work,’ a career coach said.

‘Then always dress one level higher than what their team wears.’

She explained that if the team dress casually, you should wear smart casual clothes and if they dress in business professional style, wear professional clothes. 

Previously an Australian career coach and recruitment consultant revealed the words and phrases to avoid using in a resume for greater chance of success.

Simon Bennett, from Glide Outplacement and Career Coaching, told Seek it’s essential to avoid the inclusion of common ‘buzzwords’ – including ‘punctual’, ‘motivated’, ‘loyal’, ‘energetic’, ‘team player’, ‘enthusiastic’, ‘client-focused’ and ‘a people person’.

‘These words are frequently overused and rarely backed up with concrete examples,’ Bennett said. 

Simon Bennett, from Glide Outplacement and Career Coaching, told Seek it’s essential to avoid the inclusion of common ‘buzzwords’

Simon Bennett, from Glide Outplacement and Career Coaching, told Seek it’s essential to avoid the inclusion of common ‘buzzwords’

Carefully selecting the right wording for a resume is crucial as this allows the employer to feel confident that you are the perfect individual for the job and business.

Bennett explained job seekers often use these popular words to ‘sound competent’, but employers want to see how the candidate embodies these characteristics.

‘Almost every employer will be looking for these [common] traits but anyone can say they possess them,’ he said, and so it’s important to give examples in addition to the trait itself. 

Carefully selecting the right wording for a resume is crucial as this allows the employer to feel confident that you are the perfect individual for the job and business

Carefully selecting the right wording for a resume is crucial as this allows the employer to feel confident that you are the perfect individual for the job and business

The words you should change on your resume

Replace these words:

  • Loyal
  • Energetic
  • Punctual
  • Motivated
  • Hardworking
  • Team player

With powerful action verbs such as:

  • Developed (e.g. ‘I developed a new training manual’)
  • Achieved (e.g. ‘I achieved all my sales targets’)
  • Managed (e.g. ‘I managed a team of three’)
  • Initiated (e.g. ‘I initiated a health and safety program’)

 Source: Seek

Rather than using the words themselves, replace them with a powerful action verb – such as avoid ‘motivated’ and instead use ‘developed’ or ‘achieved’, then follow with an example.

‘These types of action verbs capture attention and excite the reader,’ Bennett said.

‘These words help to highlight your skills and abilities and demonstrate the success you have achieved in previous jobs.’ 

Julian Williamson, director and founder of The Jobseeker Agency, supported this and said on Twitter: ‘Without supporting evidence to show that you have those characteristics, buzzwords are merely words which many other people also use and therefore have little value.’

You can demonstrate abilities by explaining how long you stayed with an organisation, how you are ‘client-focused’, what you achieved in your previous role or how you exceeded expectations from your boss or client. 

Bennett explained job seekers often use these words to ‘sound competent’, but employers want to see how the candidate embodies these characteristics

Bennett explained job seekers often use these words to ‘sound competent’, but employers want to see how the candidate embodies these characteristics

Williamson also said a company is more likely to look for a specific desired skill rather than ‘enthusiastic’ or ‘hardworking’ traits.

‘It is far better to use facts and figures where possible, provide evidence of where you have used skills or had achievements so the reader can gain a comprehensive overview of your previous roles and responsibilities,’ Williamson told Seek.

‘This will add far more value than sprinkling overused buzzwords in your resume.’

To assist those writing their resume, Seek has a range of free tips and advice anyone can access on the career advice section of the website.

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk