How to Lose Your Job Before You Start

Although there can be plenty of factors that can affect your job prospects, I am going to discuss the most common one, plagiarism along with a few other mistakes people make. This is an issue that has widespread implications, beginning from your academic endeavors to affecting your career goals and prospects. Plagiarism, poor grammar and poor sentence structuring are considered as career killers – that too before the individual even has the chance to start his or her new job. In light of this, mentioned below are some of the common mistakes you must avoid when writing your resume in order land a job successfully:

Deadly Mistakes People Make when Drafting their CV

Courtesy: jonkeegan.com

Grammatical Errors and Silly Typos

Careless grammatical mistakes and typos are the direct result of not proofreading your resume after you are done with it. You may think you don’t make mistakes and that it is all too easy – believe me nothing can be farther from the truth. Typos and grammatical errors can be job killers, especially with the hiring manager. Yes, you know how to spell just fine, and you know the details provided at the front and at the back of resume by heart, which is all the more reason you should take a few minutes to proofread for grammatical errors and mundane spelling mistakes. You have spent hours writing up your resume, reading it again to look for errors won’t kill you.

And if you don’t want to proofread it yourself, another good alternative to ensuring that your resume is spik and span is to have a friend go over it with a fresh perspective. There is no question that for some individuals, spelling mistakes and grammar may just leap right off when they go over it, which is why a second opinion can considerably bode well for them.

Plagiarism – A Big, Big No No

Plagiarism has become all too common in this domain as well. And because of the fact that companies have to sift through hundreds and thousands of resumes, all for a single position, they have to pick and choose the best ones. And this is where the problem starts for the candidate applying for the position. A majority of people, in order to have the best resume, outsource the task to different CV, report and letterhead writing services. And although they have no intention to plagiarize, more often than not, the third-party organization ends up copy pasting content from the internet – landing the candidate into trouble. So you have to be confident about the resume writing service and professional resume writer you choose.

For a HR department of any business organization looking to employ the services of college students, it is pertinent to consider some recent statistics, which have identified that over 80% of college students have pleaded guilty to cheating and plagiarism at least once when they were in school or college. Moreover, it was also discovered that 36% plagiarize content directly from the internet while 54% copy and paste material once during their academic undertakings.

So, hiring manager and human resources executives are always on the prowl to scrutinize plagiarism patterns, which means there is no way you won’t be caught. In simpler terms, avoid plagiarism, write your own resume.

Totally Neglecting to Add Keywords

These days, a majority of resumes are electronically previewed first before reaching the HR manager. Companies have incorporated the use of keywords searching software for resumes, which helps them sift through resumes faster. So, if your resume doesn’t mention the essential keywords it may not even end up lasting the electronic culling, let alone reach the human reader. So, in order for a resume to be successfully screened, you need to add all the keywords mentioned in the particular job’s description. They keywords are never pre-defined or bold; you have to search for them, which is easy. Always look for words or phrases in the description that have been mentioned more than one time.

Boring the HR Manager by Being Exceptionally Wordy

Unless you are an accomplished and tenured professor who has more than three decades worth of experience in your career, yeah, writing a three or four-page resume makes a ton of sense. However, if you are no more than an average worker in a traditional industry it is pertinent that you skim your resume to be on a single page or if need be, on two pages, but that is it!

It is important to cull your words, being sophisticated and judicious. Why? Well, that is because you need to leave a bit of white space on your resume as well. Furthermore, don’t bore the human resource manager by rambling on about your past experiences and qualifications. He just wants to determine whether or not you are indeed suitable for the job description you are applying for.

Being Specific

Never be vague on your resume. It is important you realize that you need to add quantitative, real assignments. You have to be very particular about writing the details of your accomplishments and how you are better suited for the job offered. Robotic job descriptions sound just that – robotic. The human resource manager will not even take a second to think that you’ve copy pasted the description from a plethora of job listing websites.

Biggest Plagiarism Scandals

Joe Biden

In the 1988 presidential race, vice president Joe Biden was compelled to withdraw his candidacy over reports and allegations of blatant plagiarism. A majority of Biden’s speeches back in 1988 were taken from Neil Kinnock, who himself was unsuccessful in his quest to defeat Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

All in all, these are some of the deadliest mistakes you can make when writing your resume. Pay close attention to the aforementioned tips and guidelines and try to write an original, to the point and specific resume.

Guest Author Bio

Wayne Watson is a professional copywriter and content manager at Paraphrase Tool.net. He is passionate about originality and offers tips and information to help others avoid plagiarism.

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