Spelling & Grammar

Your resume is your one chance to make a great first impression, so you need to take control of your personal brand!

A typo, wrong word or incorrect grammar can lead an employer to assume that you are careless and that you would not be careful and detail-oriented on the job. Even worse, they may assume that you simply do not care enough to hand in a polished resume.

You resume needs to be grammatically perfect and spell-check is simply not enough. Make sure to ask several people to proofread your resume. A second or third set of eyes can pick up errors that you may have overlooked after staring at the same page for hours.

Lying & Embellishing

We get it! You want to highlight yourself to an employer because you want that job. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it is essential you do it the correct way, so the information you put on your resume must be true.

You also need to avoid the temptation to embellish on your skills. It is very to easy for employers to see through your lies with a quick call to your references and a standard background check. If you get caught in a lie, you will lose your credibility and you will definitely not get the job.

Length

This is a tough one. Some people argue that if your resume is longer than a page, your employer will only glance at the first page and ignore everything else. Others, however, are adamant that you cannot accurately highlight your skills in one page.

Honestly, it really depends on the employer. I will tell you, however, that it should never be more than 2-pages because your employer will not read page after page about your accomplishments.

Remember it is quality over quantity. Your resume is a summary of how you can bring value to an organization, not your life’s story. Therefore, you need to only include skills, job experience and other information that is relevant to the position you are seeking. If you can fit that into one page, perfect! If you need 2-pages, there isn’t anything wrong with that.

One Size Does Not Fit All

You may think it is a good idea to create one great resume and send it out to directories. Honestly, that isn’t a good idea. Skills and job experience on your resume might not be relevant to the industry you are targeting.

You need to personalize your resume to meet your target audience’s needs. Your resume should include keywords and skills that will highlight your competency so that your employer will think that you are the right one for the job.

Formatting

Since your resume is your chance to make a good first impression, you may desire to make it visually appealing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but getting out of hand with wacky fonts, colors and other factors that will only distract the reader from important information.

Despite what Elle Woods said in “Legally Blonde,” making your resume pink and scented doesn’t give it a little something extra. Your resume should be easy to read. Remember, the content in your resume is what’s most important; and beautiful fonts wont save it from poor content quality.

Leaving Out Certifications

Do you have your real estate license? Are you certified in CPR? Good! Make sure you include that on your resume! You may be wondering, how do those skills add value to resume?

It makes you look well rounded and distinguishes you from other candidates because you have something that they don’t have. It also shows that you take the initiative to continue to learn and better yourself.