Job Prospect Ruining Mistakes

A hiring manager for a company receives many resumes. The majority of resumes received are mediocre at best. Same goes for cover emails. It doesn't take much to make your job application stand out. A tiny bit of time and effort on your part will put you head and shoulders above the other job-seekers.

So why aren't you doing it? Chances are, you don't know what you're doing wrong. This article will help by highlighting some common mistakes that are ruining the applicant's prospects. And how to fix them.

Mistake 1: Resumes Sent To Employer Are Generic.

Not having the right name to send your resume to is not going to do you any good in getting you an interview. If you send a generic email to a generic address with a generic message, chances are, it's going to end up in a generic trash bin.

Most employers get a very high volume of emails, including spam along with genuine enquires from a large range of people which includes job-seekers. If your email isn't sent to a specific person, with their name on it, it isn't going to get noticed. It takes but a few minutes to call the employer and ask who to send your resume to.

Mistake 2: Sending Same Resume and Cover Letter To Everyone.

The majority of resumes received by employers are addressed to 'Dear Sir/Madam' or worse 'Dear Sirs,' which gets binned (filed away without even being read). These generic emails contain a blah blah message stating how much the sender wants to work for the company, not even mentioning the company name. Employers know that these are being sent to loads of people in hopes that someone will give an interview. The resumes are all identical and don't specifically address the industry that the employer's business is classified with.

Mistake 3: Not Naming Your Resume Properly

When employers get a decent resume (which is rare), they save it. If you have your name in the filename, it can easily be found. If it is genetically named 'resume-final' or 'my resume,' and says ' I desperately hope you give me a job, it isn't going to do much to bring attention to you.

Make things easy for the person who might hire you and give your resume a filename which tells the prospect exactly what it is and who it belongs to.

Mistake 4: Not Respecting The Employer's Time

Employers are busy. In fact most people with jobs are busy. They don't have time to reply to tons of mediocre job applicants (especially if you haven't even bothered to learn the name of the recipient - Mistake 1). They might not even have time to read all the emails and resumes they receive. Keep your cover letter brief and your resume two or less pages (3 total). If you have actually gotten a hold of the person doing the hiring, be sure t ask them what they want. Some employers prefer a one page resume, some might ask for it in the email rather than as an attachment, some don't like personal statements, in other words whatever is going to save them time so they can actually read that what you've done is good and you are worth a further look.

Mistake 5: Not Giving The Details That Are Asked For

Hiring Manager are frustrated when they post a job as requesting specific information from the applicant, and they don't receive it. There is a reason that they ask, so if you don't provide the information, they think you either haven't read the job posting properly (scrub the 'attention to detail' from your resume) or you just don't care. Either way it's not going to make them want to hire you.

Mistake 6: Not Following Up

You know that employers are busy. You know that they get a lot of email they have to sift through everyday. Your resume is likely to end up in some large pile along with all the others (If it made it that far), or worse, it is in the spam folder ( what may happen if you send it to loads of people at once), unread or a the bottom of a very long 'to do' list.

If you'd like it to get a bit more attention, follow up. No, not with another email, they have plenty of those! Give them a phone call. Emails genuinely go astray sometimes, and if you're gas you can resend it. At the very least, you'll remind the person doing the hiring that you exist, and more importantly, that you want the job enough to take the time to follow up.

Mistake 7: Filling Your Resume With Garbage

Very few applicants carefully read the job posting, catering their resumes to the employer or the position that they are after. Employers receive resumes that sound the same after a while, people claiming they're passionate enthusiastic individuals with excellent communication skills and an eye for detail...

If you want your resume to stand out, it's not hard. Just leave the garbage out - it'll give you more space to put something interesting in. Key achievements are a good start, or even links to things you've done, information that will tell the employer what you can do for them, and why they need to hire you.

Mistake 8: Getting The Company Name Wrong

It is written at the top of the website, in bold font, how hard can it be?!

Mistake 9: Getting Your Own Name Wrong

No really, it has happened. People send in resumes with their name spelled incorrectly. That's autocorrect for you!

Mistake 10: Not Allowing Yourself To Shine

Resumes received by employers are not making the most of the applicant's talents. We have all done some quite extraordinary things - sometimes at work, maybe its volunteering, perhaps side projects, whatever it may be, don't forget to include them! Too many of us are taught not to boast or show off - but your resume is the one area where you really need to. Besides, it's not boasting, it's telling people who are interested what you've done that could be useful to them. And what could be more helpful than that?

Follow Me For Weekly Informative Articles Patrick Coppedge