Results tagged “spelling errors” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Theresa writes:

I am a high-school student in my senior year. I was wondering if you had any examples or formats of resumes for high-school students entering college. If you do it would be greatly appreciated.

The Career Doctor responds:

Resumes for high-school students are definitely a little different from adult resumes, so I am glad to offer some assistance. Let me say that just having a resume as a high-school student will make you stand out — both for college applications as well as for part-time or summer jobs.

Some of the basics are the same: the top part of the resume contains all your contact information (name, address, phone(s), email). If you use an email address, just make sure it is professional and not something like “prettyprincess.”

Because you may not have much work experience, I think you should focus your resume with both an objective and summary of qualifications. For example, if you are attempting to get a job in retail, a simple objective is: “Seeking part-time retail sales clerk/cashier position with XYZ Company” — where you replace XYZ with each company’s name.

The summary of your accomplishments should be attributes that will help sell you to a potential employer or college… such as soft skills (writing, talking, listening), level of responsibility and maturity, and any hard skills you have. An example would be: “Energetic achiever and communicator, with strong listening skills”

The remaining parts of your resume should deal with your education — and awards and honors you have received — and any previous work experience you have, including jobs like babysitting.

Finally, remember the cardinal rules of resume-writing: no lying or exaggerating and no spelling errors or typos.

Find lots of resources for teens in this section of Quintessential Careers: Job and Career Resources for Teenagers.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

“First impressions count more than ever in today’s virtual world where face-to-face meetings are becoming an endangered species,” writes Peggy Klaus in her article for Quint Careers, Are You Up To Snuff When It Comes To Soft Skills?. “When your resume formatting is messy or your follow-up note demonstrates poor writing skills, spelling errors, and incorrect word usage, you will be demonstrating your soft skills, or lack thereof, loud and clear!”

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book, Top Notch Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves: Resume has spelling errors, typos and grammatical flaws.

Hiring decision-makers cited this peeve more than any other. It may surprise some that misspellings and typos pervade even executive-level resumes, but they do. A job-seeker-submitted sample considered for the executive resume book, for example, contained the common error of spelling “manager” as “manger.” You’ll note that this misspelling won’t be picked up by spell-check functions because “manger” is a correctly spelled word. So is “posses,” the plural of posse, which I often see on resumes when the job-seeker intends “possess.”

“I once received a resume where the applicant misspelled the name of the University from which he received his MBA,” said Jeff Weaver, regional manager for a global information services company.

“Poor spelling and grammar … is particularly worrying,” said Pete Follows, senior consultant, for SaccoMann, Leeds, UK. “If a candidate is not giving due care and attention to a document to improve their own personal circumstances, what care would they take with documents with less personal significance?”

A few tips on avoiding typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors:

• Use spell-check functions but remember that they aren’t enough.
• Proofread. Then put the resume down overnight and proof it again in the morning with fresh eyes.
• Try proofing from the bottom up. Reading your resume in a different order will enable you to catch errors that you may have glossed over before because your brain was accustomed to reading your verbiage in the expected order.
• Ask a friend or family member to proof, preferably one who is a meticulous speller and grammarian.
• Be careful about company and software names, which are frequently misspelled and can damage your credibility.
• Consider hiring a professional resume writer.

See all 30 peeves: executive resume peeves 1-10 in Part 1, executive resume peeves 11-20 in Part 2 and executive resume peeves 21-30 in Part 3.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.