Top 10 common fresher resume mistakes

We all enjoy college life and it’s the perfect time to make as many mistakes as we can and learn from them. One of the biggest mistakes we do is while we prepare our resume for campus placements during our studies. We have gone through a lot of resumes and spoken to few of students from different colleges and framed few of the common fresher resume mistakes.

In spite of having so many guest speakers, sample resume given by lecturers, guidance to prepare resume by placement officers or going through so many sample resume in google or even watching videos on YouTube; we as freshers still make mistakes while preparing our resumes.

Top 10 common fresher resume mistakes:

1. 1. Editing content of your friend’s resume: The very first mistake we do is, we take our friends resume and start editing our details. Well, this is good for some but remember if everyone else is having the same format, then the interviewer will not consider you any different. Moreover, you and your friend might have totally different perspective/lifestyle. Try to keep your resume as original as possible.
   2. Baseless Objective or Purpose: The first thing we have on our resume is our objective which is no doubt copied from friends resume or searched on the internet. However, make sure your objective is practical and believable and it is in sync with your skillset. A good objective must be specific and speaks about the job profile you are applying for.
   3. Grammar errors / Spelling mistakes: Literated for more than 15-17 years and committing silly grammar mistakes is a clear sign of negligence. Any grammar mistakes especially if you are a fresher might cost you the job as it clearly shows you have not gone through your resume at all and it also indicates you are not a person to be relied or dependent on. With the help of peers, friends, and teachers you can easily avoid this. You can even use tools like Grammarly which will suggest you correct grammar errors online.
   4. The body of the Email: A lot of time when fresher or even experienced people forward their resume, they never mention anything in the body of the email except ‘Please find the attached resume and consider for suitable openings’. Keep this is in your mind guys, a recruiter doesn’t have the patience or so much time to go through your resume completely. Hence, make it a habit to provide some highlights about yourself in the body of the email which might attract the recruiter / HR and push towards reading your resume.
   5. Ignoring Keywords: We all understand probability and we must ask ourselves, what is the probability of my resume being selected out of millions of resumes present in the database of job portal or email of a recruiter. Keywords are important qualities that describe you. E.g.: If you have studied Computer Science Engineering and you are good at Java Programming, then the word ‘Java’, ‘Java Programming’ should be present on your resume.
      Now, when the recruiter searches for resume related to Java, there are more chances that your resume gets visible in the search result and hence get shortlisted. However, this doesn’t mean you need to stuff keywords in your resume. Prepare your resume smartly.
   6. Being vague: Some candidates feel we must write anything and everything about ourselves in the resume which is not always right. It’s good to mention about sex, religion, marital status however never write anything about your likes/dislikes or your religious views or anything controversial or biased. This might decrease your chances of clearing an interview even if you are qualified.

      

   7. Social Media URL/Links: Another good way of standing out in the crowd is by providing your social media links. When I say social media, this doesn’t mean you put all the social media links. Think wisely and see what fits in with your qualification.
      E.g.: Linkedin is one of best professional social media platform where recruiters and candidates get connected.
      Also, it makes sense to add Instagram or Facebook when you are applying for Marketing / Media related openings but makes sure you have a good number of followers which is worth showcasing.
   8. Mass mailing of resume: When you are sending your resume via email to a recruiter or anyone, do not send it to more than one person at a time. You must treat this in the same way, how you treat your girlfriend or boyfriend. When you have more than one recipient in the to / cc section of the email, then it indicates that you have multiple options and you might have some commitment issues. As much as possible, send resume to only one person at a time.
   9. Strict NO to fancy email id: We all have funky email ids created during our teenage. As a fresher to professionalism, one must know that an email id states how professional you are and hence, one must avoid having funky email ids like [email protected] or [email protected] in any professional conversations. To suggest, you can have your [email protected] which is majorly used format across in industries.
   10. Other silly fresher resume mistakes:
       • Adding a photo is your choice but the best option is to avoid having a photo as it might give some racism flavor or so.
       • Mentioning resume at the top is not needed as its understood its your resume.
       • Mentioning the word ‘name’ before your name or ‘Phone’ before your phone number also can be ignored.
       • Avoid using singular pronouns such as I or me on the resume or emails.
       • Avoid writing paragraphs anywhere and make it pointers or table structure. This way, it will be more readable.
2. There are few silly mistakes what freshers commit. If you have any doubts regarding preparing the resume, kindly share it in the below comments and we will try to address all your queries. All the very best.

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