There was a blog post at BNET.com last month that reinforced some of the resume advice we offer at Pongo, that your resume should be error-free. But the comments on the post demonstrated that the "perfect" resume is a subjective judgment. For example, one hiring manager may disqualify you over a misspelled word, while another may not even notice, and if he does, may not care.
The BNET post, Three Reasons Why Your Resume Ends Up in the Discard Pile, alluded to a post at Harvard Business Publishing by David Silverman that touched upon, among other things, the width of the dashes you use.
Apparently, he's not kidding. The BNET post quotes Silverman:
“Many people … don’t notice that their dashes are all different lengths. Does this mean they are more or less qualified to be a project planner? I don’t know, but it’s easy for me to say, ‘If you don’t know that your own résumé is inconsistent, how can you be expected to supervise a multi-million dollar project?’”
He also stresses the importance of eradicating blunders that he believes just about any hiring manager sees as important: consistent formatting (e.g., lining up dates and headings), the use of strong verbs to describe your accomplishments and skills, and rewriting your resume for each job you apply to.
The post launched a torrent of comments, which ranged from agreement on at least some of Silverman's points to unbridled sarcasm. ("I fully understand and respect your Solomonic deliberation to not bring me in to meet you and your team … based on a sheet of paper and some random grammatical nuances that you prefer or dislike," Brett11 wrote.)
Hiring managers are human beings and, as such, base their judgments on personal likes and dislikes that won't be the same as everyone else's. In the end, what really matters is whether you have the skills to do the job and the personality that will mesh well with your new coworkers. Your resume is the main tool that can land you the interview, and it's the first impression the hiring manager gets about how well you communicate and how closely you pay attention to detail. But is it fair that one little resume error — real or perceived — disqualifies you?
I'd like to hear from you: Do hiring managers emphasize too much of the small stuff on the resume at the expense of the "big picture," namely your skills and background?
RELATED LINKS
Good and Bad Resumes: Want to See the Difference?
Check Your Resume Before You Send It
I Sent My Resume with a Typo! Should I Send a New One?
Resume Buzz-Kill: Dump the Business Cliches
I definitely believe that a resume should be as close to perfect as possible. Is it really that hard? The point is that anything that will distract the employer from actually looking at the REAL content (the experience, skills, and education) of your resume is a negative.
Hi Jake! Thanks for dropping in.
Yes, the resume writer's aim is perfection and I'm sure we can all agree that a typo and a little inconsistency in formatting are imperfections that can draw attention away from an otherwise stellar resume from a very good candidate for the job. Or, as an old professor said once, it can be "the black spot on a white tuxedo."
Although this article is good, you are missing a few points. Such as, which companies or industries are you targeting? If you are competing for the wrong job, even the best resume will be futile. What is your personal brand? Is your brand complementary with the types of jobs you are competing for? If not, you need to reconsider what your ultimate objective is and work toward that.
Are the "Accomplishments" heading on a resume REQUIRED to express OUTSTANDING "Saved the DAY & COMPANY by EXCEEDING 99% SALES" accomplishments that NON MANAGEMENT positions won't even give the opportunity for workers to accomplish- or can the Accomplishments section include the details of the duties accomplished of the position using past tense wording? I have included past tense interpretations of what I did at my job that describes how I did my job in a manner that the hiring manager would want in an employee...but Will my resume be tossed because I expressed my duties/accomplishments in a realistic manner?? Thanks, Viki T.
@ Sean -- I see your point. If, for example, you're looking for something that requires a high level of precision with language and detail, and/or you pride yourself on attention to detail, you could be hurting yourself with an imperfect resume.
@ Victoria -- Some of what you described (e.g., "saved the day") is hyperbole. Lean toward expressing your accomplishments as facts; for instance, "Nearly doubled sales goal among key cients during a recession." Also, I would express accomplishments in the past tense for jobs you no longer hold, while I would express them in the present tense for current jobs.