10 Secret Reasons Your Resume Is

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“Your Font Is Too Funky”

Many recruiters will simply throw any crazy looking resumes straight in the trash. If you’re applying for a job in the creative industry then a little quirkiness is fine, but there are so many other ways to show your personality than font choice alone.

Pro-tip: Before you apply for that dream job, you may want to check your privacy settings and do a quick tidy up of your online activity. Even allowing just mutual friends to access your profile may be too much, especially if you know people already working there.

“Think Twice Before Posting On FACEBOOK”

“You’re Still Using Hotmail”

Pro-tip: If you’re creating an alias in Hotmail, why not choose a new address ending in outlook.com? As it’s newer you’re much more likely to get a decent name that hasn’t been taken and it sounds a whole lot more professional too. Win, win. If you know what you’re doing, investing in your own domain name, mail@myname.com could be just the detail you need to move that little bit closer to the top of the resume pile.

“Your Appearance”

“Pro-tip: Regardless of whether or not you look like a supermodel, you might want to try growing a beard. Sounds crazy right? But you will like this…a guy on oDesk did exactly that by adding a beard to his photo and seeing if it helped.”

“Your Age”

Pro-tip: If you feel you’re getting turned away because you’re too young, there’s no harm in trying a resume without your start and finish dates. Also under the usual employment history section why not list details of school work experience or volunteer work, highlighting specific skills you’ve learnt along the way.

“Too Many Hobbies”

Pro-tip: Having a second set of eyes look over your resume is always a good idea, but sometimes a friend will be biased in their opinions. Why not ask a mutual friend or one of your partner’s work colleagues what impression your rock climbing gives? You may think it makes you sound adventurous but the HR department may see you as a health coverage liability.

“Too Much Job Hopping”

Pro-tip: If you feel the need to cut out a few less important jobs, then rather than detailing the month you started and left each company, just put the year so that there aren’t any gaping holes in your work history.

Pro-tip: If you’re currently unemployed it might

be worth doing some volunteer work or studying towards a qualification which can be shown on paper to fill the void left by a lack of work.An employer would much rather see that you attended a language school part-time than see a gaping hole in your resume. And with the advent of online universities and websites like Coursera, Khan Academy and Udacity there’s no better time to subscribe to all the free programs you can to expand your mind.

“Gaps In Employment”

Pro-tip: It’s best to err on the safe side of caution and focus on your strengths wherever possible. Recruiters are more likely to send the blatant fabrications straight in the trash and give the honest resumes a chance.

“Your EGO”

Pro-tip: Perhaps the most important reason for adding a video is get more employers reading your resume. We’ve found that Staff.com profiles with videos are 3 times more likely to be clicked on than profiles without. So why not spend a few minutes to make yourself stand out that little more? It could be that one thing that gets you hired.

“No Cover Letter”

Video cover letters are becoming increasingly popular and an employer in the UK recently tried making them compulsory.Here’s a budding comedian’s joke response that unfortunately didn’t get him a job at PC World, but did gain him exposure for his YouTube channel:

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