Unemployment is low, and many employers are struggling to find quality candidates – or any candidates – to fill open positions. Yet there are still some actions that will send candidates’ applications straight to the reject pile – and that includes lying on their resumes.
Unfortunately, according to a new CareerBuilder survey, this faux paus still happens on the regular: 75 percent of human resource managers say they have caught a lie on a resume.
Instant Deal-Breakers
The survey also asked hiring managers to identify the most common resume mistakes job seekers make that are instant deal breakers. They include:
- Typos or bad grammar: 77 percent
- Unprofessional email address: 35 percent
- Resume without quantifiable results: 34 percent
- Resume with long paragraphs of text: 25 percent
- Resume is generic, not customized to company: 18 percent
- Resume is more than two pages: 17 percent
- No cover letter with resume: 10 percent
What Does This Mean For You?
There’s a lot of competition for high-quality candidates, so it may be worth rethinking some of your instant deal-breakers and giving candidates a little more breathing room when it comes to making small mistakes.
For instance, if you catch a typo on a resume of someone who would otherwise be a strong candidate, perhaps it can be overlooked, so long as they prove they pay attention to detail in other ways.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t have high hiring standards, and if you’re looking for a proofreader, for instance, having a small typo is a big deal. But, in today’s tight market, you may need to look beyond some of the smaller details and think big picture when it comes to making hiring decisions.
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