When you’ve finished writing your resume, what’s the next thing you do? Do you smile to yourself, congratulate yourself on getting it done, and pop it in the post? If you don’t proofread your resume before this step, you could be getting yourself into a lot of trouble and missed opportunities.
Proofreading is a vital part of writing, and it’s so important that you do it with your resume. If your resume turns up to the recruiter and it’s full of mistakes, errors, and typos, the chances are that you’re going to miss out on the vacancy.
[Tweet “8 essential tips you need to know to make sure your resume is perfect before sending.”]To make sure that that doesn’t happen to you, here are eight essential tips you need to know to make sure your resume is perfect before sending.
Don’t Rely on Computers
Most computers and word processors these days will come with proofreading tools, such as a built-in spell-checker. However, while these pick up some of the spelling mistakes, you can’t rely on it as they can easily miss out on some of the main mistakes. Use your personal knowledge.
Print Out Your Resume
One of the best ways to keep your mind alert for when you’re proofreading is to print out your resume, so you can read it off the paper. This will allow you to proofread room to room, once again keeping your mind active, as well as been proven to be more effective than reading off a screen.
Take Regular Breaks
Proofreading is renowned for being one of the most boring and tedious writing processes. After all, you’re going through what you’ve already written.
“If you take regular breaks, it’s easy to keep your mind fresh and alert, so you don’t risk missing any key mistakes that the recruiter will notice,” shares Jack Parfait, a resume editor for Academized.
Learn Common Mistakes
There are countless words in the English language that can get confused with one another and many people trip up on the same ones. Look out for words like ‘all right’ and ‘alright’, ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ and ‘role’ and ‘roll’. These are all common mistakes that you need to be aware of.
Use Online Tools
When it comes to proofreading, you don’t have to feel like your alone. In fact, there is a ton of tools and apps out there you can use to ensure an even higher quality of proofreading. Here’s some to get you started;
An online resume/resume builder that can you follow to make sure your resume is formatted and edited perfectly.
An online blog is full of resources on how to use grammar properly.
An online writing agency that can proofread your resume on your behalf.
An online blog full of resources to teach you everything there is to know about writing professionally and correctly.
A free tool for actively tracking and monitoring the word count of your resume.
An online writing guide, featured by the Huffington Post, that can follow no matter what writing process you need (editing, proofreading, writing etc.)
A free online tool you can use for managing and formatting your citations and references.
An online writing agency that can help you with all aspects of writing and proofreading, sharing advice and tips.
A free online tool you can use to learn about using and checking the grammar in your resume.
Is any other free grammar tool. Use this grammar checker online to improve word usage, tense, and punctuation for any English text.
Get Help if You Need It
There’s nothing wrong with getting a friend, family member, or even a colleague to read over your resume once it’s been written out. Sometimes, it’s much easier to get a second pair of eyes to help rather than struggling and risking a poor-quality resume.
Read Out Loud
Another great way to ensure that you don’t miss any mistakes is to read your resume out loud when you’re proofreading. This will help you to focus more on what you’ve actually written, rather than what you think you wrote in the first place.
Don’t Forget Your Contact Details
One of the most overlooked aspects of proofreading is contact information. You could spend hours proofreading all your content to make sure that it’s right, but if you don’t proofread your content information and there’s a mistake, the recruiter won’t be able to get hold of you, and you will have already missed out on the job opportunity.
Identity Magazine is all about guiding women to discover their powers of Self-Acceptance, Appreciation, and Personal Achievement.
We ask that every contributor and expert answer the Identity 5 questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the current article they have written. In that way, and as a team, we hope to encourage and motivate each other, thus inspiring you to Get All A’s.
1. What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? Additionally, what are you still working on accepting? Now, we’re not talking about resignation, rather stepping into, embraced, and owned.
I’ve fought depression and made peace with my body.
2. Appreciation is everything. What have you learned to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? On the other hand OR in contrast, are there elements of who you are that you’re still working on appreciating?
I started to appreciate more of my surroundings seeing how people live in another place around the world.
3. Share with us one of your most rewarding achievements in life? Tell us not only what makes YOU most proud but also share the goals and dreams that you still have.
Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash
The author is an Identity Magazine contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
