Career Development Tip: Top Résumé Mistakes to Avoid (Mistake #1)

Whether you are looking for a new position or not, having an updated résumé is always a good idea.  You never know when an unexpected opportunity may land in your lap (or an unexpected company closing or layoff may occur).

This is the first tip of five in a weekly series of top résumé mistakes to avoid.

Mistake #1:  Starting a Résumé with an Objective Statement. Sorry, it’s not about you.  Your potential employer doesn’t really care that you are seeking:

…  a challenging position that provides growth and advancement
where I can utilize my education and experience as well as my excellent interpersonal skills.

And yet, I see this type of general objective statement all of the time.  Yawn.  What your employer *does* care about is how you are going to fulfill what *they* want.

Instead of an objective statement, write a summary statement that shows how perfect you are for the position.  State as concisely as you can the specific expertise you have that will solve the specific problems that the employer considers a priority:

Reliability Engineer with 20 years of experience managing teams of 5 – 20 and budgets of $150K to $2 million for oil and gas companies.  Recipient of 2011 global leadership award for implementing strategies that saved the company $1.5 million worldwide.

Notice a statement like this shows:  who you are, for how long, how many people you’ve been responsible for, how much money you’ve managed, what field you’ve worked in and what you’ve been recognized for … all in two sentences!  Now the employer can see how important you can be to his company and will be intrigued enough to read on.

This is just one of a few simple, small tweaks you can make to your résumé to make it stand out in a big way.  Next Monday we’ll talk about overcoming Mistake #2:  TMI