I've sent out hundreds of resumes over my career, applying for just about every kind of job. I've personally reviewed more than 20,000 resumes. And at Google we sometimes get more than 50,000 resumes in a single week.
I have seen A LOT of resumes.
Some are brilliant, most are just ok, many are disasters. The toughest part is that for 15 years, I've continued to see the same mistakes made again and again by candidates, any one of which can eliminate them from consideration for a job. What's most depressing is that I can tell from the resumes that many of these are good, even great, people. But in a fiercely competitive labor market, hiring managers don't need to compromise on quality. All it takes is one small mistake and a manager will reject an otherwise interesting candidate.
I know this is well-worn ground on LinkedIn, but I'm starting here because -- I promise you -- more than half of you have at least one of these mistakes on your resume. And I'd much rather see folks win jobs than get passed over.
In the interest of helping more candidates make it past that first resume screen, here are the five biggest mistakes I see on resumes.
Mistake 1: Typos. This one seems obvious, but it happens again and again. A 2013 CareerBuilder survey found that 58% of resumes have typos.
In fact, people who tweak their resumes the most carefully can be especially vulnerable to this kind of error, because they often result from going back again and again to fine tune their resumes just one last time. And in doing so, a subject and verb suddenly don't match up, or a period is left in the wrong place, or a set of dates gets knocked out of alignment. I see this in MBA resumes all the time. Typos are deadly because employers interpret them as a lack of detail-orientation, as a failure to care about quality. The fix?
Read your resume from bottom to top: reversing the normal order helps you focus on each line in isolation. Or have someone else proofread closely for you.
Mistake 2: Length. A good rule of thumb is one page of resume for every ten years of work experience. Hard to fit it all in, right? But a three or four or ten page resume simply won't get read closely. As Blaise Pascal wrote, "I would have written you a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." A crisp, focused resume demonstrates an ability to synthesize, prioritize, and convey the most important information about you. Think about it this way: the *sole* purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. That's it. It's not to convince a hiring manager to say "yes" to you (that's what the interview is for) or to tell your life's story (that's what a patient spouse is for). Your resume is a tool that gets you to that first interview. Once you're in the room, the resume doesn't matter much. So cut back your resume. It's too long.
Mistake 3: Formatting. Unless you're applying for a job such as a designer or artist, your focus should be on making your resume clean and legible. At least ten point font. At least half-inch margins. White paper, black ink. Consistent spacing between lines, columns aligned, your name and contact information on every page. If you can, look at it in both Google Docs and Word, and then attach it to an email and open it as a preview. Formatting can get garbled when moving across platforms. Saving it as a PDF is a good way to go.
Mistake 4: Confidential information. I once received a resume from an applicant working at a top-three consulting firm. This firm had a strict confidentiality policy: client names were never to be shared. On the resume, the candidate wrote: "Consulted to a major software company in Redmond, Washington." Rejected! There's an inherent conflict between your employer's needs (keep business secrets confidential) and your needs (show how awesome I am so I can get a better job). So candidates often find ways to honor the letter of their confidentiality agreements but not the spirit. It's a mistake. While this candidate didn't mention Microsoft specifically, any reviewer knew that's what he meant. In a very rough audit, we found that at least 5-10% of resumes reveal confidential information. Which tells me, as an employer, that I should never hire those candidates ... unless I want my own trade secrets emailed to my competitors.
The New York Times test is helpful here: if you wouldn't want to see it on the home page of the NYT with your name attached (or if your boss wouldn't!), don't put it on your resume.
Mistake 5: Lies. This breaks my heart. Putting a lie on your resume is never, ever, ever, worth it. Everyone, up to and including CEOs, gets fired for this. (Google "CEO fired for lying on resume" and see.) People lie about their degrees (three credits shy of a college degree is not a degree), GPAs (I've seen hundreds of people "accidentally" round their GPAs up, but never have I seen one accidentally rounded down -- never), and where they went to school (sorry, but employers don't view a degree granted online for "life experience" as the same as UCLA or Seton Hall). People lie about how long they were at companies, how big their teams were, and their sales results, always goofing in their favor.
There are three big problems with lying: (1) You can easily get busted. The Internet, reference checks, and people who worked at your company in the past can all reveal your fraud. (2) Lies follow you forever. Fib on your resume and 15 years later get a big promotion and are discovered? Fired. And try explaining that in your next interview. (3) Our Moms taught us better. Seriously.
So this is how to mess up your resume. Don't do it! Hiring managers are looking for the best people they can find, but the majority of us all but guarantee that we'll get rejected.
The good news is that -- precisely because most resumes have these kinds of mistakes -- avoiding them makes you stand out.
In a future post, I'll expand beyond what not to do, and cover the things you *should* be doing to make your resume stand out from the stack.
Photo: Smit/Shutterstock
在我的職業生涯中，我已寄出上百封履歷，幾乎每種工作都應徵過了。同時我也看過超過 20,000 封履歷，在 Google 工作，有時光是一個禮拜我們就會收到 50,000 封履歷。
我看過不計其數的履歷，多到不行。
有些非常出色，多數都還過得去，但還有一大部分，簡直災難。15 年來，我不斷看到同樣的錯誤一再出現，任何人都可能因為這些錯誤與理想的工作擦肩而過。最最令人沮喪的是，許多出類拔萃的人才，他們的履歷卻也經常犯下此類低級錯誤。但是，在競爭兇猛的勞動市場，人資可以對最細微的品質斤斤計較。即使應徵者再怎麼傑出，隨便一個筆誤就不予考慮。
LinkedIn 上一半以上的使用者的履歷一定都出現至少一種錯誤，我希望你們可以贏得夢幻職位，而不是徒留遺憾。以下是五個我最常看到的錯誤：
1. 筆誤不是藉口
雖然這很明顯是不該犯的錯誤，但是它就是層出不窮。2013 年 CareerBuilder 的調查發現 58% 的履歷都有「筆誤」的狀況。
而且實際上，那些對於自己的履歷特別謹慎以對的人，最可能犯這種錯。因為他們總是反覆修改到最後一秒，只是如此一來，主詞和動詞突然就衝突了，句號突然點在莫名其妙的地方了，日期突然就前後不一了，卻因沒時間檢查再也無法挽回⋯⋯我總能在 MBA 學生的履歷中挑到這種毛病。錯字很致命，僱主很容易因此認為應徵者不在乎細節與品質。有沒有避免這種錯誤的方法？有的。
從下往上重新複查一次自己的履歷，反著閱讀，可以讓你一次只專注於一行文字。再不然，就是找個信任的朋友幫你校對。
2. 又臭又長不討喜
應該有不少履歷教戰守則都一再告誡我們，每 10 年工作經驗只用一張紙呈現就好。但是偏偏這實在很難做到，但是 3、4 甚至 10 頁的履歷讀起來實在要人命。就像 Blaise Pascal 的名言：「我應該寫封簡短的信，但我沒時間。」一份節奏明快、焦點清晰的履歷，需要經過整合、決定優先次序、傳達關於你這個人最重要的訊息，相當耗費心神。以下這句話請謹記在心：履歷的唯一目的，是拿到面試的門票。履歷的目的，不在說服人資僱用你（這是「面試」的作用），或者陳述你的人生故事（這個部分請向摯愛的伴侶交代就好），你的履歷是讓你獲取面試機會的「工具」。當你順利坐進面試會議廳的椅子上，履歷就再也無足輕重。請濃縮你的履歷，又臭又長絕不討喜。
3. 格式維持簡單一致
除非你是要應徵設計師或藝術家的職位，不然應該儘量維持履歷的乾淨易讀。字體大小請至少設定在 10，邊緣至少空下半英寸的留白。白紙黑字，行距一致、欄位對齊，每頁都應標記你的大名與聯絡方式。別嫌麻煩，檢查你的履歷在 Google Docs 與 Word 的呈現是否一樣完美，夾帶進電子郵件寄出之前請先打開預覽。跨平台瀏覽時，原先規劃的格式容易亂了套，存成 PDF 是比較好的解決方法。
4. 機密資訊不外洩
曾有一名任職全球前三大顧問諮詢公司的應徵者來信，這家公司的保密政策非常嚴格：客戶名稱絕對不能外流。保密條款致使前僱主的需求（三緘其口）以及你的需求（儘可能展現自己有多優秀）彼此抵觸。應徵者往往想方設法在表面上遵循規定，實際上卻違反保密本意。這是錯誤的策略。況且，即使這位應徵者沒明說那家公司就是微軟，明眼人一秒就看穿。粗略估算，約有 5-10% 的履歷透露機密資訊，身為一名僱主，我一看到這種跡象就知道這些應徵者可以洗洗睡了，除非我覺得我自己的交易秘辛被其他人寄給競爭者也沒關係。
《紐時測試》很有效：如果你不希望在紐約時報首頁看到你自己（或你老闆）跟某件事牽扯在一起，就別在履歷中提及那件事。
5. 謊言終有一天反噬你
謊言令我心碎。在履歷中說謊一點也不值得。所有員工，上至 CEO，都可能因謊言遭到驅逐。人們誆稱自己的學位（缺了三學分而拿不到學士學位，就是沒有學士學位）與成績（我曾看過上百人「不小心」多算了幾分，卻從沒看過有人「不小心」少算了幾分），甚至膨脹學歷（上過幾堂「線上課程」，跟真的從 UCLA 畢業完全是兩回事）。此外，應徵者也羅織他們前份工作的任職時間，羅織他們的團隊規模，羅織銷售數據。人們永遠為了利己鑄下大錯。
撒謊三個最大的問題：
抓包輕而易舉：網路搜尋、背景調查、或者你前公司的同事們，有太多方法能證明你是騙子。
謊言陰魂不散，總是出其不意反噬：靠著那份說謊的履歷，工作了 15 年後獲得大力晉升，結果陳年瘡疤卻被挖了出來⋯⋯只能收拾包袱難堪走人，還得為下一場面試想個好理由。
聽媽媽的話準沒錯，我認真的。
懂了吧，這就是為什麼你的履歷會被丟到垃圾桶的原因。別再犯錯了，人資找的是最優秀的人才，大部份人在篩履歷的過程就會被淘汰。
不過往好處想，多數履歷都不完美，比別人多一分謹慎，避免上述那些錯誤，立刻讓你鶴立雞群。
（本文轉載自 inside網站）
- See more at: http://blog.cw.com.tw/blog/profile/51/article/1560#sthash.PW8jSJpv.dpuf
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