Five Mistakes to Avoid on Résumés and Cover Letters

April 9, 2008

Visualize an human resources manager who, after placing a job posting, receives more than 200 résumés from qualified candidates. He or she is also reviewing a similar number of résumés for four other positions. Plus, he or she is planning and managing a number of other  human resources programs that demand attention.

Faced with this mountain of résumés and responsibilities, such a manager may only have a few moments to review each résumé and cover letter and select candidates for further consideration. Consequently, with such a limited time frame to make an impression, basics such as spelling and formatting had better be right the first time.

In particular, recent interviews with human resources managers uncovered some common spelling and formatting mistakes that can doom a job application. Below are five of these mistakes that they urge job candidates to always guard against.

1. What’s in a name?

If you’re addressing a résumé or cover letter to a particular person, don’t assume the spelling for the person’s first name. You’re likely familiar with such alternate spellings as Stephen and Steven and Sara and Sarah, but the list nowadays is much more extensive. For example, consider the spellings of these celebrities’ names: Courteney (instead of Courtney) Cox, Nicolas (instead of Nicholas) Cage, and Barbra (instead of Barbara) Streisand.

Most human resources managers’ first names are easily verifiable, and getting them wrong shows you didn’t do your homework. For this reason, just as you would automatically ask for the spelling of someone’s last name, always find out how a first name is spelled if you’re addressing this person.

2. Form letter faux pas

Just as bad as a misspelled word is a cover letter that includes the name of another company instead of the company to which it’s supposed to be addressed: “I’ve researched your company extensively and believe I can make a significant contribution in the position of account executive at Company XYZ [instead of Company ABC].”  This kind of mistake is both careless and off-putting.

If you use a form to develop multiple cover letters, remember two cardinal rules: 1) use a template with blank spaces for the company name and save a different version of this template each time you complete a letter to a company; and 2) double, triple and quadruple check all the places where the company name appears in a completed cover letter to make sure you have the same company named throughout.

3. The usual suspects

When it comes to highlighting your résumé with fonts, boldfacing, underlining and italics, the lightest touch possible will be the most appreciated by human resources managers.  At the same time, these provide important structure in a résumé or cover letter.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind about the usual suspects that can weaken — or strengthen — a résumé or cover letter:

• Fonts: Use one standard font and no more than two font sizes to avoid a disorganized appearance. Fancy fonts that require squinting can be a trigger to frustrating a human resources manager.
• Boldface: Use boldface only for your name and section headings, and resist the temptation to use it anywhere else.
• Underlining: Don’t use it because it draws the reader’s eye away from other equally important parts of a résumé.
• Italics: Limit the use of italics to the names of publications (e.g., The Los Angeles Times).

4. About those e-mail addresses . . .

Many job candidates unthinkingly use personal e-mail addresses for job applications. Don’t. The following e-mail addresses may be funny to your friends, but not to human resources managers who have to make serious decisions about which candidates will most help their companies succeed: “superdude@_____.com,” “penthousediva@______.com” or “bigdaddy@_____.com." A business-appropriate e-mail address with some form of your first or last name is quick and free to create, so there’s no excuse not to use one.

5. Keep it to one page and one inch

If your experience is limited or if you can reasonably limit your résumé to one page, do so. If you have held many positions and cannot describe your career on one page, then two pages are acceptable. Keep in mind, though, that candidates who write long résumés are sometimes seen as unable to organize information quickly and disrespectful of a reader’s time. Keep your résumé succinct and use your cover letter to call out a few things that you’re most proud of.

Likewise, set all margins for one inch and discipline yourself from reducing these margins to cram in more text.

As a final note, one of the best ways to avoid the five mistakes above is to have your résumé proofed by at least two people who ideally 1) hire people as part of their jobs and 2) have writing skills you respect. Mistakes on résumés and cover letters are unacceptable and potentially career limiting, so always do the extra work to make yours perfect.

Joseph Priest is editor of online communications at Ketchum’s New York office and co-writes a monthly style-and-usage newsletter. He can be reached at joseph.priest@ketchum.com.

Copyright 2008 PR Tactics. Reprinted with permission by the Public Relations Society of America (www.prsa.org).