10 Reasons Your Resume Isnt Getting You Interviews

10 Reasons Your Resume Isnt Getting You Interviews10 Reasons Your Resume Isnt Getting You InterviewsIf youre sending out lots of resumes without getting many calls for interviews, its time to conclude that your resume isnt doing its job. If youre like fruchtwein people, youre making at least a few of these mistakes- which will put your resume promptly in the no pile.1. Its generic. If your resume reads just like dozens of other candidates, no employer is going to call you. Your resume needs to convey that youre an exceptional candidate, not just an average one whos no different from other applicants. Which leads us to2. It just lists duties and responsibilities, not accomplishments. In a job market thats flooded with candidates, a resume that reads like a series of job descriptions wont excite a hiring manager. What will excite a hiring manager is a resume that shows a track record of achievement, so you need to list specific accomplishments, not just duties.3. Its full of dense para graphs rather than bulleted lists. Employers will only skim your resume initially, not read it word-for-word, and large blocks of text are hard to skim. An employer will take in mora information about you if you use simple bulleted points.4. It leads with your education, even though youve been out of school for more than a few years. Generally, your education should go beneath your work experience, because employers are most interested in what work experience youve had. Leading with your education just buries what will make you most attractive to an employer.5. It doesnt include the dates of employment for each job youve held. Employers want to know how long you were at each job and when. Resumes without clear dates are an immediate red flag that make hiring managers suspect youre hiding something.6. It wastes space on things that are irrelevant, like descriptions of your employers business. Some candidates devote two to three lines per job to describing the employer itself- its siz e and the nature of its business. Hiring managers might want that information when you move to the interview stage, but your resume isnt the place for it. Your resume should focus on you and you alone.7. Its not specific. Employers want concrete specifics. Its not enough to say that you revitalized a department or publicized a program. What exactly did you do and what did it result in?8. It includes everything youve ever done, rather than just the highlights. The longer your resume is, the less likely an employer is to see the parts you want them to see. The initial scan of your resume is about 20 seconds- do you want that divided among three pages, or do you want it focused on the most important things you want to convey? Short and concise means that employers are more likely to read the parts you most care about.9. It includes irrelevant details, such as your age or your childrens names. Yes, people really do this. Employers dont care about these details, and including them will c ome across as naive and unprofessional.10. It describes you in subjective terms. Your resume is for experience and accomplishments only. Its not the place for subjective traits, like great leadership skills, strong writer, or creative innovator. Hiring managers generally ignore anything subjective that an applicant writes about herself, because so many peoples self-assessments are wildly inaccurate theyre looking for provable facts. If you have those traits, list the accomplishments that demonstrate them instead.Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. Shes also the co-author of Managing to Change the World The Nonprofit Managers Guide to Getting Results, and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.