A recent survey of 2,500 executive recruiters throughout the United States and Canada indicated the most common mistakes that candidates make on resumes that prevent them from being considered for positions.  To increase your chances of making it to the next step avoid:

1. Spelling errors, typos, and poor grammar

2. A resume that reads like a job description instead of focusing on skills and accomplishments and how the accomplishments were achieved

3. Not including dates or providing inaccurate dates

4. Missing or inaccurate contact information

5. An unprofessional e-mail address

6. Poor formatting 

7. Functional as opposed to chronological resumes

8. Long resumes - too long

9. Long paragraphs - no use of bullet-points

10. Lying, misleading (especially in terms of education, dates, and inflated titles)

11. Applying for positions for which you are unqualified

12. Including Personal information not relevant to the job

13. Not including Employer information 

14. Not including Industry information 

15. Not including Product information 

16. Meaningless objectives or introductions

17. Poor choice of font or style

18. Pdf, zip files, faxed, web page, and mailed resumes, and any other résumés not sent in Word format

19. Pictures, graphs, or URL links no recruiter will call up

20. Writing resumes in the first or third person

21. Gaps in employment

22. Burying important information in the resume

Having provided you with the above information, if you want your resume to be reviewed, some recruiters indicate that it can be beneficial to:

• Fax a resume

• Snail-Mail a resume

• Write an effective, focused profile or summary at the top of your resume

• Use a functional rather than a chronological resume if you are changing careers, a new graduate, have gaps in your career, or want to avoid looking like a job hopper

• Have a longer resume that details skills and accomplishments