Employers have become a bit more lenient about disqualifying job candidates who make mistakes on their resumes. But many will still do just that – even for a minor typo – according to some new research.
Specialized staffing service Accountemps said it recently surveyed senior managers across the country, and found that 63% of them would eliminate an applicant from consideration for a job if they found just one or two mistakes on that applicant’s resume.
However Accountemps said that employers have gotten more lenient in recent years: while 47% of managers polled in 2006 said they would eliminate a candidate for a single mistake, by 2009 only 40% took this hard line view. In its most recent survey, Accountemps found that only 17% would eliminate a candidate for just one resume mistake today.
Does this mean you can lay off the spell check? Of course not. Consider that there are currently three applicants for each available job, on average. Any number of things can get you eliminated from the competition, so why risk elimination over something as easily avoidable as a typo on your resume?
Accountemps’ parent company, Robert Half, has compiled a list of particularly embarrassing resume mistakes it has come across. Some of the highlights include:
“My last employer fried me for no reason.”
“I am graduating this Maybe.”
“I am looking for my big brake.”
“Referees available upon request.”
“My talent will be very apparent when you see me work.”
“Looking for a bass salary of $40,000.”
These mistakes would have been easily avoided had any proofreading been done.
So, make sure you double-check your resume for mistakes before you send it out. Better yet, triple-check your resume by having at least one other person go over it. Ask the fussiest person you know to help out with this. After all, your future as an employed person may depend on it.