Why the door slams shut

Resume mistakes can be costly, but a well-crafted C.V. can get you moved to the top of the heap.

Sometimes the key factors that keep job seekers from being offered work are spelling and grammatical errors in their resumes.

After Dr Olga Kampaxi collected CVs during a recent career fair in Abu Dhabi, the human resources director for Rotana hotels said a few of them really stood out.

But not in a good way.

One included typographical errors. In others, it appeared that adjectives, or even chunks of text, had been copied and pasted from other resumes in unrelated industries.

Then there was one that mentioned, unprompted, that the applicant was married. It turns out even that was a mistake; the woman was single.

"Someone else had typed the CV," says Dr Kampaxi.

As the local economy picks up steam, recruiters say they are finding numerous mistakes in resumes that demonstrate inexperience. Some errors may seem minor, but they can be critical if potential employers see them.

Another common faux pas: not being specific enough with keywords in order to make sure the resume gets flagged by the sorting software used by a growing number of companies.

Job seekers can boost their chances of being matched with available positions by dropping targeted keywords into their resumes.

"Expert programmer" may be accurate enough, for instance, but "expert HTML and C++ programmer" is more specific and effective. Visiting job-searching sites can reveal keywords for many professions. Monster.com, for one, has a long list of phrases that executives who earn more than US$100,000 (Dh367,290) a year can use in cover letters, CVs and profiles.

They range from "new business development" and "performance optimisation" to "crisis management" and "profitability improvement". The same words should then be used during an interview, experts suggest, and supported with concrete examples and colourful anecdotes.

Experts also recommend incorporating figures to bolster a point. "Tell me you met 85 per cent of your target sales, not just that you're a big sales achiever," says Nicky Mason, the commercial director for IIR Middle East, which provides employee training programmes, conferences and exhibitions.

But that type of salesmanship will not matter if the applicant cannot demonstrate basic competency.

In a survey last year of more than 2,000 employers in Orange County, California, spelling and grammatical errors were cited as the top mistakes made by candidates. In fact, a higher number of employers said that spelling and grammar was more important to a resume than a candidate's educational experience or desire to succeed.

One reason typos trickle in, experts say, stems from a growing trend where more job seekers are getting someone else to prepare their CVs - and failing to check them before submission. "I don't mind if people outsource their CVs," says Dr Kampaxi, "but they need to be accurate and shouldn't have mistakes. It sounds simple, but read a CV before handing it in." Other black marks fall somewhere between a tiny fib and a big fat lie - whether falsifying employment dates or inflating salaries - and can scuttle a good opportunity if the employer finds out.

In September, AccuScreen, a US firm that runs background checks on potential employees, found that 46 per cent of people present false information on their job application or resume.

Avoiding a lie, and using spellcheck for that matter, is also becoming more important as the number of job-searching websites continues to grow. More candidates who visit these sites are filling out online profiles to highlight their work experience, and the pages are often read by employers seeking a specific skill set. "Your profile page is one of the most important assets," says Ellen Pack, the vice president of marketing for Elance.com, which links job seekers with employers.

"Having a well-written, fully completed, typo-free page shows your potential client that you will take meticulous care of their work, similar to your profile page."