Job hunters: some tips for your resume

Not from me, but someone with lots more resume-reading experience than I have (although I have plenty of resume-sending experience).

Read this article. It includes a discussion of this HR professional's top 11 most common and egregious resume mistakes. I admit that I've made some of them -- some out of inexperience and some from bad advice. This is worth a read, even if you don't plan on changing jobs anytime soon. The article is geared for federal sector job seekers, but the advice applies broadly.

Here are the bullet-points.

1. Listing responsibilities rather than skills and results.
2. Not being specific enough as to what you have accomplished.
3. Not including keywords.
4. Ignoring soft skills.
5. Omitting required information.
6. Using an objective, rather than a career summary.
7. Including outdated or irrelevant information.
8. Being overly modest.
9. Exaggerating or lying.
10. Assuming the reader will make connections.
11. Using a format that makes it difficult for the hiring official to identify your skills, results and responsibilities.

And read the full article when you have a few extra minutes.