We get it. It is exciting when you find a job that is perfect for you in every way and there is nothing you’d rather do than apply immediately so they see you before anyone else has a chance to compete, right? Nope. Not if you have errors that are going to send your resume and your dreams of ever working for that company to the trash! Step back, take your time, and make sure it is right before you send. Here are three sure-fire ways to make sure your resume is in tip-top shape to be sent.
1. Walk Away
When you are working on crafting your career story into short, reverse-chronological lists of accomplishments, you arenot working on spelling, grammar and punctuation. So trying to immediately turn yourself into a proofreader when your brain is still in organization mode is not going to work. You will skim over errors because you are focused on what is being said not the words used to say it. Give your mind a rest between the writing and proofing stage and you will come back clearer, as if someone else had written it, and with a lot more edits.
2. Read Backwards and From Bottom to Top
Start at the very last word and read right to left as you make your way up your resume. Why? This throws the sentence structure out the window so you can focus on each word, individually. You will find more of those “How could I have missed that?” errors in this step than any other. It is used by professional writers on a regular basis. It works!
3. Hand It Over
You don’t know what you don’t know, so handing over your resume to someone else is probably the best way to correct the mistakes you aren’t aware you are making. Maybe you have gone your whole life writing things like towards and for all intensive purposes. If spell check and you don’t know those are wrong, your friend/mom/brother might!