5 Resume No No's

I've been helping out a group of students work on their resume. With this current experience, let me give you 5 resume peeves I have, which could also be a 5 Resume No No's.

Number 5: Do not lie. There were some resumes that came across my table and just from the looks of it, it screams, "I'm making all this things up!!" Don't lie on your resume. You might not get caught now, but it when you least expect it. Dave Edmondson (former RadioShack Chief Executive) lied on his resume about his college degree, he got fired!

Number 4: Do not leave out big gaps in work history. If you are writing your resume in chronological format, do not leave out big gaps of history. You chose this format because your years of experience tells something about you. If you do intend to leave out certain years of work experience (due to a career change etc), you might want to consider a functional format instead.

Number 3: Do not leave your resume un-formatted. I am a big fan of well organized, well typed, and well-formatted documents. MS Word has a wizard that does the formatting, but it is never perfect. Have someone check your resume for proper formatting. Formatting includes consistency in type, size and design. Keep the format simple that can easily be read by a computer.

Number 2: Do not forgot to keep your contact information updated. Your resume is a bigger version of your calling card. Wrong number could lead to a job interview (or worse, a job offer) not getting to you. Update your resume with a corrected address and phone numbers. If you use an email handle imtoosexyforthisshirt@yahoo.com, sign up for a new one that gives you a more formal email such as JSmith100@yahoo.com or JS1000@yahoo.com.

Number 1: Do not use weak words. When discussing duties and responsibilities in your resume, try to spin the words by using stronger words. Instead of "stacks products on shelves", you could say, "in-charge of product display and inventory". Instead of "picks up phone calls" you could say, "responsible for customer queries over the phone."