When it comes to first impressions in the workplace, your resume does a lot of the talking for you. It showcases your experience, your skills and your achievements. It also gives potential employers a sense of your professional character. How, you ask? Interestingly enough, it’s through your use of spelling, grammar and punctuation. By looking at your grammatical errors – or lack thereof – employers learn about your attention to detail, critical thinking skills and overall competency. And based on those impressions, your resume may or may not make it to the interview pile. Don’t believe me? Check out these statistics.
A 2013 CareerBuilder study found that 58 percent of resumes were automatically dismissed because of typos. Candidates who had the necessary experience were ruthlessly cut because they had spelling errors or used text message language, like shortening “you” to “u.” You may think it’s harsh, but being able to communicate well through written avenues is important to employers. More than two-thirds of salaried jobs require a significant amount of written communication and top organizations spend upwards of $3 billion a year on training to bring employee writing ability up to a baseline standard.
They Won’t Take Your Word For It
Some companies go so far as to give grammar tests to potential employees. Take Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, for example. His philosophy is that if potential employees don’t consider proper grammar important, they probably don’t consider a lot of other things important either. And the last person he wants on his team is someone who is sloppy and careless.
“Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in emails and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence,” wrote Wiens in a Harvard Business Review post. “And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re.”
Now, you may be thinking that this article doesn’t apply to you because your resume is flawless. But Grammarly found that women average about four spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes on their resumes, while men average about six mistakes. Which begs the question, is your resume actually flawless or have you missed the errors?
Bad Grammar – How to Fix It
To double check your resume – and clean up your writing in general – consider following some of the simple tips below.
- Use spell check. At the very least, you should use spell check. It won’t catch context errors, but it will catch basic spelling mistakes. You may also want to turn off autocorrect. Sometimes it knows exactly what you’re thinking and sometimes it makes errors worthy of a blooper reel.
- Check for context. Sometimes the words we’re using are spelled correctly, but they’re not the right words for our message. Like using tanks instead of thanks or manger instead of manager. Our minds often see what we expect to see, not what’s actually there. For example, when I worked in public relations I had to be careful that every document actually had the word public and not pubic. Make sure you review your resume several times to check for context errors.
- Read it out loud. If you’re struggling with an explanation or phrase, try reading it out loud. Sometimes it’s easier to hear the problem than it is to see it on paper.
- Don’t use all caps. You may be excited about the job you’re applying for, but using all caps is considered yelling. Instead, use proper capitalization and words to express your excitement.
- Get your resume reviewed. Find someone who excels in written communication and ask them to review your resume. A fresh pair of eyes may find mistakes that you’ve overlooked.
- Print it out. When you’ve looked at a document on a computer screen several times, it all starts to blur together. At this point, you should take a break, print off the document and then review it on paper in a quiet place. Often you’ll catch typos that you had previously glazed over.
- Use the correct tense. If you’re talking about your current job, use the present tense. For example, “I lead a team of six people.” If you’re talking about an older position, use past tense. For example, “I led a team of six people.”
- Use consistent formatting. When you look at your resume, you shouldn’t have any areas that stick out or look strange. The font should be the same type, size and color throughout the document. The spacing should be even between each section. And if you need to use bullet points, stick to bullet points. Don’t alternate between bullets and numbers because it can get distracting.
With so many resumes being thrown out for typos, it pays to review your resume for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors. Finding that misspelled word or stray comma may be the difference between getting called for an interview or having your resume land in the shred box.
