Have you ever wondered about the best way to spot typos in your cover letter or resume? Recruiters will immediately kick your resume out if there are typos or grammatical errors in your application documents. In this hyper-competitive job market its best not leave anything up to change. Employers don’t need any extra reasons to kick you out of the consideration pile. They are actively looking for easy reasons to discard your resume. Here are a few quick tips to spot typos prior to submitting:
Reread Your Leading Verbs
Be sure and start each bullet point with power verbs. It is important to make sure that you are correctly using verbs in each line of your professional experience section. The first three to four bullets under each position gets the most time in the spotlight. It’s best to start with a verb that captures your main accomplishments. For example, I often see, along with “led” versus “lead” and the noun “contract” being turned to “contact.”
Review Degrees
You would be amazed at how many people misspell their alma mater. I have seen many resumes where people say College instead of University or they misstate their degree. No one can take your education away from you, which means it often rusts away at the bottom of your resume without much proofreading. Make sure you’ve spelled university names right, especially if the school’s title isn’t state related. Be sure that you’ve spelled “bachelor” correctly. Then move on to any tech skills or software proficiency listed nearby.
Double Check Your Links
If you include a link to a website or LinkedIn profile it’s imperative that the link works. A good strategy is to include these links within your basic contact information so the manager doesn’t have to manually type your name into a search bar. But if you send a broken link, they may not think you’re worth the effort to continue searching for.
After you’ve built a successful career sabotaging your chances of landing a dream job with a minor typo is a frustrating situation. Use these techniques to catch the culprits before they knock you out of the running. The tips included below can help you avoid making some obvious mistakes.