Hey there! So now that you are now going to apply for your dream job, you must be prepared in all aspects for an imminent challenge. Your resume, your cover letter, everything. Maybe you might refer to the internet regarding what to do and what not. However, on the internet, you might find trends. These trends might appeal to you. They might as well appeal to your companions. But would they appeal to your recruiter? Would they take you to the interview room? Many trends surely would not. Here is a list of 5 common resume trends you should avoid at all costs.
Text Boxes
It is a general myth that a résumé should only be one page in length. There is no ideal resume length. A common approach to make the most of the space is by strategically positioning one or more text boxes. Nowadays resumes are first tracked by Applicant Tracking Systems.
Unfortunately, most of these “see” text box as an object and ignore it. If you have put contact information, skills, or any other content critical to your candidacy in a text box, it may not get included in your candidate record. It might even be ignored by the algorithm that is determining your worthiness to be interviewed by a human being. Thus, you should avoid using too many text boxes.
Etsy styled Template
Most of the time applicants give priority to design over functionality in resume making. Due to this preference, they generally go for Etsy styled templates with a lot of columns and graphic design. However, ATS’s weed out such resumes ruthlessly. Therefore, you should go for sophisticated and professional resume templates.
Make the headlines stand out by simple highlighting; add lines below the headings, etc. Try to make the center of the headline oriented as readers’ eyes naturally gaze at the center. If you are applying for a job where your creative skills are needed, then insert hyperlinks to your creative works, instead of actually adding creative elements to your resume.
Also read : Five ways how a professional resume writer can help you
Headers and Footers
Owing to the misconception of a one-page resume, most job aspirants tend to add some of their details in headers and footers. While a human eye can catch it or appreciate it, AI-powered systems like ATS may not be so much powerful.
Today, most of the companies rely on ATS to weed out the unworthy resumes, and most of the ATS’s cannot recognize, and record data stored in headers and footers. If you add details like your contact details, etc. in headers and footers, there is a high chance ATS will ignore it. Therefore, make sure that you avoid using headers and footers.
Columns
Sometimes applicants try to create symmetry by using columns. While these columns do look visually appealing to a human eye, ATS considers it to be a string of unreadable characters. ATS is designed to read and record the text as plain text, rather than a formatted text. ATS disregards strings of unreadable characters, due to which many essential elements of your resume might be ignored. Thus, these attempts on your part might lead to your disqualification by AI software. So try to avoid it in your resume.
Skills point System
Generally, recruiters love to see quantified credentials. However, most applicants take it too far. They go on to rate their skills on a scale of 1 to 10. The problem with this system is that it is ambiguous and subjective. Also, applicants try to rate themselves highly in all skills, which turns the recruiters skeptical. Instead of giving crude numbers like “9 out of 10 in Adobe Photoshop”, try to give a proper statement with your experience level, like “Proficient in Adobe Photoshop”. These statements are much more expressive than the vague skill point system and communicate better with the recruiters.
These are some of the common trends that you should avoid ensuring that your resume doesn’t get rejected in the ATS stage itself. For more such professional advice, you should visit cvDragon. cvDragon is the best online resume making site. Here you get resume advice after a long experience of resume analysis. cvDragon provides online resume making service for free.
SUMMARY
Resume trends are commonly found on the internet. New job applicants tend to use these trends. Most of these trends are not suitable for ensuring selection. One should try to avoid such trends for maximum chances to get selected. These avoidable trends include:
- Blatant use of text boxes because of the myth of one-page resume
- Preferring design over functionality by applicants
- Using headers and footers for essential information
- Using symmetrical columns
- Using a skill point system for proficiency skills
Hopefully, this article will help you to avoid unnecessary resume trends to stay relevant.
