One pair of eyes is not enough to ensure the best offering your resume can present. One typo may be forgiven, but add a grammar error, and egregious over usage of keywords will likely disqualify a job seeker.

Good writers know that scanning for mistakes allows for ignoring obvious errors. The best writers in the world have a second and third pair of eyes to read, correct, and perfect their work.

There are several suggestions that can prevent errors, if an English major is not at your disposal:

1. Wash, rinse, and spin. Try reading out loud, then reading your résumé backwards, and finish by running a Word spell check. This does not guarantee perfection, but it will bring a candidate closer than to perfection.

2. Wash, then air dry. Reading your résumé, leave it for several hours, then read it again. Perhaps stagger reading for grammar first, then spelling, and finally for clarity.

3. Soak before washing. Too much passive voice in using forms are, were, which, which that, that being, and the like will wear out your readers.

4. Not too much bleach. Verbs used more than two or three times in a two-page resume distracts the reader from the meat of your abilities. Over usage of verbs, keywords, and simpler transition words downgrades the reader friendliness of the document.

5. Use softener, but not too much. The voice of the résumé must sound like the applicant, not like the writer who is not the applicant. It is reasonable to infuse your résumé with impressive sounding verbs, but only if the applicant naturally speaks as if they wrote them.

6. Dry cleaning if you suck at washing. It is not a sin for a career coach to rinse out and clean your résumé. A skilled coach can help you to quantify and qualify your accomplishments, solutions, and contributions.

Overall, the more details provided about your performance impact, will likely catch the employer's attention.

Mark Anthony Dyson

TheVoiceofJobseekers.com