Your resume and your cover letter are your first opportunities to demonstrate to a prospective employer or employment agency both your attention to detail and your writing skills.
Employers and recruitment agencies often do not have much time to read resumes when they are selecting the candidates to short list for an interview. They may quickly lose interest in you as a job candidate if your resume is full of spelling mistakes, it flows poorly because of poor grammar or information is not where they can find it easily.
To give yourself the best possible chance of being selected for interview it is worth taking the time to proof read your resume. In fact, it makes sense to proof read all material you send with your job application, including your cover letter, responses to selection criteria and any emails that you may write during the process.
Proof reading is more than just glancing over what you have written to identify mistakes. It’s hard to proof read something you wrote yourself as you are likely to see what you meant to write instead of what you actually wrote. If you have just finished writing it, you’re even more likely to miss mistakes.
To proof read your work effectively, plan to finish your resume a day or two before you need to send it to the employer. This will give you time to put it aside and then come back to proof read it. Make any changes and then proof read it again. We suggest that you allow an hour or more between each review of your work. Find a time when, and a place where, you will not be interrupted. As you read your resume, ask yourself these questions:
- Have I made any spelling mistakes?
- Are there any typos?
- Have I missed out any words?
- Have I got my message across?
- Is this easy to read?
Now read it a third time, this time aloud. Hearing it out loud will help you to see if it flows well and if the content makes sense. If you are stumbling over the sentences as you read them, they may be too long.
When your resume is ready to be shared, ask a friend to check it for you. Tell them that you’d like them to check that it is makes sense and is easy to understand. Ask someone you can rely on to give you honest feedback.
Once you’ve made all the changes, don’t forget to spell check the document one last time. Then you can send your resume off, knowing that you’ve given yourself a better chance of success.
