13 Ways Your Resume Can Say 'I'm Unprofessional'

Hiring pros share the faux pas they find in real resumes, including wacky e-mail addresses, defunct phone numbers and cookie-cutter templates.

By Lisa Vaas

No offense, thebigcheese@domain.com, but if nobody has told you yet, we’re telling you now: That e-mail address is not making you look particularly professional.

Unprofessional e-mail addresses are just one way of sending hiring managers the wrong message. If you want to be taken seriously when you apply for jobs, you need to put some polish on your resume, your cover letter and everything contained therein. Hiring professionals repeatedly run across these red flags that scream “unprofessional.” A number of recruiters and HR managers shared with TheLadders common errors from their own professional experiences.

1. Random/cute/shared e-mail accounts

E-mail accounts are free. There’s no reason not to sign up for your own. Yet many mid-career professionals share an e-mail account with a significant other or the entire family, generating addresses such as dickandjane@domain.com or thesmiths@domain.com. Also stay away from cutesy addresses. After all, butterfliesaremyfriend2010@domain.com, you can always share your admiration of Lepidoptera with colleagues after you’ve been hired. Ditto for offensive, flirtatious or sexual e-mail addresses.

Think we’re exaggerating? These are actual e-mail accounts cited by Jillian Zavitz, who’s responsible for hiring as the programs manager for TalktoCanada.com, an online English language-training course based in Canada. (We’ve changed the domain names to protect the innocent.)

Instead, adopt an address that incorporates the name you use professionally on your resume and cover letter.

2. Failure to proofread

Deidre Pannazzo, executive director at Inspired Resumes, said it’s “amazing” how many people submit resumes that contain “numerous typos and misspellings.” Even better than spell check, she said, is to have a friend review the document for you.

“Make sure your dates are consistent, and that you don't confuse your story with overlapping time lines,” she said. (For an in-depth look at how to tackle proofreading your resume, click here.)

3. Bikini pictures

Resume experts advise against attaching pictures or any image files to a resume. They can “choke” an applicant tracking system (ATS), the software that automatically scans and parses resumes. (Click here for an in-depth look at how your resume is handled by technology after you press submit.) In addition, hiring professionals warn against giving anyone a reason to prejudge and form a negative opinion based on your appearance. Indeed, some HR departments will immediately discard resumes with photos to avoid any possible accusations of discrimination on this basis.

But still applicants send photos. Most troublesome of all, said Zavitz, are the beach shots. “(No) pictures where you are in a bikini at the beach (real story, and it wasn't a flattering picture either) or at a New Year’s party with your friends (obviously drunk). Not cool.”

4. Unprofessional voicemail

If your resume is strong enough to convince the recruiter or hiring manager to reach for the telephone, be sure what he finds at the other end of the line represents you in the best light – that means your voicemail or whoever might answer the phone.

Marlane Perry, managing director of the Executive Search Division of Magill Associates, said she is unimpressed when a phone number on a resume leads her to an unprofessional recorded voicemail or a conversation with a third party who can’t be trusted to take a message. “If you don't trust your roommates to answer the phone and take a decent message, then only list your cell phone,” she said.

5. Lazy words, ‛etc.’

Perry said that use of “etc.” on a resume is a sign of laziness: The job seeker obviously “can't even take the time to list out all of [his] duties.” She has seen the error on both junior- and executive-level resumes. Another no-no is saying "same as above" anywhere on a resume. “If you had similar job functions at your last two jobs, summarize the responsibilities and then bullet out some of your accomplishments,” she suggested.

6. Cookie-cutter resumes

Samantha Goldberg is a celebrity event designer and TV personality who’s always looking for employees for administrative duties or to help plan an event. She said she often reviews resumes and cover letters that aren’t even vaguely customized for her business.

“It’s more like ‛Mad Libs’ — they just fill in our name as they send them off!” she said. “Just once, I would love to have them describe me on the cover letter instead of saying that they respect my career status and have been following my career.”

On many occasions, Goldberg said, she specifically lists a prerequisite of at least three years’ experience with planning events that does not include friends, family or applicants’ own weddings. “They obviously don’t read my prerequisites and send an e-mail stating that even though they haven’t orchestrated events for anyone they have always been told they should be in the industry if I would just give them a chance.”

7. Everything but the kitchen sink

“I don't care, nor have time, to read about your life story,” Zavitz said. “If you can't whittle your resume down to a page or two at max, I will not read it. If it's not related [to the job or your work history], don't include it.”

8-13 ad infinitum...

Larry Lambeth, president of Employment Screening Services Inc., which helps companies review job applicants, offered a laundry list of professional gaffes he’s seen on resumes and job applications:

• Listing a spouse as a reference
• Not spelling out the name of an employer or school (“LSU” instead of “Louisiana State University” or “ZDE” instead of “Ziff Davis Enterprise”)
• Not providing a city or state for an employer or school
• Omitting the area code from a phone number for a reference or employer
• Providing only a first name for a supervisor or reference
• Including phone numbers that are no longer in service for references or employers

Is Hoarding Hurting Your Employees’ Careers?

Being perceived as a hoarder may cost workers a promotion, new CareerBuilder survey shows

By: Mary Lorenz

It may get you a cameo on a TLC reality show, but hoarding don’t do nothing for your career, y’all.

A new, very scientific survey by CareerBuilder shows hoarding can have a negative impact on your career.  Nearly three-in-ten (28 percent) employers say they are less likely to promote someone who has a disorganized or messy work space.

This doesn’t bode well for the 33 percent of workers – men and women equally – who say they tend to be hoarders. And even though companies have shifted to a more digital workplace, more than half of workers (51 percent) say they still have paper files in their office/desk.

But let’s back up a touch, shall we? What exactly makes someone a hoarder? Survey says…

• 38 percent say that, currently, between 50 to 100 percent of their desk surface is covered with work and other materials, while 16 percent of workers said 75 percent or more of their desk is covered. For shame!!
• 36 percent of workers say they have paper files from more than a year ago, 13 percent have files that are five years or older and six percent have files dating back more than 10 years. Heathens.

Is it really that big a deal? Well, yes, according to the survey. It seems employers don’t think any more of hoarders than they do of tattooed employees.

Nearly two-in-five employers (38 percent) say piles of paper covering a desk negatively impacted their perception of that person; 27 percent feel they are disorganized, while 16 percent say they are just messy.

Public service announcement: If you or someone you know is a hoarder, there IS help.

Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Human Resources, offers the following tips to get your work area organized:

• Schedule time with the office recycle bin –Set a calendar reminder for Friday afternoon to take completed projects to the recycle bin.

• Work on one project at a time – While you may have 20 things on your “to do” list, prioritize what needs to be done that day when you arrive at work and take care of one project at a time.

• Don’t be a digital hoarder – Just because nobody else can see your clutter, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, especially in your email boxes. Delete unneeded emails on a weekly basis.

Be Your Own Best Publicist: 7 Job Search Lessons From PR

If you find it difficult to present your best talents, maybe you need professional help in promoting yourself.

Two public relations executives, Meryl Weinsaft Cooper and Jessica Kleiman, have written a new book that combines public relations and career advice. They believe today’s job seekers must “find ways to be creative and resourceful so that you rise to the top of anybody’s list,” said Kleiman.  “They have to work a little harder to stand out.”

Called “Be Your Own Best Publicist”, the book draws on their 30 years experience: Kleiman is a top publicist at Hearst Magazines and Cooper who works for a New York PR firm, DeVries Public Relations, and once represented the Screen Actors Guild. “We took our PR expertise and are trying to help people apply them to their own careers,” said Kleiman, who also contributes to their blog.

Here are seven tips from the PR duo and their book:

• Develop your pitch. It could be your 30-second elevator pitch, or it could be a thoughtful creative way to answer the sometimes-tough question ‘Tell me about yourself,’ said Kleiman. Either way, this succinct story about you and your talents must answer the question: “What do I bring to the table?” It also should highlight why you are unique and where you really excel. If you have trouble with this, ask your mother, your best friend and a professor for suggestions.
• Keep it to three key points. Be clear about your main message. In an interview or conversation, it’s better to focus on two or three focused topics or selling points, and repeat them a couple of times so they stick. Write them down and make sure you have specific examples to back them up for the job interview.
• Become the answer person. Position yourself as a resource and someone who will give good guidance and make connections. Or become the ultimate expert in one subject – and hope that subject is important to future employers. Serving as a connector or information source increases your value – and makes it more likely you’ll be clued in on something big as it’s developing.
• Build a backup plan. Your dream job may not be within reach right now. Or your first choice for a best company may have just filled its only opening. “Have a contingency plan,” they say. Explore other companies or sectors; “you always want to be ready with another route to success.
• Answer without answering. If you’re asked a difficult question, say something like “That’s a really good question, Bob, but what I think is more important today is ….” and go back to a topic or area that you feel shines a positive light on you and your talents. Or if you’re asked what you dislike about your current job or situation, you could reply by saying you’ve learned a lot there and worked on “a number of interesting projects.”  That way you don’t insult anyone or anything in your response.
• Learn to spin your experience. Whatever job you had taught you something that will be worthwhile to future employers. If you worked as a waitress when many other college graduates were toiling at summer internships, make the best of that. You learned to thrive in a fast-paced environment, to handle difficult people, good customer service skills and to be outgoing. Said Klaiman: “It’s not so much the job you’ve had, it’s about how you take that experience and skillet and spin it as a PR person would do.”
• Show a little humility. Confidence is important, but too much and you end up sounding like someone who no one will want to work with. You don’t want to sound boastful or crass, even if you have had some great successes. Ask for help and admit you need some guidance. Allow yourself to make mistakes – and learn from them.  In an interview, this means you wait until the second interview to ask about the career path and moving up “I haven’t even finished asking you questions about your resume and you’re asking how soon you can advance here,” said Kleiman.

Her final advice, also based on convincing journalists to cover stories or people she represents, is simple: “Don’t give up. Keep going on your pitch.” You will lose out on jobs, and you will be rejected. But you can learn from that and still end up with success if you keep working on your career goals.

Originally published on the Glassdoor Blog by  Nancy Mann Jackson, Glassdoor.com Contributor