CareerBuilder recently surveyed 2,298 U.S. hiring managers and human resources professionals and asked what would make them automatically dismiss a candidate from consideration. Some of the biggest resume mistakes they communicated were:
• Resumes that don’t include a list of skills – 30 percent
• Resumes printed on decorative paper – 20 percent
• Resumes that detail more tasks than results for previous positions – 16 percent
• Resumes that include a photo – 13 percent
• Resumes that have large blocks of text with little white space – 13 percent
For graphic designers, those particular mistakes are inexcusable. As someone who has hired designers and production artists, one of my biggest pet-peeves is seeing a resume where the first item below the name/contact info at the top is an “Objective” paragraph. I immediately throw those resumes in the trash bin. I know what your objective is… it’s to GET THE DAMN JOB!