March 28, 2024

Many job applicant think to update their resumes is only when they’re on the job hunt. Resume writing can be tedious, and, after all, if you’re completely satisfied with your current role and have no intention of leaving any time soon, why should you spend the time to rewrite your resume? Here are just a few important reasons why I feel updating resume, and why it can affect the way your future career develops.

As a professional HR and a recruiter who received thousands of resumes on a daily basis I have discovered series of Costly Mistakes common with the Fresh Graduates and experience graduates alike.

Unfortunately, this mistakes are visible to the eyes of only experts and HR recruiter. 

They are the core reasons why these applicants were not getting frequent invitations too interview they desired. and this contributes to why it has been difficult for the underemployed graduates to move from her low paying job, to a high paying job that she desired.

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A clear reason why a Mid level employed is struggling to transition to a senior level position. Let’s get into the details of these Costly Mistakes below.. 

#1. Poor Arrangement of information in CV

87 % of CV i have received, has poor arrangement of information. This sets of applicants are not aware of the principle of strength and weakness. So, how can they tackle this problem?. 

Consider SWOT analysis. According to Wikipedia, “SWOT analysis is a Strategic Planning techniques used to help a person or organization identify Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats related to business competition or project planning”. 

No doubt you have competitions in the labour market, in that job you wish to apply for. Therefore, it is your duty to identify your SWOT and position them to your advantage, if you must be ahead of your competitors. 

So, what information can be classified your Strength or Opportunity, Weakness or Threats? Information such as, Additional academic qualification such as (Phd,Msc,MBa, etc), additional Certifications, Big brand Work Experience, and your achievements, will stand as your strength and opportunities. and you need to position them in your first page. The idea is, you position your strength and opportunities in your first page so that they Grabs attention of your potential employers. 

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#2 Address of Residence

Common sense is not common practice, as basic as address of residence is, it has denied about 95% of applicants opportunities of getting their desired job. 

Time has really change things, the days when employers will recruit new employee from any part of the country and provide free accommodation for 3 months, to help you settle down, have gone down the drains. 

The Market forces of demand and supply has change every thing, the Number of graduate Supplied into the labour market far exceed the available jobs in demand.

And, it has given Employers a lot of options to choose from and they enjoy it a lot, because it has created avenue to cut cost to its minimum. 

These days, for example, let’s say an employer in Lagos need 50 qualified graduates, she can get all the 50 graduates in Lagos alone, in a day, anytime she places a vacancy advertisement.

These is definitely a problem for an applicant whose address of residence is not Lagos state, the same for applicants in Portharcourt and Abuja, considered to be job hub in these country. Applicants need to be dynamic in approach.

How can you tackle this challenge if you reside outside these three states(Lagos, Portharcourt, & Abuja)? 

Its very simple, for example, let’s say you reside in Benin and you find a job vacancy in portharcourt that you meet the requirements and you are ready to relocate for the job then ask yourself, do I have relations or friends in portharcourt, if yes, put a call immediately to them, explain clearly the situation at hand, ask for their address and replace it with yours in your CV before you apply and give it a try then possibly sort yourself out when you start working

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#3 Too Many Jobs Within a short period of time.

This is regarded as weakness and threats when using SWOT analysis comparisons, most applicant thought that the more places they have worked the better the chance of being selected on a job they applied for. some have worked in 3 places in 3 years, 4 places in 5years or 6 places in 7 years etc. 

Is not compulsory to include all your work experience you can choose the relevant position, the reason is that your potential employer will see you as inconsistent candidates and job hunter who will vacate his position in no distance time and considering the cost of employment and replacement of the position you have vacated. 

You don’t necessarily need to pile up long list of previous place of work, you should consider prone it down to 2 or 3 work places maximum if you have work in many places in a short while. You can selects that which you acquired better experience and can get good references in case. Be creative. 

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#4. Unnecessary Long List of Responsibility.

This class of applicants see responsibility as an achievement, so they pile a long list and cover the whole space. As define by an online dictionary, “responsibility is the state of facts of being responsible, answerable or accountable for something within ones control”.

Hence that is what it is, it means responsibility is a general things and not personal, such that, 50 persons can have the same responsibilities at a time. for example the responsibilities of a Customer Service Officer is the same in similar industry every where you go. Then , why the long list of responsibilities in your cv? Wouldn’t it be better if you summaries it to one or two sentence and save yourself a lot of space in your CV. The best CV should have fewer pages depends on your years of experience. Most recruiters or employers don’t have patience to read long CV details

For example a Bank Marketer can summarise her responsibility this way ‘Sale of banks retail products, such as Assets, Liability and Non financial’ Simple and straight forward.

The reason is that, responsibility is a general thing, it doesn’t make you smarter or hardworking and it is not an achievement as you will see below.

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#5. To Understand your career and objectives better. Most job seekers know that a resume acts as a career summary; only the most important parts of your skills and experience make it on to the page. With such a small amount of space to outline such a complex part of your life, it forces you to really dig deep into what is most important to you. Updating your resume can help you refocus on what your career goals and expectations are. When you’re at one job for a few years, you can become comfortable and forget what areas of professional growth were important to you as a job seeker. Updating your resume can expose the gaps in your skills and experience and reinvigorate your desire for self-improvement in your career.

#6. Remember Major Projects you worked on this year. A great tip is to update your resume is after you’ve completed each major project you’ve worked on. It can be easy to forget the details of projects when you’re a few years removed from them you may not remember the skills you learned or the obstacles you overcame. Writing it down when it’s fresh in your mind can provide focus and accuracy that otherwise would elude you if you wait too long.

#7 Complete Absence of Achievements. 

The fact is, Your Achievement is what make you “Stand out from the crowd”, it makes you an island of intelligence in a sea of mediocrity. Achievements is a personal possession, you own it and no two persons has the same achievements, even twins Children. Its quite unfortunate, perhaps because some applicant confuse achievement for responsibility and others did not realise the impact achievements carry on their CV. 

It is your achievements that catches the attention of your potential employers, they come to see you as a problem solver, particular to your job function. It is your duty to identify your achievements and channel them to your advantage. briefly describe in your CV

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