Top 3 Millennials Resume Mishaps

There are currently more Millennials on planet earth than any other generation and they have a growing foothold in the job market with diplomas in hand. Millennials are an interesting breed and say what you want about them, but they are an incredibly impactful generation. Many Millennials are old enough to remember life before the technology and the internet invaded our daily lives but still young enough to be “tech dependent.” These skills and perspective can be tools to boost any business forward.

Despite high levels of formal education, many 90’s babies are struggling to find a path towards their next career advancement. This may be attributed to majoring in subjects offered in college that do not carry value in the job market but also having a poorly constructed resume can certainly be a factor as well. Here are some tips to ensure your resume will not hold you back from your dream job!

• Keeping the Experience Relevant:

The whole point of a resume is to show employers why and how you will make their business better. Many people make the mistake of listing the features and current responsibilities with their job rather than the benefits they provide their current employer. Consider for example; your responsibility of “managing inventory” should be described as a benefit like “cut inventory cost by 15% while maintaining high service standards.”  Quantifying your contributions adds greater value to you as a potential hire.

• Having Too Much Detail:

Being able to explain every single bit of experience you have had in depth is fantastic, but your resume isn’t the best place to do it. You want to save that amount of detail for the interview stage! Keep it to 2-3 sentences and maybe some bullet points that list actual, measurable accomplishments. Most recruiters and hiring managers are going to skim your resume and in a few seconds and move to the next one. They are not going to see why you’re the right candidate if they must read a full paragraph about every position you have ever held.

Once you eliminate the fluffy unnecessary details you may notice that your resume is a bit sparse. That is to be expected for entry/individual contributor level roles! You are still relatively new to the job market so you shouldn’t have a resume the is more than a single page in length. Multipage resumes are reserved for people with +10 years of work experience.

• Mistaking Hobbies for Applicable Skills:

When re-working your resume, you must ignore the desire to add things you are not truly an expert in. The biggest culprit is claiming social media expertise! Having personal Instagram and Twitter accounts does not make you a social media expert so your resume should not reflect that. There are professional’s in the job market that have real experience and education in communications that are qualified to put that as a skill on their resume.

All in all, your resume needs to reflect your relevant experience efficiently. A clear, concise resume with actual accomplishments and quantifiable results will grab more attention than any colorful, crazy font or unorthodox formats. So, look over your resume, find some possible fluff that needs to be cut out, and make sure it is tailored to each specific role you are applying to. You want it to be a lean, mean, career growing machine!