On Resumes: Spell Check

Resumes are not always required when applying for a job. It depends on the company, and it depends on the position.

It is highly recommended, though, that you put together a resume to submit with your application. This is always a true statement and depends neither on the company nor the position. A resume shows you are at least (marginally) motivated in your hunt for employment...certainly, more so than the Average Joe who hit the "One-Click Apply" button.

Before my Recruiter prejudices get in the way, I will say: ok, fine, there is nothing wrong with a one-click apply. One-click apply makes it easy to apply to the seven hundred jobs you have no real interest in but happen to be desperate to find some kind of paying work you can pursue until you're eligible for unemployment benefits again.

Oh. Wait. Did I let my prejudices show? Oops. Ignore that last bit; I’ll try again:

If you are a serious job seeker using a one-click apply, that's fine. Turns out, the minimum criteria to be considered a “serious job seeker” is…[drumroll]…you need to call us back. That’s right, folks. To get a job, you need to be motivated to answer your phone when unknown numbers call or return calls when you get a voicemail and/or text and/or email following up on your application. Us Recruiter-types are unoriginal: We will send out some form of communication if we're interested in speaking with you.

Argh. I feel like we may have gotten off on a bit of a tangent. Back to resumes.

Resumes…You should make one. Then, after you make one, the absolute best career advice I can give you is boiled down to two words: Spell. Check.

Seriously, people. Do not submit a resume that's full of spelling errors. It makes you come off as a lazy as hell, unmotivated eleven-year-old. Or worse. And as someone who has dealt with a recent tween-ager, I can confidently say that there is little worse than an eleven-year-old. [Sidebar: Unless it is two eleven-year-olds. Or three. But I digress.] Guess what? It is 2023, people! Technology is great! The computer does most of the spell checking for you and even lets you know when it thinks there is an error by underlining the suspicious word with a squiggly red line!

What? You didn't know that that was what that was? Surprise!

[Happy, triumphant music begins to transition to sad, ominous music.] But, as is with all technology, there is a catch. The computer will not catch everything. You need to use your brain to go through the words to make sure everything makes contextual sense. If you don’t have a brain, borrow one from a friend for a few minutes.

[Sidebar 2: To reinforce the lesson provided in this post, let it be known that I actually did not spell ‘ominous’ correctly the first time I typed it. Then the red squiggly line popped up and I used the right click button to fix my error. Now I look much smarter than I did five minutes ago.]

What does “contextual sense” mean? Well…I cannot give an accurate guess as to how many 'costumer service reps' and 'cashears' and 'wearhouse workers' I speak to in a given month. Interestingly, I tend to find that most 'costumer service reps' have NOT, in fact, worked at Party City or any other company specializing in costumes. Candidates tend to look at me in surprise when I bring up Party City, as though I conjured it out of thin air. A select few candidates I've dealt with were actual costumers, or, seamstresses, but – surprise! – none of the 'seamstresses' had 'costumer' on their resume.

Likewise, the vast majority of the 'cashears' worked in fast food. Nobody was shearing anything, and, to be honest, I would be hesitant to hire someone who is pawning shears for cash...

I have yet to come across any 'wearhouse worker' that actually worked at Men's Wearhouse. For reasons I cannot fathom, most of those wearhouse workers tend to come from Amazon. Huh.

Summary: Spell check, people. Make yourself look a little smarter by taking the computer's suggestion to check and see if a word is misspelled. Then, go one more step and make sure the word makes sense. My four-year-old niece can probably figure it out, so let me Hooked-On-Phonics this for you: cu-sto--mer.

Your welcome. :-)