The five most common resume-making problems (and how to avoid them)

You’ll finally be going to do it! You’ll change that life-draining job, and start fresh. You won’t settle for anything. This time, you’ll choose carefully, avoiding past mistakes.

Determined, you sit in front of your laptop, because, after all, you need to polish and make a new resume that will stand out from the crowd. But, 20 minutes into it, there’s still a blank page staring back at you. What’s wrong?

If you need help making a resume, you’re not alone. There’s plenty of people struggling with the same things as you do. After all, writing a perfect CV and Cover Letter is not an easy thing to do by any means.

Plenty of us worries we will sound petty, dull, pretentious, or trivial.

That said, we decided to share five biggest CV writing pitfalls and their solutions to help you jumpstart your career.

“I don’t know how to organize a resume.“

Deciding how to organize a resume can prove to be a challenging task to do. Simply, it can be hard to tell our story to someone quickly and clearly – which is the primary purpose of our CVs. This is how we end up all tangled up between our achievements, skills, and companies leaving interviewers to find their way out of the mess.

The right solution for this problem is to pick one resume structure that fits your experience level and stick to it. You can choose between a chronological, functional, and mixed resume and follow its pattern. Furthermore, once you decide which structure you want to follow, you can enter your data into one of the Applyya’s pre-made templates to avoid the fuss.

“I want a career change, but lack experience.“

Being stuck at a job you don’t like is a nightmare. However, it’s not so uncommon. Everybody makes mistakes. However, switching careers can prove to be easier said than done, especially if you don’t have the right skills for the job you want to apply for.

An excellent way to solve this problem would be to focus on your transferable soft and hard skills rather than the actual work experience. Luckily, pre-made templates Applyya offers can help you highlight those skills and improve the chances of avoiding the recruiter’s wastebasket.

“I am an experienced job-hopper.”

Frequently changing jobs is not that uncommon these days. While in some cultures (like Japan, for instance), it can be a huge turnoff, it’s the norm in Western society. However, those who, let’s say, had five jobs over four years might find it harder to land a new one.

The right solution for this problem would be to pick which jobs you’re going to include in your resume to avoid passing as a job hopper. Make sure those jobs reflect on your skill-acquiring capabilities and career progress. Later, during the interview, explain why and how you changed positions and highlight your strong skills.

“There are some employment gaps in my CV.”

This is one of the most common problems job seekers have when there are gaps between previous employments. However, that problem is not that uncommon. In fact, by the research three out of five Americans had some kind of gaps in their career. They might be due to pregnancy, taking time to raise children, or much needed rest.

Whatever the reason is, make sure to fill out those gaps with some volunteering and freelance work. You can even turn your three-months travel to Greece as “cultural exploration.”

“I have been fired on your previous job.“

This is a pretty tricky problem to tackle when it comes to resume-making. A vast majority of people might feel tempted to lie about it, but the right thing is, to be honest with your future employer.

Whatever was their cause for letting you go, make sure to tell your interviewer it won’t happen again. As far as a resume is concerned, focus on the skills and career growth when it comes to that particular job.

All in all, creating a perfect resume isn’t the easiest thing to do. That’s why saying “Help me build a resume” shouldn’t be a taboo. Especially now, when you can easily get help creating a resume by using free online CV builders. That being said, you have the resources to avoid these five most common resume-making problems and effortlessly excel in your business goals.