By Jim Davis
Guess how long it takes for employers to look over most resumes. If you read the title of this article you already know the answer. But you may not believe it.
Well, it's true. Most resumes get only 10 to 30 seconds of attention by the person who is reviewing them. And the people who submitted those resumes are out of luck. They don't even get considered for the jobs they were applying for.
This may seem unfair, but there's a good reason why those resumes got discarded so quickly. They had some kind of error in them. It may have been a spelling error. Or, maybe it was a grammatical error. Or it could have just been messy. Whatever the error was, though, it told the person reviewing the resume that the person who wrote it didn't care enough to make sure it was correct.
Your resume is your introduction to the person you hope will hire you. It's in your best interest to spend the time to be sure it doesn't get thrown out before they even have a chance to see what you have to offer.
Be careful when you are writing it. Get someone else who knows how to spot obvious errors to read it and point out any errors you may have made. Then make the changes and check it again. It's worth the effort.
Of course, there's more to a good resume than just correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. You're trying to let the employer know enough about you that they will want to talk to you in person.