You’ve labored over writing your resume and cover letter and now it’s time for the final proofing before you start applying for jobs. You want to make a positive first impression with potential employers. The last thing you want are grammatical errors or minor typos. Many jobs require strong communication skills. Let your resume show off that skill!
Your resume is the most important document in your job search. You want to show your best effort so take a little extra time to proof your resume. Most of us don’t use a professional resume writer, so you need to own this. You can apply these same essential steps to your cover letter (if you decide to write one).
Follow these 12 tips to proofread your resume.
1. Use Editing Apps
Take advantage of the free tools to help prevent grammar and punctuation errors and provide writing support on your sentence structure. Grammarly is the one I use. Google Docs and Microsoft Word have built-in functionality for spell check. There are many new artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can help as well.
2. Read Forward for Context
Reread your entire resume to make sure your important points are being communicated. Read it slowly and take your time. Make sure you are relating your work experience to the job description. Look for typographical errors, confusing phrases, and missing words. Double-check your contact information, phone number, email address, and any dates. Check your current job for present tense and past jobs for past tense.
3. Read it Out Loud
I know this sounds nerdy but I can almost guarantee this extra step will find things you want to change. This will force you to slow down and read each word. You will hear the context and possibly hear the awkward phrases you want to fix. You will also find double words where you accidentally repeat a word like the the.
Hearing and speaking your work-life story may also help to build up your confidence for those first interviews!
4. Look for Repeated Words
When you take the time to reread slowly, especially out loud, you will notice when you repeat words. (Manage this, manage that.) Writing a resume is tough and you want to use strong action verbs. If you find you are repeating terms, try using a site like wordhipp.com to find a good synonym.
5. Read Backwards
This may sound weird but trust me, it works. When you read normally, your brain can fix typos and fill in missing words. When you read the words in reverse order, you have to focus on each word. This is the best way to find words that are spelled correctly but are the wrong words. Manger is the best example. It’s a real word but most likely the wrong word. Did your brain fill in the missing A? “Manager” is the word you were likely looking for.
6. Scan the Formatting
First, scan your margins. Avoid these common mistakes, turn on the grid lines and turn on the formatting or show non-printing characters. Make sure you don’t have any extra spaces at the beginning of a line. Grid lines can help you check the right margin to make sure it’s consistent. Check the spacing and format of your bullets. Look for that accidental single extra space after a bullet.
Scan the overall resume format. Make sure you are consistent with spacing between sections. Is each section formatted the same? For example, are you using bold/all caps for section headers like QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY, EXPERIENCE, and EDUCATION?
7. Check the Fonts
Be careful when you copy and paste from a Web document into a Word document or vice versa. The formatting may change the font and the font size. I have seen resumes from job candidates who did not notice they went from Arial font size 10 to Times New Roman font size 8 in the middle of a paragraph of their cover letter or within bullets in their resume.
It’s going to be tough convincing me you have excellent attention to detail when you don’t notice the font change. So, making this a step in the process will start to train you to look for this detail.
8. Print a Paper Copy
Yes, people still print paper resumes. Proofing a piece of paper will help you see formatting and margin issues that you might miss on a computer screen. Reread the paper copy and look for spelling and grammar errors, extra spaces or tabs, and review the formatting, just like you do online or on your computer.
9. Read on Multiple Devices
You never know how a recruiter or hiring manager is going to review your resume. Again, I know this tip sounds nerdy, but it’s not going to hurt. Email your resume to yourself. Then open the document on your phone, a tablet, and a larger monitor. Be sure to do this with the format you plan to send. Some send a Microsoft Word document and others convert the Word doc and submit a PDF.
10. Take a Break
The job search process can be very stressful and exhausting. You may get proofreading fatigue. You won’t do your best work when you are spent. So take a break. Come back a few hours later or even the next day.
11. Ask for Help
Ask a friend, parent, adult child, or family member to read your resume. Let the fresh eyes help bring a new perspective to finish the proofing job.
12. Check the File Name
Don’t save your PDF or Word doc with the name of Resume.pdf. Take the time to at least add your last name. If you plan to edit or customize your resume for each job application, then add the company name too. ABC_Company_Smith_Resume.pdf. Imagine the person on the other side of the hiring process, HR managers and recruiters, going through hundreds of PDFS. Make it easy for them to save it with your name in the file name.
I put the company name first and save the resume in a specific Job Search folder. It’s easy to sort in alphabetical order to find the specific resume for each interview. Double-check and make sure you have the correct spelling of the company name.
Most job seekers use the same resume for all jobs. I think this is fine early in your career. But consider more customization as you have more experience to work with. Just be sure to reproof for each job if you keep changing your resume!
Now that you have properly proofed your resume, you are ready for the application process. You can easily copy and paste your resume content into your LinkedIn profile. Good luck and I hope you have a successful job search. You get that first interview and land your dream job!
