How important are typos in your resume?

Just finished reading a couple of blog entries on how damning typos can be if they are found on your resume.  The post on Select Matrix quotes the article 

Eighty-four percent of executives polled said it takes just one or two typographical errors in a resume to remove a candidate from consideration for a job opening; 47 percent said a single typo could be the deciding factor.

Those are pretty scary statistics.  So now my readers are wondering if that might be the reason that their resumes did not seem to get a second look or they didn’t get called back after submitting a resume for their dream job.

Well, from my point of view, at least in this market niche, you can just ‘through’ 😀 those statistics out the window.  Personal experience has taught me that most if not all of the middle level management executives that get hired in this industry have the decision to interview and then hire based upon where they have worked and what their record of achievement was.  I’m not sure that any of the hiring authorities that I send resumes too spend much time at all checking the spelling.  And even if they do that isn’t going to knock out a great candidate.  In our business, it is about giving the customer a great experience so spelling just isn’t that important.

Gaps in the resume – important.  Inconsistent career path – important.  Demotions during your career – important.  Job hopping – important.  Spelling, just not that important.

And here’s a tip that might help you.  In MS Word, ‘manger’ is a real word and it won’t show up as a misspelling when you are typing your resume.  It would be a good idea to remove the word from the main dicitonary, unless you are a shepherd and work with mangers regularly and are prone to misspelling.  ;-)  Hope that tip helps y’all.

 

About the author, Chief Executive Restaurant Recruiter

Born in Arkansas, moved to FL for 3 years as a youngster. Lived in GA most of my life. Married in 1985, 2 kids, one of each. Graduate of USNA Class of 1980. Love golf, computers, poker, photography, and gadgets.

  1. >>
    Gaps in the resume – important. Inconsistent career path – important. Demotions during your career – important. Job hopping – important. Spelling, just not that important.
    >>

    That’s quite right!
    Nevertheless, I’d like to make a statement:

    BIG Spelling mistakes = IMPORTANT! Really, I’ve seen candidates misspell their own Name; their company’s name; misspell postition. Things like that count! A top-class candidate might be not affected by such kind of a Typo if his/her experience+education makes them “perfect” for the position.

    However typos is a risky business for the candidate who’s past experience doesn’t speak for itself.

  2. 🙂 Thanx!

    Sometimes you just can’t stop wondering – who’s out there in the WWW.

    Anyway, I might stick around for a while and comment on at least a few more posts (if I succeed in changing my nick – vbabris just doesn’t sound right to me 🙂 ).

    Vadims.

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