Due to the nature of my job as a Human Resources Professional, I had to review hundreds of resumes. Probably, you have heard that on average a recruiter spends seven seconds reviewing one resume. Have you ever wondered how they can do that? What kind of superpower do they have? I can give you a simple reason for how I determine why you may NOT be the one in seven seconds. And that reason is punctuation in your resume.
What one skill that almost every job posting for entry-level roles in offices requires? If you guessed it being detail-oriented, you are right. If you are curious, about whether your resume would end in the piles of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ then let’s check together. For that, you need to open your most recent resume and check if you have a period after each bullet point in your resume. Note that you may choose not to use a period after your bullet points altogether, and that’s ok as long as you are consistent.
There are three reasons why punctuation in resume matters:
- Punctuation represents the quality of your work and how seriously you take any piece of the document that you produce to share with others.
- Punctuation hints at if you’re going to be consistent in your outputs.
- Punctuation showcases that you are a detail-oriented person who takes time to cross the t’s and dot the i’s.
“Details matter. It’s worth waiting to get it right.”
- Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple
Next time, before applying to your next job and hitting the button ‘send’, check again if the punctuation has been used wisely. Don’t leave your success in getting your next job to a “.”.
All the best in your job hunt!
