In the lives of every person on this planet, there is an inevitable moment of writing a resume and going to a job interview.

It is a moment of great anxiety and fear, but it is also a moment that will make you smarter and more experienced.

There are many variables that might happen during one of these two stages in your life, and the best thing you can do is to prepare a bit by looking at the statistics.

You can observe these statistics as just simple numbers that will tell you the frequency of the certain event that might happen during your writing of your resume or during your interview.

The statistics will prove to be a good guideline of the good and bad things you should or should not do during the interviewing or resume-writing stages, in order to prepare yourself better.

All in all, in this article you will learn more about the process of writing a resume, in the sense of what to avoid while writing one.

Additionally, you will learn more about the mistakes you should avoid during an interview, before talking about some statistics and figures that you, as a job seeker, should be aware of.

At the end of the text, you will find a questionnaire with a few frequently asked questions and problems linked to this topic.

THE POINT OF INTERVIEWS AND RESUMES AND THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES

Before we start, have in mind that there is a slight difference between a resume and a CV. In short, CV represents a summary of one’s experience and skill and is usually two to three pages long.

Resumes, on the other hand, represents a summary that consists of your education, work and job history, and other work-related accomplishments and skills.

One of the focal points of a resume is to briefly introduce your potential employers to your work history and set of skills with which you are able to help the company at which you want to work.

Over 70 percent of job seekers are just passively looking for a job, meaning that they get to the point of having finished writing a resume and slow down in actively looking for a place to send the resume.

When talking about common mistakes when writing a resume, nearly all of the people who have at a certain point in their life had to write a resume, have made the same mistake.

It is not about making mistakes, but it is about noticing the mistake in time and correcting it. The most common mistake is a few grammatical and typographical errors.

The vast majority of employers see these kinds of errors as a sign of the candidates’ not caring enough to correct them, which is an undesirable trait for any job, being branded a sloppy person.

Another mistake is not being specific enough. Although the majority of employers would not mind when an entry in a resume is not informative enough, the thing that almost 100 percent of every employer hates is the ambiguity.

There is a difference between “I have successfully worked in a restaurant” and “I have worked in Pierre’s Restaurant where I was the chief of staff of 20 people and generated a slight increase in income and my rate of successfulness was 100 percent”

Having detailed information in your resume is what will increase your chances of being called up for a job interview while having limited to no information will only further decrease your chances.

Another common mistake is shortening or writing too long about certain accomplishments. The majority of the job seekers go at lengths with their resume and end up writing a scientific piece. Always keep it 3 pages maximum.

Finally, the one mistake that results in 100 percent failure to land any job is incorrect contact information.

You would get surprised at how many times a person has entered an incorrect phone number or an e-mail address as their contact information.

In addition, another mistake with a 100 percent fail rate is if you mistype the name of your potential employer or the company’s name. It is even worse than a random typographical mistake, as it shows your lack of respect.

If you are a beginner in writing a resume, do not fret. It might be scary at first, but the most important thing is to be careful.

If you wish to learn more about writing resumes and see a few other common and uncommon mistakes you want to avoid, this article is full of the necessary information about the topic.

Now let us touch base on the interviews. Interviews are also important because they show your potential employer an insight into your process of thinking and generally how well you would manage in a conversation.

They basically want to meet the person behind the resume and see what they are like in real life.

There might be multiple rounds of interviews, but the majority of people make a few mistakes out of anxiety and nervousness.

The thing about interviews is that you usually get one chance and that is it. There is no chance for a review and fine-tuning of certain aspects, it is a one-shot opportunity.

There are rarely opportunities for an employer to understand your nervousness or anxiety and due to that fact, call you for a second chance, but mostly it is your one shot to impress them.

Having said that, remember to dress appropriately. Even though a large majority of interviewees do dress appropriately for an interview, it is a golden rule for a good first impression, one which should always be on your mind.

The next important aspect is the balance of two important language skills: listening and talking. Most people do not know how to balance these two, remember the golden rule.

Listen to everything, talk enough. Do not talk their ear off, answer what is asked of you, while listening and not dozing off. It is an important balance that most do not know how to follow.

Finally, you should not, under any circumstance, talk negative things about your previous job or employers. If you do that, then you might one day talk negative things about the company you are being interviewed for, regardless of whether you parted ways on positive or negative terms.

If you wish to see what other mistakes you want to avoid while on a job interview, this article will provide you with the necessary pieces of information about common mistakes.

Having covered some of the common mistakes that you should avoid while being interviewed or writing a resume, in the next part of the text, statistical data on resumes and interviews will be provided.

This statistical data can help you realize and see what aspects of these two parts of job seeking are important for the employers, and which strategies they might use to gather more information about you.

In addition, you can also use these statistical data figures to concoct a strategy and help you better prepare for your interview by seeing the parts they usually focus on.

HELPFUL STATISTICAL DATA

Corporate job openings attract around 250-300 resumes out of which 4-6 will be selected for interview and only one will be hired.

On average, a job position in a company will attract around 250 resumes, where 4 to 6 candidates will be getting a call back for a job interview.

That might sound a bit too luck-based and you might think that you will be just a drop in the sea. You should not think in that way at all, as you are setting yourself for failure.

Have the fact that statistics might be against you in mind, but that also means that you must do something to stick out from those 250 resumes.

You absolutely should not lie on your resume, you must show your potential employer that you are ready to further develop your skills and learn new ones in order to appropriately do your work at their company.

Another good tip is that you should check your social media profiles, as there is a good chance that they will check your posts to get to know who you and your private life.

87 percent of employers will definitely check your LinkedIn profile, which should be your first stop to check for any entries that you might have forgotten to update.

You might find yourself in a difficult position if you are just entering the job market with no huge experience, as 91 percent of employers prefer a new employee to have work experience.

Do not fall in despair, as 65 percent of employers would like for their new employees to have at least relevant work experience.

This is quite a mundane thing, as major corporations offer internship positions to people. You might not get paid, but the experience will be greatly appreciated while you might get a fulltime position after your internship ends.

Another good thing for you set your mind to is the fact that the potential employer might oversell the position you are being interviewed for.

Approximately 60 percent of employees have had higher expectations for the position they have been hired for.

Turn your expectations a bit down and always try to see the realistic picture, even if your employer’s promises are too good to be true.

Another interesting statistic is that the average job-seeker will spend 11 hours a week looking for a job. That is an hour and a half daily, browsing the internet for available job openings.

If you are a fresh graduate, looking for a job and find it hard to find one, then you are belonging to 44 percent of people.

Now, you might have been in a few interviews and found that they are not calling back, that is why you find it difficult.

Some data suggests that close to 50 percent of recruiters would like to have at least three interviews before they make an offer.

However, let us shift our focus back to resumes, there are a few factors that result in employers declining or completely rejecting a resume. Some are miniscule, while others are an important factor.

84 percent of resumes were rejected due to impersonal applications. Meaning, there was no hiring manager’s name on it. It is a sign that the person did not invest enough time for adequate research.

54 percent of employers have said that they reject resumes because they are not customized; they are simple white pieces of paper that do not attract attention.

You must be wondering why do you need to customize your resume, is it really that important?

Giving the amount of them an average company receives, how much time do employers take in reading them?

6 seconds is what takes for an average employer to skim through the essentials of an average resume. That is why you have to get his attention and get him to invest more seconds for your resume.

As previously mentioned, if you want to impress an employer through your resume, your work experience will impress 67 percent of them, while your cover letter and college will impress 26 and 21 percent, respectively.

Now let us switch the topics and see some statistical data regarding the job interviews. Statistically speaking, every 1 in 6 interviewees will be hired, while the whole interviewing process lasts 22 days, on average.

As previously mentioned in the text, the recruiters usually weed out the interviewees through the interviews, so if you have been called to your second or sometimes third interview, it is a good sign.

If you wish to know how long you should wait between being interviewed and being rejected or hired, 46 percent of them have said that month and a half to two months is an ideal interval.

39 percent have said that a month is enough for them to analyze your resume and interview and see whether you are a perfect fit for your company.

Always have in mind that if you put any online profiles on a resume, you should always check them regularly, as 41 percent of recruiters do not interview if they cannot find the interviewees online.

In conclusion, there are a few things to remember in regards to the resume and interview fields in job hunting.

One-quarter of resumes are being accepted as appropriate due to various reasons: skill set, work experience, eye-catching resume style or others.

Remember the three important rules of writing resumes: check for grammatical errors, do not put your high school e-mail address, do not lie on your resume.

75 percent of recruiters have caught someone lying on a resume, while 35 percent have had problems with childish e-mail addresses.

Regarding the grammatical and typographical errors, nearly 80 percent of recruiters will reject you altogether.

Always check your social media profiles, as before the interview the majority of recruiters will try to find you on social media, while 77 percent will go to your LinkedIn account.

Social media profile might sound like a minuscule thing for you, but 54 percent of people have been rejected due to their social media accounts. Set them to private or delete any pictures that might be seen as unrepresentative.

When it comes to interview, relax, try not to look nervous, even if you do, the interviewer will see that and they will not mind a lot.

Remember that you have 7 seconds to leave a good impression. There are a lot of ways to leave a good impression, including, but not limited to: preparation, smile, firm handshake, and being relaxed.

If you wish to learn more about interviews and its many aspects, for example, body language and the usefulness of confidence, this article will be extremely useful to you.

In addition, if you wish to check the statistical data for everything related to job seeking, check this site out, as there are many things you can learn and use in your future job seeking opportunities.

QUESTIONNAIRE

I have never written a resume, where do I start?

There are a lot of courses and examples on the internet on how to write a good resume. Have in mind that the format is important, paragraph spacing, line spacing and similar.

You should also try and put some logos and text boxes just to break the mundane look of your resume.

All in all, there are a lot of examples online, with a few websites that specialize in resumes and other work-related fields, like cleverism.com resume.io and zety.com

I am nervous as I have never been to a job interview, what should I do? 

Nervousness and anxiety are perfectly normal, especially if it is your first time going to an interview. The best thing to do is convince yourself that it is just going to be a simple conversation.

If you still feel a dose of anxiety, try to boost your self-confidence. Boosting your self-confidence will have many benefits to your everyday life, not just the interview you are scared of.

In addition to meditation and stop measuring yourself to other people, which is the biggest confidence booster, there are a lot of other ways of boosting your self-confidence.

All in all, self-confidence and experience with talking and speaking is what will make you treat any interview as a piece of cake.

I have been in an interview and the manager seemed pleased but has not called yet?

No need to fret on it, there might be numerous reasons why they have not called you yet. One of the reasons might be that they are in the process of interviewing other candidates.

Another important is that they might be trying to reach you through your online accounts, such as an e-mail address.

You should definitely give them at least a month or a month and a half before concluding that you probably did not make the cut.

In conclusion, 6 to 8 weeks is enough time for them to make the decision, so do not lose hope nor motivation if they did not reach you, there is always another company that needs your skillset.

How to make my resume more eye-catching?

There are a few ways to attract attention to your resume. Depending on the company, you can incorporate certain words that they might find interesting.

Words like “team player”, “ambitious”, “willing to learn and teach” and others. The key is to not overdo with those words, as they might see through your strategy.

Another strategy, which might be time-consuming, is to make different resumes for different job positions. Tailor them, in a way.

You should not send the same resume for a head chef position and for a waiter position. One demand authority, quick thinking, fast hands, focus, while other position demands good balance and great communicative skills, among others.

Tailor your resume by putting your skills that are suitable for the job front-and-center. As for the physical look, things are much simpler.

In conclusion, there is not a better thing than zero grammatical errors and a nice looking header to catch their attention. 

If there is a skill I moderately know, should I put it on my resume?

One of the main rules is to not lie, so if there is a skill that you moderately have, it is for the best to disclose that you are a beginner in it.

The best course of action, for example, if you know French a bit, is to say that you are a beginner learner of the French language and that you are willing and ready to further develop that skill if needed.

The last thing you want is to be hired and then ordered to do a report in French, because you have “speaks French” written on your resume, but you do not know it so well.

No matter what level of competence you are with any skill, disclose it, especially if you are willing to further develop it, they will appreciate the honesty.

CONCLUSION

Writing a resume and going to be interviewed for a job is something that will happen to everybody. It might be scary at first, but it is a simple and everyday thing that should not be frightful.

You have read the important statistical data which must have, at least, prepared you a bit for your future resumes and interviews, and probably relaxed you a little.

In conclusion, there are little strategies and tricks that will help you listed in the text, if you follow them, then you should not have anything to be worried about, as you will be ready for anything that might stump you.

Interview and resume statistics every job seeker should know

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