Lee Hecht Harrison surveyed 277 human resource managers to find out what was missing from the job candidates they receive application materials from.

The prompt was: “Please rate how detrimental you believe each of the following issues is to a candidate’s chances of being selected for an interview.”

• Lack of job-related skills…9.0
• Lack of required technical skills/experience…8.7
• Spelling and/or grammatical errors on application materials…8.5
• Lack of required education and/or training…8.1
• Inappropriate social media content…7.7
• Resume doesn’t showcase results or accomplishments…7.5
• Gaps in work history…7.4
• Lack of industry experience…7.3
• Lack of tenure in current/previous position…7.3
• Titles don’t accurately reflect positions and/or responsibilities…7.0
• Poorly defined value proposition…6.2
• Generic resume and cover letter…6.0
• Failure to include a cover letter…3.9

The Messages

It seems that unqualified, or minimally qualified, candidates are applying for positions due to the prevalence of job boards and ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems).

The inboxes of HR managers are filled with applications from unqualified candidates, increasing the chances that your qualified application may be overlooked in the pile.

Or that the employer will try to bypass publicly posting their jobs the next time around.

Another message: You can be well-educated and have great, relevant work experience…but not get called in for an interview because your marketing materials are riddled with misspelled words and poor grammar.

You can be THE perfect candidate…until they Google you and find some unfortunate content…or a lack of positive professional content.

You can be a great candidate EXCEPT for your habit of job-hopping, and the fact that you’ve only been in your current role for six months.

I’ve hired a lot of employees over the years, and here’s my biggie: It’s the whole resume thing. Mis-spelled words, poor grammar, and inconsistent formatting drives me NUTS. Of course it does, I’m a Master Resume Writer.

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