STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

oh man, I feel dumb...

boobaby · Kate Spade

I'm sorry. Its probably not that big of a deal.

My friend went to an interview and brought along an extra copy of her resume. She hadn't updated it since sending it to the company. Midway through the interview, just as she was assuring them that she was very detail-oriented, she looked down and saw that it said Bexperience instead of Experience. If it makes you feel better, she got the job.

kittenheels · Coach

Oh, I'm sure that is not a big deal at all! When we're interviewing for summer associates, you would not believe the typos or just stupid things people leave on their resumes. I almost never ding an interviewee for a resume mistake - people job hunting have so much to worry about! Good luck!

kenzie · Chanel

I've had resume mess-ups before, too. Way back when I first started looking for jobs, my resume said, 'designed copy and wrote layout.' Lovely. I noticed it at an interview. I actually ended up having three interviews at that company (the third one I cancelled b/c I took another job, so I don't know what would have happened, but they kept calling me for interviews at least).

I'm in the process of looking for an assistant right now and every resume that's come through so far has had some kind of error on it. I think it's pretty common actually. I'm still super picky about it. Not that I disqualifiy a candidate entirely, but it definitely doesn't give them an edge. But, then again, I work in a field where writing and proofreading skills are really important and they are necessary for the assistant.

So, yeah, resume mistakes suck, but overall, I don't think it's going to seal your fate.

lynnie · Chanel

unless you're in an extremely competitive field where proofreading/writing should be your #1 skill, i dont really think its a big deal. Personally- I am too busy to even open a lot of resumes I get (when attached in an email)- I do a lot of choosing based on the actual email (they'll often talk about experience there, and you get more of a sense of how they are as a person) and the interview. A lot of people that are interviewing you make the same kinds of mistakes- you'd be surprised at how many people i've met that are really high up in their fields who aren't all that good at writing (damn- that sentence sounds bad! i'm better at writing than this comment suggests!) And we get a lot of foreign candidates whose resumes are littered with mistakes. I don't even bat an eye (but yea, I'm not looking for someone who can write perfectly.) I think it'll be okay and since you caught the mistake, you can fix it now!

Suasoria · Chanel

It's inevitably the people who say they are detail pros and/or excellent proofreaders who have those little mistakes. I will hold it against someone in that case. I probably would still interview them if they are otherwise promising, but I point out the mistake. If they don't claim to be the best proofreader in the world, then I totally let it slide.I know it's hard to be your own editor, but it's not hard to have a friend look over your work before you send it.

If I get a resume as a Word doc, I'm also likely to look at it with all the nonprinting characters displayed - tabs, spaces, and paragraph marks - so I'm also judging the formatting on some level.

Similar to what Lynnie said, if I've run an ad, I may have hundreds of responses, so you really have less than 30 seconds to get my attention. I'm much more generous towards people who send unsolicited resumes. I always respond and sometimes give feedback and try to be otherwise helpful, and I know everyone says so, but I actually DO keep these resumes "on file." Having a good stack of current resumes can save me the expense, time and trouble of running an ad, so I'm stoked.

Sephorablue, if you think you've sent a resume saying you want an internship or part-time instead of full-time, it may be worthwhile to get back in touch and say your plans have changed and you're now looking for full-time work (or the reverse, whatever it is you are needing). It won't hurt, and people who may have skipped you the first time may be willing to give you a second look.