The 3 most common résumé mistakes

Whether you knew it or not, if you're looking for a job, you're already employed. What do I mean? Welcome to the world of sales. Even if you haven't worked a day in months or are currently employed by Greenpeace, you need to get comfortable with the idea of selling your skills, talents, and expertise in the marketplace if you want to land a job in the next 50 years. As we stated earlier, selling yourself isn't about becoming fake or phony, but let's acknowledge the fact that in most cases, the phone isn't ringing off the hook with job offers for you. If you want the phone to ring, you've got to make others aware of how you can contribute to the success of their organizations. And, friends, that's sales, 100 per cent.

For job-seekers, selling begins on paper
Whether you're writing a résumé, cover letter or e-mail, your ability to communicate with insight and impact is critical when applying for jobs. After all, busy professionals -- including recruiters and hiring managers -- are inundated with e-mails, resumes and other materials on a daily basis. The result? Long e-mails, boring letters and unprofessional résumés get discarded, deleted and ignored. If you want your résumé and cover letter to get read, be remembered, and stand out above the noise and competition, avoid the common mistakes that many job seekers make.

Mistake #1: You confused them
Let's imagine a typical job-search scenario: You've read about an interesting job online, so you whip up a cover letter, dash off your résumé, and you wait by the phone (or computer) for some kind of acknowledgment or reply from a recruiter about what's to come. Unfortunately, the phone doesn't ring and you're left wondering what you did wrong. Consider this possibility: You were confusing. Maybe you applied for a sales position, but you also mentioned that “you'd be open to a position in marketing or finance” in your cover letter. Or perhaps you have job experience in everything from teaching English to baking pastries -- and it's all on your résumé.

The solution? Clarity. When you give too much information about you, your professional history, your future career goals, or anything else for that matter, you run the risk of confusing people. As much as we'd like to think people read what we write (she writes, hopefully) and listen to what we say, chances are, they don't. People are busy and time is limited. Your job is to be direct, clear, and get to the point -- fast.

Before you send out a résumé or pick up the phone, ask yourself this question: “Above everything else, what is the one thing I want the reader of this e-mail/résumé/cover letter to know about me?” Think about how you can edit -- or even remove -- everything on paper that doesn't fit your “one thing” requirement. For instance, if you're dying for a position in investment banking, do you really need five bullet points on your résumé about your work as an English teacher? The more information you throw at somebody, the less likely it will be read and really remembered.

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Excerpted from Work 101 by Elizabeth Freedman. Copyright 2007 by Elizabeth Freedman. Excerpted by permission of Delta, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.