Top 6 Payroll Resume Mistakes

If you are looking to get a job in the payroll services sector and need to submit a resume, it can help if you avoid some of the pitfalls of resume construction. A resume is more than certainly a personal document and should hence be presented in the way that you think is best for you and your chances of obtaining of a job. It should however always contain your career to date and that is best presented professionally and not in a friendly manner. This is just one of the common mistakes people make when putting a resume together. Avoiding things like this will improve your chance of moving through the application process. Here are some other factors to consider.

The Length

Many people’s resumes end up being way too lengthy and unreadable. A prospective employer in the payroll service sector will not be able to absorb all the information contained in a long resume, they become boring and cumbersome. Keep your resume to three to four pages, five at a push. It should be a punchy summary of all your work in the last five years. Anything prior to that five years should be recorded in a summarised manner only containing exact dates of employment and job titles.

Lack of skills and keywords

Many recruiters and companies in the payroll service industry now use software products to sort and filter resumes. This software is based on keywords and areas of expertise and if your resume does not contain these it will end up in the pile of ones that will go no further. In order to avoid his ensure you place technical buzzwords, jargon and technical terms into your resume.

Paying someone else to write your resume

As stated before a resume is a personal document and the way it is written is often taken into account by prospective employers. There is no right or wrong way to present yourself, but if you employ someone else to present you by writing your resume there is little chance of ‘you’ being in it. That isn’t what a possible payroll services employer wants. Don’t pay expensive resume gurus to write your resume but do by all means take advice and follow suggestions of people with successful resumes.

Missing information and gaps

Your resume should never have information left out as this will cause a prospective employer to wonder why there is a gap. Don’t embellish or stretch the truth to cover these gaps by lengthening dates of employment elsewhere, if you have had a career break say so. Honesty as always is the best policy and your prospective payroll service employer will appreciate that much more than a fib.

Email faux pas

Think before you put a personal email address on your resume! Do you really want your possible employer to prejudge you because your email is [email protected] or [email protected] ? Whilst they may be amusing amongst your friends they will come across as childish and unprofessional to a prospective payroll service employer.

Personal Information

Due to human rights legislation it is not a requirement to divulge your personal information on a resume. Your age, marital status, religious beliefs and photos can be discriminated on and you are under no obligation to include them when applying for a position in payroll services. Hobbies and interests are ok if you want to include them. They can be a good indicator for your possible employer of what your personality is likely to be.

Follow these top six tips and you should find that you are in possession of a top resume that will see you interviewing for a position in payroll services. And fingers crossed a job offer will follow.