13 ways your resume can say Im unprofessional

13 ways your resume can say Im unprofessional13 ways your resume can say Im unprofessionalHiring pros share the faux pas they find in real resumes, including wacky e-mail addresses, defunct phone numbers and cookie-cutter templates. No offense, thebigcheesedomain.com, but if nobody has told you yet, were telling you now That e-mail address is leid making you look particularly professional.Unprofessional e-mail addresses are just one way of sending hiring managers the wrong message. If you want to be taken seriously when you apply for jobs, you need to put some polish on your resume, your cover letter and everything contained therein. Hiring professionals repeatedly run across these red flags that scream unprofessional. A number of recruiters and HR managers shared with Ladders common errors bad lifestyle choices from their own professional experiences.1. Random/cute/shared e-mail accountsE-mail accounts are free. Theres no reason not to sign up for your own. Yet many mid-career prof essionals share an e-mail account with a significant other or the entire family, generating addresses such as dickandjanedomain.com or thesmithsdomain.com..Also stay away from cutesy addresses. After all, butterfliesaremyfriend2010domain.com, you can always share your admiration of Lepidoptera with colleagues after youve been hired. Ditto for offensive, flirtatious or sexual e-mail addresses.Think were exaggerating? These are actual e-mail accounts cited by Jillian Zavitz, whos responsible for hiring as the programs manager for TalktoCanada.com, an online English language-training course based in Canada. (Weve changed the domain names to protect the innocent.)Instead, adopt an address that incorporates the name you use professionally on your resume and cover letter.2. Failure to proofreadDeidre Pannazzo, executive director at Inspired Resumes, said its amazing how many people submit resumes that contain numerous typos and misspellings. Even better than spell check, she said, is to h ave a friend review the document for you.Make sure your dates are consistent, and that you dont confuse your story with overlapping timelines, she said.3. Bikini picturesResume experts advise against attaching pictures or any image files to a resume. They can choke an applicant tracking system (ATS), the software that automatically scans and parses resumes. In addition, hiring professionals warn against giving anyone a reason to prejudge and form a negative opinion based on your appearance. Indeed, some HR departments will immediately discard resumes with photos to avoid any possible accusations of discrimination on this basis.But still applicants send photos. Most troublesome of all, said Zavitz, are the beach shots. (No) pictures where you are in a bikini at the beach (real story, and it wasnt a flattering picture either) or at a New Years party with your friends (obviously drunk). Not cool.4. Unprofessional voicemailIf your resume is strong enough to convince the recruiter or hir ing manager to reach for the telephone, be sure what he finds at the other end of the line represents you in the best light that means your voicemail or whoever might answer the phone.Marlane Perry, managing director of the Executive Search Division of Magill Associates, said she is unimpressed when a phone number on a resume leads her to an unprofessional recorded voicemail or a conversation with a third party who cant be trusted to take a message. If you dont trust your roommates to answer the phone and take a decent message, then only list your cell phone, she said.5. Lazy words, ?etc.Perry said that use of etc. on a resume is a sign of laziness The job seeker obviously cant even take the time to list out all of his duties. She has seen the error on both junior- and executive-level resumes. Another no-no is saying same as above anywhere on a resume. If you had similar job functions at your last two jobs, summarize the responsibilities and then bullet out some of your accomplishm ents, she suggested.6. Cookie-cutter resumesSamantha Goldberg is a celebrity auffhrung designer and TV personality whos always looking for employees for administrative duties or to help plan an event. She said she often reviews resumes and cover letters that arent even vaguely customized for her business.Its more like ?Mad Libs - they just fill in our name as they send them off she said. Just once, I would love to have them describe me on the cover letter instead of saying that they respect my career status and have been following my career.On many occasions, Goldberg said, she specifically lists a prerequisite of at least three years experience with planning events that does not include friends, family or applicants own weddings. They obviously dont read my prerequisites and send an e-mail stating that even though they havent orchestrated events for anyone they have always been told they should be in the industry if I would just give them a chance.7. Everything but the kitchen sin kI dont care, nor have time, to read about your life story, Zavitz said. If you cant whittle your resume down to a page or two at max, I will not read it. If its not related to the job or your work history, dont include it.8-13 ad infinitumLarry Lambeth, president of Employment Screening Services Inc., which helps companies review job applicants, offered a laundry list of professional gaffes hes seen on resumes and job applicationsListing a spouse as a referenceNot spelling out the name of an employer or school (LSU instead of Louisiana State University or ZDE instead of Ziff Davis Enterprise)Not providing a city or state for an employer or schoolOmitting the area code from a phone number for a reference or employerProviding only a first name for a supervisor or referenceIncluding phone numbers that are no longer in service for references or employers