After working tirelessly on creating your resume, the last thing you want to have is a spelling error on it. According to a recent survey, 59% of recruiters will reject a candidate’s resume because of a spelling mistake or poor grammar.

In order to make sure your resume is read and has the chance to move forward in the hiring process, you need absolutely no mistakes on it. Thankfully, there are a variety of ways you can accomplish this. Take a look at the following ways you can ensure your resume has no spelling errors so you can confidently submit your application.

Don’t completely rely on spell check

Your typical spell check that comes with common writing tools may not always be the most reliable option for finding spelling mistakes. These features may catch some of your errors, but they shouldn’t be the only method you use to review your work. Here are additional tools and applications that you can use to check your writing:

• Grammarly: This is a free application that will proofread your content wherever you write.
• Ginger: This is another online tool that corrects not only spelling mistakes, but also fixes typos and finds misused words.

Review the tenses used

When writing your resume, it’s crucial to recognize the tenses you use when talking about your current and past positions. It’s best to write any bullet points or information about your previous roles in the past tense. For your current role and responsibilities, use the present tense. This may seem like a trivial error to look out for, but you would be surprised to see how often it happens.

Read it out loud

One of the best ways to review your resume is to read the whole document out loud. Take your resume line by line and physically read each one so you can hear how it sounds. This will help you to take your time and review every word so you can find any errors you possibly missed when just rereading it in your head.

Read it backwards

Another helpful technique that is used when editing your writing is to read your words backwards. Start at the end of your resume and read each word individually as you move up your document. By reading this way, your word and sentence structure will be unfamiliar, so you will be able to see your spelling structure more clearly. Hopefully this will allow you to find those pesky spelling errors you didn’t notice before.

Print out a copy to review it

Once you have completed writing your resume and reviewed it on your computer, a helpful way to do an extra check is to print out a hard copy of the document. By having a physical copy of your resume in front of you, you are getting a different view of your document which will allow you to catch errors you may have missed on your screen. You can also try printing it out in a different font or use a bigger font size in order to find any additional mistakes.

Take a break after reading

Now that you have reviewed and proofread your entire resume at least several times, it’s time to leave it alone for a while. Take a much needed break from your writing by going outside for a walk, watching a favorite episode of a TV show, or cooking a meal. Giving yourself some time to take your mind off things will allow you to be refreshed. After your break, go back and look over your resume again.

Have someone else look it over

After you’ve spent time writing, reading, reviewing, proofing, and your resume, it’s time to have someone else look it over. Having another set of eyes on your document will help with finding errors that you may have missed initially. Ask one or even two of your friends or family members to read over your resume to ensure you didn’t miss any spelling mistakes.

Double and triple check it before sending

Lastly, double and triple check your resume one final time before you send it to a potential employer. You’ll never regret the few extra minutes you took to look over your resume to ensure it is error free.

While these proofreading tips are essential for finding errors in your resume, you should also use them for reviewing any writing or documents you are sending to recruiters or employers. The last thing you want is all of your hard work to go to waste because of a simple spelling mistake. Take the time to truly look over your writing so you can assuredly move along in the hiring process.

 

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