Harvard student shares tips on how to keep your résumé from being ignored

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January 25, 2017 6:53 PM

It's important to make sure that your résumé doesn't include any errors that might prompt a hiring manager to toss it

Jessica Pointing

Heres a terrifying fact: Recruiters spend an average of six seconds reading your résumé.

That's not a lot of time. That's also why it's so important to make sure that your résumé doesn't include any errors that might prompt a hiring manager to toss it straight into the "no" pile.

Jessica Pointing, a Harvard junior who was offered internships at companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, McKinsey, Bain, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, shared some insight on how to make sure your résumé isn't discarded out of hand.

"Don't make your résumé easy to be disregarded immediately," Pointing says. "There should be no errors in terms of spelling or grammar in your résumé."

Sure, you should turn on spell-check, but there's also a surefire way of making certain that your résumé is clean.

"After looking at your résumé for so long, you become used to it. You won't notice any errors. The easiest way to make sure your résumé is perfect is to have other people proofread it," Pointing, whose website the Optimize Guide features educational and career advice for high school and college students, told Business Insider.

"After I wrote my résumé, I had five people read it. I asked my parents, my friends, and people at the college's career center. They proofread my résumé and gave me feedback."

Résumés are pretty much the cornerstone of any job application — but they're still pretty easy to mess up, especially when you're just starting out. That's why it's important to keep your résumé updated and mistake-free if you want to make it all the way to the interview.

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