Friends don’t let friends press Send without first proofreading their resumes.
Here are the ten most commonly misspelled words found on resumes and the tricks to ensure they don’t get overlooked.
1. Accommodate
Remember that the most accommodating folks give you two of everything—like two C’s and two M’s.
2. Personnel
Personnel refers to a group of people in an organization; there are many people that comprise the collective personnel, so remember to include the many (just two) N’s in this management-oriented word.
3. Effect
This word and its evil twin, affect, trip up even the most literary. Here’s a trick to remembering the correct one to use: Remember that affect is evil, and it wants to eat everything. If you aren’t sure which one to use, insert eats in place of affect or effect, and if eats fits in the sentence, use affect.
My cat and I are connected; his mood _________ my mood.
Affect or effect? Put it to the test:
My cat and I are connected; his mood eats my mood.
Here, eats (despite the odd imagery) makes sense in the sentence; therefore, use affect.
4. Necessary
Despite being an A student, necessary can be a difficult word to spell. Keep those S’s and C’s straight by remembering that 1 comes before 2. There is only 1 C but 2 S’s necessary to spell this essential word.
5. Experience
In my experience, I’ve found the old adage “I before E, except after C” doesn’t always stand true … except when spelling … experience. Or, keep it straight by remembering that life is both an experi-ment and an experi-ence .
6. Familiar
Who knows you best? Against all willingness to admit it, your family is probably the most familiar with you. Familiarize yourself with the spelling of this word. Associate family and familiar, and replace the Y with an I.
7. Pioneered
Oddly enough, people tend to forget that there are three E’s in this word. One of my many tricks is associating the definition of a word with the easy-to-forget spellings. In this case, remember the three E’s with this saying: Everyone Eventually Emigrates. (Get it—pioneers emigrate?)
8. Business
If business is booming, isn’t everyone … busy? Try this trick next time you have to plug your business-savvy self. To avoid putting the I before the U, remember business is busy, and replace the Y with an I.
9. Ensured
Ensure that you use this word correctly by making a distinction between its twin, insure. When you want to ensure that your picky child gets all essential nutrients, you give them a glass of Ensure. When you want to ensure you get a headache, call your insurance company and navigate through those automated operators.
Say yes to continue.
10. Guarantee
To guarantee that you don’t make the common spelling mistake of putting an E in the second A’s place, remember that an overly-eager salesman’s spiel is guaranteed to be a rant. Get it … guarantee?
A Few More Things to Check
We put together a ten-point checklist to help you give your resume a final review to make it as good as possible. We wish you the best in your job search.
Source: blog.grantham.edu