You’ve written a stellar resume, paired it with a personalized cover letter, and you’re ready to start sending your resume off to your dream job postings. Right?
Hang on a minute! Your job here isn’t done until you’ve proofread your resume.
Resume proofreading helps job seekers like you avoid common mistakes like typos, poor formatting, or irrelevant details so you can make the best impression possible on recruiters, the hiring manager, and prospective employers.
3 key takeaways
- Why resume proofreading is so important
- How to get started, proofreading resume tips, plus common resume mistakes to look out for
- Using the Teal AI Resume Builder to carefully proofread—making sure you don’t miss a thing
Why is it important to proofread and edit your resume?
Proofreading might seem like something you left back in school. You aren't a copy editor! (Unless, of course you actually are.) But here's a little career advice. No matter which field you're in, the ability to write, edit, and polish important documents like your resume and cover letter has become super important! And while you may not be a professional resume writer, there are still steps you can take to catch errors (like in spelling and grammar) to create compelling content that's error-free.
A hiring manager likely sees a lot of resumes every day. If yours has misspellings, grammatical errors, or obvious mistakes that could’ve been quickly fixed, this can communicate things you don’t want to draw attention to—for example, that you struggle to pay attention to detail. And a bad first impression may lead to a potential employer discarding your resume before they even get to the good stuff.
A well-proofread resume can improve your job prospects. But a poorly edited resume can do exactly the opposite. And that’s where you come to the importance of resume editing.
7 ways to level up your resume proofreading process
You’ve covered why it’s important to proofread and edit your resume. Now, it's time to get started with actually proofreading your resume. Here’s what to do.
#1. Start slow
Just like resume writing, proofreading is a slow process. Scanning quickly over your resume (which you’ve likely already done dozens of times at this point) isn’t going to help.
Instead, slow down. Take a fine-tooth comb and go one word at a time. You might choose to work through your resume section by section or line by line. Read your resume aloud. Whatever works for your brain is fair game. Just work slower than you think you need to.
Pro Tip: If you're having trouble finding issues, you can check your resume score with Teal to quickly find specific improvements.
#2. Eliminate grammatical errors
As you start the resume proofreading process, the first elements you’re looking for are the obvious—misspellings, resume punctuation issues, and duplicate words. These are easy fixes, so if you don’t take the time to fix them, that won’t reflect well on you.
Free Tool: Use our resume grammar checker to uncover any of these minute issues during your editing phase.
#3. Remove cliches
Next, go through your resume again with an eye for cheesy statements, resume buzzwords, or cliches. These all need to come out.
Phrases and language often repeated across many resumes (examples: team player, results-driven, detail-oriented, strong communication skills) without impact or context are not unique to your specific career won’t do you any good.
Instead, prioritize including original language and communicating your professional experience in a way that also shows who you are as an individual.
#4. Scan for missing information
Careful proofreading isn’t only about deleting information. In some cases, you might need to add information, too. Review each section of your resume and ensure you have as much detail as necessary to tell your professional story and that you aren’t missing any need-to-know information.
Your resume should include the following pieces of information:
- Contact information. Contact information on your resume should include your name, email address, and phone number.
- Target job title. Make sure to add a job title that reflects your past responsibilities and seniority and is relevant to the job you’re applying for.
- Professional summary. Also called an “About Me” resume section, this section appears at the top of your resume to offer a concise summary of your professional experience.
- Work experience. Next up is the crucial “Work Experience” section. Your work experience on a resume should provide an overview (often in reverse chronological order) of past roles you’ve held.
- Skills. Your resume “Skills” section lists soft and hard skills that are only relevant to the job you’re applying for.
- Certifications. Finally, you may want to include an extra section to highlight any certifications you’ve earned, big projects you completed, or awards you received. Again, just make sure they’re relevant to the job posting.
And suppose you're just starting out or transitioning careers. In that case, you might also consider adding sections like: Awards & Scholarships, Volunteering & Leadership, and Publications (but only if they're relevant to the roles you're applying to).
#5. Consider tone of voice
Checking your resume’s tone of voice can help ensure it sounds professional but also sounds like you. A great way to do this is by simply reading your resume out loud. This will give you a feel for which sections flow well and which ones could use a little extra wordsmithing.
#6. Get a new perspective
Are your eyes dry from staring at your resume for so long?
- Reading it aloud isn’t the only helpful change you can make.
- Try using a different device or program to view the document. (For example, try switching from Microsoft Office Suite to Teal.)
- Consider printing your resume, reading it, and making changes with a colored pen.
- Change the font, the font color, or the font size. Studies have actually shown that Comic Sans can help improve reading retention and spark creativity.
- Don't be afraid to ask someone external to carefully review your resume and offer objective feedback. It's easy to miss minor typos, incorrect bullet point formatting, awkward phrases, and more when you've been reviewing the same document for hours on end.
Just remember to change your resume back to its original format before submitting it to ensure it can pass through applicant tracking software!
#7. Use a resume analysis tool
Take things to the next level with a digital tool designed to make your resume look good.
Teal’s AI Resume Builder helps you build a fully optimized resume to impress hiring managers.
Using Teal's Spell Checker makes it easy to identify misspellings or punctuation errors quickly.
And the Analysis Mode in the Resume Checker tool takes things even deeper.
As it's important to tailor your resume to every job description, the analysis feature looks at elements such as your resume’s keyword usage and whether your language aligns with the target job description you’ve uploaded.
After “auditing” your resume, you’ll receive an overall score that shows which areas of your resume have room for improvement.
Proofreading tips to improve your resume
Some of the most common resume errors (and how to fix them) include:
- Basic typos. This is where that fine-tooth comb comes in.
- Vague achievements. Instead, add metrics and specific numbers to showcase impact wherever you can.
- Weak wording. Use strong action verbs and descriptive resume adjectives to highlight your accomplishments.
- Irrelevant details. Don’t waste space—each part of your resume should be relevant to the job you’re seeking.
- Poor formatting. Be mindful of the best resume format, and keep an eye on things like font size, font type, margins, overall layout, and more.
- Wrong length. Unless you have over 10 years of experience, there’s likely no reason for your resume to be longer than one page.
Avoid these errors from the get-go using Teal’s AI Resume Builder, which helps you write a strong resume that’s free of mistakes like these.
Proofreading resume examples
Ready to put these proofreading tips to improve your resume into practice? Looking at a proofreading resume example may be helpful. Here’s how an SEO manager's resume looked before resume proofreading:
Trey Law • (352) 408-7019 • linkedin.com/in/trey-law • @trey.law • trey-law.com/my-work
SEO Manager
Driven SEO Manager with 4 years of success creating SEO strategies for e-commerce websites.. Helped increase organic search traffic, revenue, and website authority. Team player good at competitor analysis, cross-functional collaboration, technical SEO optimization
WORK EXPERIENCE
SEO manager
03/2022 – Present
E-Commerce Emporium
- Made SEO strategy for a leading e-commerce website, resulting in more organic search traffic and higher revenue in the first year.
- Conducted in-depth competitor analysis and identified key SEO opportunities, resulting in a 15% increase in keyword rankings and a 10 percent increase in website authority.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to optimize website content and meta tags..
SEI Specialist Team Lead
03/2020 – 03/2022
Digital Dynamics Inc
- Managed a team of SEO specialists and analysts to improve website performance metrics
- Developed and implemented a link-building strategy to improve website authority and referral traffic.
- Looked at website analytics for trends and opportunities to get better keyword rankings and click-through rates increase
SEO Specialist
03/2019 – 03/2020
Optimizelytics Inc.
- Developed and executed a succesful SEO strategy for a startup company, resulting in increased organic search traffic and revenue within six months.
- Optimized website content and metatags for search engine visibility and user experience
- Identified and addressed technical seo issues, resulting in a 30% increase in website speed and a 25% decrease in bounce rates!
SKILLS& COMPETENCIES
- SEO strategy development and execution
- Researching keywords
- Competitor analysis
- Link building strategy
- Optimizing websites for speed
- Google analytics and search console
- SEO tools software (like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz)
COURSES/CERTIFICATIONS
Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ)04/2023
Moz SEO essentials certificate, 04/2022
Yoast SEO for wordpress certification, 94/2021
Education
Bachelor of science in marketing from 2013 to 2017 at San Francisco state university
After proofreading the resume, here’s what the candidate ended up with:
Trey Law • [email protected] • (352) 408-7019 • linkedin.com/in/trey-law • @trey.law • trey-law.com/my-work
SEO Manager
Experienced SEO Manager with 4 years of success in developing and executing comprehensive SEO strategies for leading e-commerce websites. Proven track record in increasing organic search traffic by up to 100%, revenue by up to 50%, and website authority by up to 50%. Skilled in competitor analysis, cross-functional collaboration, and technical SEO optimization.
WORK EXPERIENCE
SEO Manager
03/2022 – Present
E-Commerce Emporium
- Developed and executed a comprehensive SEO strategy for a leading e-commerce website, resulting in a 25% increase in organic search traffic and a 20% increase in revenue within the first year.
- Conducted in-depth competitor analysis and identified key SEO opportunities, resulting in a 15% increase in keyword rankings and a 10% increase in website authority.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to optimize website content and meta tags, resulting in a 30% increase in click-through rates and a 25% increase in conversion rates.
SEO Specialist Team Lead
03/2020 – 03/2022
Digital Dynamics Inc.
- Managed a team of SEO specialists and analysts to improve website performance metrics, resulting in a 40% increase in organic search traffic and a 35% increase in revenue within the first year.
- Developed and implemented a link building strategy that resulted in a 50% increase in website authority and a 20% increase in referral traffic.
- Monitored and analyzed website analytics to identify trends and opportunities, resulting in a 15% increase in keyword rankings and a 10% increase in click-through rates.
SEO Specialist
03/2019 – 03/2020
Optimizelytics Inc.
- Developed and executed a successful SEO strategy for a startup company, resulting in a 100% increase in organic search traffic and a 50% increase in revenue within the first six months.
- Optimized website content and meta tags for search engine visibility and user experience, resulting in a 20% increase in click-through rates and a 15% increase in conversion rates.
- Identified and addressed technical SEO issues, resulting in a 30% increase in website speed and a 25% decrease in bounce rates.
SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
- SEO strategy development and execution
- Researching keywords
- Competitor analysis
- Link building strategy
- Optimizing websites for speed
- Google analytics and search console
- SEO tools software (like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz)
COURSES / CERTIFICATIONS
Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ), 04/2023
Moz SEO Essentials Certificate, 04/2022
Yoast SEO for WordPress Certification, 04/2021
Education
Bachelor of Science in Marketing, 2013-2017
San Francisco State University
Did you catch the edits? Even small changes make a big difference. Here’s an overview of how this example resume changed:
- Added email address
- Edited “About Me” and “Work Experience” sections to add specific metrics
- Fixed grammatical mistakes such as capitalization mistakes, “they’re” for “their,” punctuation mistakes, etc.
- Replaced common resume buzzwords like “team player” and “driven”
(For more samples, check out these SEO manager resume examples.)
Tools for resume proofreading
Digital tools like Teal’s AI Resume Builder are a great way to make sure you catch any and every resume error. With Teal, there’s no need to hire resume writers—the Resume Builder handles everything you need.
Teal will guide you as you create a resume from scratch, walking you through each section and providing personalized recommendations to optimize your professional experience. And Teal helps with resume proofreading, too: Use the built-in resume checker, the Matching Mode feature, to analyze your resume’s effectiveness, gaining insight on everything from your keyword usage to your resume structure to the amount of measurable results you included.
Teal is a better fit than comparable proofreading tools because it’s fast and easy.
To proof something using Grammarly or Quillbot AI, you have to copy and paste your content. Teal streamlines the process with your entire resume already in one place. Plus, with the Resume Builder, you can start from the ground up, using Teal’s AI prompts and guidance to avoid common resume mistakes in the first place and make the proofreading process even easier.
Make resume proofreading easier with Teal
Your resume isn’t ready to go until you’ve put it through a rigorous proofreading process.
By removing grammatical errors, replacing cliche phrases with stronger language, and making sure all of your important information is included, you have a better chance of landing an interview and getting the job.
Teal is here to act as your on-call expert resume proofreader. Streamline your job search and sign up for the AI Resume Builder, where you can fill out each section of your resume. Then use features like the Spell Checker and Matching Mode to complete the proofreading process without missing a thing.
