The dreaded typo.  It seems there’s no quicker way to knock your resume out of consideration.  I believe you should avoid them, but I don’t think an occasional typo is a big deal.  I hold the minority opinion so don’t listen to what I think however. :)

There a few ways to avoid common mistakes though …

Carl the Executive Restaurant Recruiter offers the tip to remove the word “manger” from your Word dictionary, unless you're a shepherd, that is.  You’d be surprised how many people claim to have experience as an accomplished manger. :) I also see a lot of conslutants but you have to work hard for that word.  Word actually autocorrects it.  But still, conslutants are everywhere!

Gretchen tip … you should also make sure that Word is spell checking ALL CAPS.  I believe it spell checks caps by default, but if you type a lot of acronyms, you may have switched this feature off.  Turn it back on for the resume.

Now, don’t you wish that jobseekers held hiring managers and recruiters to the same high spelling standards?  How many job descriptions have you read with blatant typos?  I say it’s time to revolt. ;-)

gretchen

Edit 10/31:  turning off comments on this post to curb the spam