A simple typo can result in your basketball resume being dismissed. Therefore, when writing the resume, don’t guess at words when you can use a dictionary.
If you are in any doubt about your resume — and everybody should be — get it reviewed by someone with a firm grasp of spelling and punctuation. Insist that whomever reviews your basketball player profile reports at least three errors or areas of improvement to ensure that they read it carefully.
Here are resume writing’s deadliest sins:
- Using CAPITAL letters where they don’t belong.
- Spelling errors.
- Grammatical errors.
- Using chat abbreviations or internet symbols.
- Incorrect use of punctuation.
- Using very long sentences.
- Mentioning things that can be seen in your statistics (good rebounder, solid passer, great three-point shooter).
- Making statements that can’t be verified by anyone – when in doubt, leave it out.
- Adding incorrect statistics to your basketball resume – when in doubt, leave it out. Teams use basketball reference websites to verify everything.
- Using multiple or non-standard fonts – use the same fonts as everybody else.
- Bashing – don’t try to justify gaps in your basketball player CV and poor statistics by speaking badly about former teams, coaches, or agents.
- Trivia – it doesn’t matter if you grew up in the same neighborhood as an NBA superstar, as it doesn’t say anything about YOUR talent level.
- Using referrals – they are not seen as “neutral” nor as “valuable” and, therefore, will be ignored as teams and agents will get their feedback from their own sources.