Your Resume
First Things First - The purpose of a resume is to GET YOU AN INTERVIEW! This is not the place to tell every detail of everything you ever did in your career - (see the next paragraph). Not sure you even what to do that in the interview. This is your opportunity to grab the attention of the Hiring Manager and make them want to meet you - and not bore them with all these details. If you are "wordy" in your resume, they will assume you are long-winded in the interview and will NOT want to meet you.
People Are So Very Busy – The world is a busy place full of busy people – or so they think. With all the “stuff” on the internet and everyone multitasking between real work, pretend work, and social media everyone perceives themselves as very, very busy. The fact is this – a recent study came out that indicated that humans have the attention span of a goldfish (I think that is just slightly above that of a gnat). It is for this very reason, people don’t take the time to read anymore. And, it is for this very reason YOUR RESUME MAY NOT BE BEING READ….or it could be that you have made it difficult to read.
The Believe It Or Not Moment – There used to be a time when people included Social Security Numbers on their resumes (obviously this was before the age of personal computers, the internet, and identity theft). They also included their marital status, how many (if any) children, hobbies, interests, and every bit of minutia personal information they could think of – and would include a photograph of themselves. Unless you are applying for a modeling job, ditch the photo (they can find it on our LinkedIn page) and regardless of any other job you are applying for, ditch the rest of the aforementioned information. Your future employer DOESN’T CARE or SHOULDN’T CARE and you don’t want them basing their hiring decision on your personal life!
Your Objective is to Get Rid of Your Objective – Yes, this is old school and you don’t want old school. The Objective was always about you – what you wanted, what your career goal was about, why you wanted a job with that company/any company. And, they sounded CANNED, because they were CANNED! “I want to work for a company where I can use my expertise to maximize my potential…BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.” Sound familiar. DITCH THE OBJECTIVE!
The Fundamentals – What you really, really need on and off your resume –
The Font Counts – Use a Font that is easy on the eyes – nothing fancy, curly, or swirly. And, contrary to anything you’ve heard/read elsewhere – do NOT use Times New Roman! Look at the difference – look at the difference in Trebuchet and Times New Roman (you will see how it hurts your eyes). When you are a Recruiter and look at hundreds of resumes a day/week, Arial, Calibri, Trebuchet, and Tahoma fonts are much easier on the eyes.
Just Say No…To Tables! – I will tell you that I have seen more Recruiters abandon great candidates over resumes being in tables than anything else! Your Recruiter will change your resume! I don’t care how great it is – your Recruiter will change your resume! Your Recruiter will not change what you’ve done, but will change formats, move things around to focus on the clients’ needs to get you more attention, will remove your direct contact info…whatever. Your Recruiter will change your resume! Part of Your Job is to make this an easier task for your Recruiter. If it takes more than about 10 minutes for your Recruiter to change your resume (inevitable), your Recruiter will abandon the project and you as a candidate! Tables can force a Recruiter to spend an hour or more to do what…? CHANGE YOUR RESUME! Don’t use Tables! Ever!
Catch Attention with a Career Summary – As I said before, the Objective is OUT. Replace it by starting with a Career Summary (or Accomplishment Summary). This will give your ADHD Hiring Manager a brief something-to-read, before losing attention to the latest Facebook quiz.
Accomplishments vs. Responsibilities – Back in the day, resumes listed Duties and Responsibilities and you spent your time trying to find ways to make the laundry list sound interesting and different than someone else’s laundry list. Now, Hiring Managers have evolved to learn that Accomplishments and Achievements set someone’s laundry list apart from the masses. So, what this means is even if you “maintained filing system”, you should set yourself apart by stating what this task accomplished – “maintained and improved filing system which allowed for improved departmental efficiently by preventing misfiling errors of important documents.” Sounds better, doesn’t it?
Education and Making the Grade –Short and sweet, do not include your Grade Point Average on your resume – if you have a degree, name the school and degree you earned. Period. If you are a recent grad without much work experience, then include the year you graduated. If you apply to a position in which the degree is required or important, such as an Engineer or CPA, you want to place the Education section of your resume between the Career Summary and Employment History sections. If you do not have a degree or do not have the required degree, but DO HAVE the experience for the job – YOU WANT TO HIGHLIGHT YOUR EXPERIENCE and put the Education section DEAD LAST on your resume. You want the Hiring Manager to see your Experience and want to interview you BEFORE they see you don’t have the degree.
Don’t Depend on Spell Check – Spell Check ONLY CORRECTS misspelled words – if you spell “Manager” as “Manger” you will not be flagged with a misspelled word and will NOT be considered for the “Manager” job! Need I say more?
And 1 More Bullet Point – It all goes back to that ADHD Hiring Manager, you have to make it easy on them. Use Bullet Points in your resume – not long paragraphs. You must make your resume appear to be an easy read. I’m not talking about the fancy Bullet Points, either. Plain is better – small box or circles, no arrows or other characters.
LinkedIn Profile Is Your Business Card – If you haven’t already done so, create a LinkedIn account – www.LinkedIn.com. You want to do this. Trust me. I have argued with people – especially mature people about this. Come out of the dark ages. Don’t be a dinosaur. Just do it! Create the account, upload your resume along with a good, smiling, head-shot photograph of yourself (no pucker selfies – save those for Facebook). If you’ve followed everything else I’ve said and you HIGHLIGHT your Qualifications, Accomplishments, and Achievements, Recruiters will contact you.