5 reasons your resume sucks (and how to make it better)

February 8, 2010
Guest post by Sarah Semark, Triggers and Sparks

When I put out a hiring notice a little while ago, I was flooded with resumes. Now, like any business owner, I’m both hardworking and lazy, so I quickly developed a shorthand to help me sift through all the applicants. In short: if I could find a good reason to throw your resume out, it was gone.

In this charming economic climate, if you’re looking for a new job, it may be time to take a good hard look at your own resume, and ensure that you’re not committing any of these cardinal sins.

1. It isn’t proofread.

A resume that’s full of grammatical and spelling errors just screams “Hi! I’m undereducated and unprofessional, and you’d be embarrassed to have me representing your company!” Learn how to use apostrophes correctly, run your text through a spellcheck, and have a friend look over your resume before sending it out. Better yet, have as many friends as you can possibly charm, bribe, or blackmail to have a look at it—or have a professional write it for you.

2. It’s hard to read.

Most people won’t be reading your resume, they’ll be skimming it. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to absorb the information. Just say no to long blocks of text, and make use of section headers and consistent type styles for different pieces of information (job titles, company names, and dates should all have different type styles) to create a hierarchy of information that’s easy to read. Use a font size that’s large enough to be readable, and make sure lines of text aren’t spanning the entire page (for optimum legibility, lines of type should be between 50 and 70 characters.)

3. You’re using a generic Word template.

If your resume looks the same as twenty other resumes in the pile, you’re already at a disadvantage. Everyone judges a book by its cover, and you want to be War & Peace, not a Danielle Steele novel. (That said, you probably want to keep your page count a little less than War & Peace’s. Maybe The Metamorphasis, instead.)

4. You’re sending a .doc file.

Why is it still common to do this? Word files can contain macros, which can give your computer viruses. That’s bad—the last thing you want to do is give the hiring manager at the company of your dreams a virus. Word files also don’t retain their formatting very well—they’ll look different in different versions of Word. When people send me a .doc, I open it with a basic text editor, which destroys pretty much all formatting, but takes a teeny fraction of the time to load on my computer. Use a pdf instead, which will look the same to everyone. (You can export a Word file to pdf easily.)

5. It isn’t relevant

If you worked at McDonald’s six years ago and are now applying for a position at an accounting firm, they’re not going to care about the customer service and french-fry-handling skills you picked up there. It’s also unlikely that they care what you do in your spare time, unless the hiring manager is also a taxidermy enthusiast—but unless you know this in advance, keep the hobbies off the resume. Keep it relevant.

6. Your cover letter shows no effort

Find out who will be reading your resume, and address him by name. We’re all crazy egomaniacs, so we like this. Don’t use “To whom it may concern”, ever. Show that you know something about the company, and that you’re not just firing off a form letter at random. I once received an application from a person who regularly posted his cover letter as a Kijiji ad, and it was a touch insulting. Compare your skills and expertise to those outlined in the job posting and you’ll be essentially telling them exactly what they want, and that you have it.

In short, what you want to do is make sure that your resume is both well-written and well-designed, and that it represents you to the absolute best of its ability. If you’re having trouble doing this yourself, I’ve teamed up with Natalie Joan to offer a special deal: have a resume designed by me, and written by her, and save 10% off both services! For all the details, check it out here: http://www.triggersandsparks.com/resume-design-packages/

Posted by Natalie MacLellan. Posted In : Products and Services 

 

Beware the gaping resumé

January 10, 2010
In my last post I discussed what experience to include in your resumé, and stressed not to leave jobs out, as you don't want to leave gaps in your work history. What is the issue with gaps in a resumé, and what do you do if you have gaps in your work history?

The real issue is a potential employer has no way of knowing why there is a three and a half year gap in your experience (for example), and is left to their own assumptions which may not be positive. Perhaps you deleted a job where you did not perform well or left on bad terms. Did you skip over a job because it doesn’t meet your career objective? Or, they may assume that you didn’t work at all during this unaccounted time.

To avoid this, any gaps in your work history need to be explained in writing.

There are a few general rules about resumé gaps:

  • Any unaccounted time that is shorter than three months doesn’t need to be explained. Having 60-90 days in between jobs is not too unusual, and will hardly be noticed . Gaps extending beyond three months should be addressed in your cover letter or e-mail.
  • Always, always, always be honest! I cannot stress this enough. If you are honest with your potential employer, you will not have to worry about what they may find when checking your references, doing a background check, or surprising you with questions in an interview.
  • If you have held jobs that are not applicable to your career objective, include them anyway. Experience is experience, after all. Focus on transferable skills. Highlight accomplishments. Try to use it as an opportunity to demonstrate success in a field that is outside your current expertise, and thus exhibit your resourcefulness and flexibility.
  • Rather than create gaps in your resumé, explain why you held jobs outside of your field in your cover letter or in an email to your potential employer. Given the current state of the economy, employers are likely to be more understanding than in the past regarding gaps of employment. Again, just be honest.

There are often valid reasons for gaps in employment. Did you go back to school? Take time off to raise your children, or to care for a loved one? Whether you had personal or professional reasons for not working, the gaps in your employment history need to be explained as you don’t want to leave the employer to make their own assumptions.

Whatever the reasons for the gaps in your work history, it's important to keep the tone of your cover letter and resumé positive. You do not need to be apologetic – life happens and you don’t need to be sorry for taking time off of work. Be positive, and show your potential employer that you never lost focus on your career. 

Posted by Natalie Joan. Posted In : Resumé Tips 

 

Your professional experience – what and how much do you include?

January 7, 2010
Your professional experience is the core data on your resumé. It’s what everyone wants to know. What have you done, for whom, when and for how long? Oh and tell us this in 2 pages or less, please. It’s a somewhat daunting task.

To get started, list all of your previous experience, in chronological order, starting with your latest job on a piece of paper. List the dates of employment, your job title, the full company name and the location of your employment.

These days it is quite common for people to change jobs frequently and not build a career with one company or organization. Thus, it is common for someone with ten years of professional experience to have had three or more jobs. Which is fine, and easy enough to fit on a resumé. I usually work with recent grads or new professionals and we're wishing we had more jobs to list, not fewer. Recently though, a friend recommended me to her Dad. And I worked with and aunt, and other more experienced candidates. When you are trying to consolidate over 30 years of experience, it becomes more complicated. It is important to set limits on what you include and what you can freely exclude from your resumé under your professional experience.

Ideally, your resumé should not exceed two pages. Depending on the type of jobs you have held and your responsibilities, having only two pages doesn’t account for a lot of space. So how does one fit 30 years and seven or more jobs in two pages? Some chose to list only the last three or five jobs they held, which may be sufficient to display their experience. But also, consider the time you spent at each organization you have worked for – list up to the last ten to fifteen years of experience.

Remember it is not necessary to list every job you’ve ever had to showcase your qualifications and years of experience. If you have a long professional career, focus on the last three to five jobs, but use the profile or summary at the beginning of the resumé to highlight the number of years you have spent working, or the number of years you have spent in a certain industry, acquiring specific skills.

Always, when listing your experiences, be sure to do so in chronological order without skipping any of the jobs you have held. While you may feel that certain jobs are not particularly complimenting to your current career objective you should not avoid listing them on your resumé. You may chose to minimize the amount of detail provided, and highlight the responsibilities and accomplishments that are transferable to your new objective.

Leaving any unexplained gaps in your work history will raise questions by your potential employer – don’t create those gaps on your resumé by listing your experience out of order or by skipping jobs you have had. If you do have gaps, or must leave something out, consider a functional or skills based resumé to camouflage this issue.

Finally, make sure that your cover letter accounts for any additional qualifications you would like to bring to the attention of your potential employer that you didn’t include on the resumé.

Your resumé should be concise, well written, and sell you as the best candidate for the job. Just remember that it is quality over quantity that counts.

Posted by Natalie Joan. Posted In : Resumé Tips 

 

The 7 Deadly Sins of the Job Search - Gluttony: Are Your Job Search Techniques Excessive?

November 23, 2009
Guest Post by Nicole Dukehart

Are you a person that thinks with regards to your job search, “more is better”?   Have you posted your resume to every job board, applied to every job on multiple company websites, and are working with multiple recruiters regarding various opportunities?  Are you finding that you aren’t getting any interviews, or if you are, not for the opportunities you want?

THE AWFUL TRUTH is, more is not better; more is just more.  Don’t share your resume with everyone.  There is something very attractive in exclusivity. Before you go blasting your resume to every job site on the planet, make a list of your abilities, experience and skills.  Now make a list of several companies that you would like to work for.  Do some research on the companies and determine which jobs at those specific companies you are qualified for and would enjoy doing.  The best approach will be to identify people at those companies that are responsible for hiring those  job functions and begin networking with them. 

This may or may not be something you are able to determine or are comfortable doing.  In the alternative, identify one or two recruiters that have an expertise in the specific industry and work with them exclusively.    It is a much more powerful presentation to say ”my candidate specifically asked to be considered for your organization” directly to the hiring manager, than having HR pull your resume down from multiple job boards and receive it from various sources.  Frankly, this makes you look desperate and hence unattractive.

THE AWFUL TRUTH is, you need to use restraint, and control your job search to get the job you really want.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

©Copyright, 2009, Nicole Dukehart. All rights reserved. Used with Permission.

Posted by Natalie Joan. Posted In : Job Search 

 

Job Search Frustrations

September 23, 2009
Guest post by Kevin Donlin

Last week, I wrote about four common frustrations found in the hundreds of emails I've received this year from job seekers across America. This week, I'll address two more problems and offer solutions to help you get hired faster. Do either of these apply to you?

Frustration #1: There just aren't enough jobs out there to apply for.

Solution: Let's unpack this one ... When I speak to job hunters, in seminars, by phone, and via email, I ask the same question: "How are you looking for jobs?" Almost invariably, the answer is: "I look online or in the paper."

So the actual frustration here is this: There aren't enough advertised jobs to apply for.

Now. If you look only for advertised openings, as most job seekers do, you set yourself up for the sort of frustration most job seekers face. You're like a penguin, scrambling with 5,000 other penguins for a handful of fish scattered on the tip of an iceberg. (Visualize that.)

Pssst! If you dive below the exposed (advertised) part of that iceberg, you'll find ... fish (jobs). Plenty of them. And almost no competition. In fact, for every job posted online or in the newspaper, I'll bet there are at least four other openings NOT advertised. Should you ignore advertised job postings altogether? No. Should you spend most of your time chasing them? No. Spend no more than 20% of your day on posted job openings. Spend the remainder -- fully 80% of your time -- making contact with people at your target employers. In other words, networking.

But ordinary networking will likely get you ... ordinary results. And how are ordinary job hunters doing these days? So, analyze your networking efforts to date. Ask yourself three questions:

1. What have I said to or done for people in my network that has led to interviews? Examples: Being useful to others by sending them news, information, leads, etc. to help them do their jobs. Do more of this.

2. What have I said or done that has NOT produced job leads? Examples: A 30-second "elevator pitch" that seems to fall flat, or conversations with personal (as opposed to professional) contacts. Change or stop doing this.

3. What will you do to meet your goals by this time next week? You must set specific, measurable goals in networking -- and all your job-search efforts. Example: There are 40 people in your professional network and you want to add 20 more this month, resulting in four job interviews. When you break it down, that's one person added to your network per weekday and one interview per week. Measure your progress weekly, correct as necessary, and you will reach your goals. But you can't improve what you don't measure, so start measuring today.

Frustration #2: After job interviews, I get no email, call or letter from employers. What am I doing wrong?

Solution: This has two parts. Stop waiting for employers to contact you. And find out what, if anything, you're doing wrong in interviews.

First, ALWAYS take the initiative on follow-up. At the end of every interview, ask when the employer expects to make a decision. Tell them you will follow up by phone, giving a specific day and time. Then ... call on that day, precisely at that time. Congratulations. You've proven that you're detail-oriented and organized -- two traits every employer wants. If you get voicemail when you call, state that you're calling as promised and that you will write, call, fax, or drop by (pick one) to follow up after this contact. Repeat as necessary.

Second, when it comes to interviewing, you can never be too good. Think of a major league baseball player analyzing his swing. He hits off a tee and with a batting practice pitcher. He videotapes his swing and watches it in slow motion. He works with a coach, etc. Why all this work? If he can't hit, he won't play -- and he won't get paid. Right now, if you don't make a "hit" with employers in interviews, you won't get paid either. So practice and analyze how you interview -- video and/or audiotape yourself, review your answers, work with a coach (if necessary), and keep improving until you get hired. Now, go out and make your own luck!

Kevin Donlin is co-author of Guerrilla Resumes. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people. Author of 3 books, Kevin has been interviewed by The New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, CBS Radio and others.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Posted by Natalie Joan

 
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About Me


Natalie Joan I am a writer, editor and adult education professional living in Halifax NS. I write and edit resumés, and offer workshops on resumé writing, job hunting, and interviewing. This blog is a place for me to post my favourite resumé tips, answer common questions, and occasionally rant about my pet peeves.

  

   
 
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