Posts Tagged ‘Applicant Tracking Software’

Do You Need a Resume in the LinkedIn Era?

Wednesday, March 29th, 2017

Now that LinkedIn (alongside numerous other online portals) has become the standard place to present your professional history and credentials — not to mention the fastest way to check somebody else’s — the humble resume has lost its once-hallowed position as the canonical version of your professional identity. Your LinkedIn profile should be the most-viewed and most current version of your professional life. But that has many people asking: Do I even need an old-fashioned resume anymore?

The answer is a highly qualified, but definite, “yes”.

The Value of LinkedIn

In the past, resumes have served several functions:

  1. Applying for a job: When you’re applying for an advertised position, you almost certainly need to submit a resume as part of the application process.
  2. Job hunting: Even if you’re not applying for a specific job, you may still use a resume as part of your search process, as a way of introducing yourself to people who may be interested in your skills.
  3. Professional credentialing: Resumes act as a way of establishing your professional credentials in many circumstances, like grant applications, requests for proposals, and conference or speaker submissions.
  4. Professional memory: Your resume is your own professional memory. Keeping it up-to-date is a way of ensuring you don’t forget the professional accomplishments or qualifications you may want to highlight during your next job hunt.

In the world of LinkedIn, blogs, and professional landing pages (a.k.a. “nameplate” sites), however, most of these functions can be better accomplished through your online presence. If you are job hunting, send people to your LinkedIn page instead of sending a PDF of your resume. (Unlike a resume, a solid LinkedIn profile includes not only your self-proclaimed qualifications, but testimonials from colleagues, clients, and employers.) If you need to establish your professional credentials, sending someone a link to your LinkedIn page will often be the most efficient way to convey your relevant experience. And for maintaining a professional memory, LinkedIn is unbeatable, precisely because it’s easy to update, and because you’re likely visiting the site on a regular basis.

To serve any of these purposes, however, your LinkedIn presence must be well-crafted and up-to-date. Even if you aren’t sending people to your LinkedIn page, it is likely to be one of the first results for anyone who Googles you to find out about your professional qualifications and experience. That’s why you need to ensure it’s accurate, compelling, and current; unless you’re updating your LinkedIn profile monthly or at least quarterly, you’re not putting your best foot forward. Setting up a memorable short URL for your LinkedIn profile, and including that URL in your email signature line, is a good way to remind yourself that this is something people are going to look at regularly.

Blogs, Websites, and Landing Pages

For all its merit, LinkedIn has limitations: you have to fit your career story into its structure, and you have only minimal control over formatting. That’s why many professionals use their own blog, personal website, or professional landing page to craft a more strategic online presence. For many professionals, the best bet is to maintain several presences, customized to different purposes, so that you can point people to the presence that is relevant to each specific scenario. For example, you might maintain:

  • A speaking profile: Professionals who do a lot of speaking or conference submissions would do well to create a specialized presence on a speaker directory like ExpertFile (formerly Speakerfile), a nameplate site like about.me, or even on Slideshare.
  • A services profile: If you offer services as a independent contractor, whether that’s as a web developer, a designer, a coach or an accountant, setting up a landing page for your contract work can be an efficient place to point potential clients.
  • An author profile: If you have a book, blog, or publication file, you will want to profile yourself for readers or future writing assignments with an author page on Amazon, a writing marketplace like MediaBistro, or a web presence for your book.

Why You Still Need a Resume

When you are actually applying for a job, however, neither LinkedIn nor a professional landing page can replace the resume. A strong resume is still the gateway to an interview, and with more and more employers relying on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) — software that screens resumes to determine which applications warrant human review — you need a resume that you can upload to those systems. Nor can it be the same resume for every application; since an ATS typically screens for specific qualifications and keywords, you need to customize your resume for each job (or type of job) that you apply for, and optimize it for ATS screenings.

If anything, though, LinkedIn will be helpful at least as a reminder for keeping your resume as updated as possible. The standard wisdom — treat your resume as a living document that you update anytime you have a new accomplishment to record — applies to LinkedIn as well, and the two should be kept updated in parallel.

Technology and social media have transformed our daily lives in innumerable ways, with networking and job searching being just two areas where we regularly experience this constant change. But there are still ways in which the old-fashioned, the tried-and-true, remain relevant, and such it is with the humble resume. Don’t count it out yet.

Good luck!

Do You Need a Résumé in the LinkedIn Era? | Alexandra Samuel via Harvard Business Review.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

Resume Guide for 2017

Wednesday, January 18th, 2017

Another year has arrived, and with it comes the obligatory style guides and fashionable advice for your resume. Though the overall trends usually stay the same, and most advice remains constant, there are always a few new tweaks when the calendar changes, as the warped and twisted realm of HR and human capital belches out new gimmicks that go viral and then are quickly discarded (to be picked up and recycled again in a later generation).

But though it might be easier to ignore the hype guides and the ceaseless barrage of “helpful” advice, you really don’t have the luxury. With each recruiter or hiring manager giving your resume maybe six to ten seconds these days at a first glance, even a subtle mistake can be enough to land your resume in the trash. With so little time to make a first impression, it certainly doesn’t pay to stick with an outdated and ineffective resume.

So here are a few tips you need to remember before sending out your resume in 2017:

The robots are dead (or dying)

One of the main tips that has become canon in recent years is the need to include keywords and buzzwords. This was to get past the infamous ATS (or applicant tracking software), which scan the many resumes that reach the inbox of the HR manager and let only ‘specific’ ones pass through. So, the probability of a worthy candidate’s resume being rejected because of the lack of keywords was high. However, most companies are now moving away from such systems as they have identified its numerous shortcomings. So be honest and precise about your skills in your resume. A skills section is still helpful for readability, of course, but don’t be as worried about the robots ditching your resume because you didn’t pad it enough.

Make it visually appealing

Given that the scare of robots does not apply anymore, it’s safe to make your resume as visual as possible. Infographic and multimedia resumes seem to be the new rage now, with candidates in creative fields like design, film, creative writing, and digital marketing embracing it. They showcase your creative skills, personality and experience all in one go. While there are many recruiters who feel that such resumes should not be the primary one you use to reach out to employers, others encourage using it if it fits the job role you are applying for. It is logically more likely for a quirky startup to be interested in a creative resume. If you are from a field that does not encourage extreme creativity, just add some color to your resume to liven it up.

Ditch the objective

It’s 2017, and no one has the time to care what you have regurgitated in the form of ‘career objectives’. Recruiters have realized the pointlessness of these objectives after hearing every candidate state that they want to “use their skills to contribute meaningfully to personal growth as well as that of the organization”. Instead, what they want to see upfront in your resume is a summary of your experience and skills. Keep it short and precise. Writing it in bullet points is even better. It should convey the number of years of experience you have, your job history and your big career achievements. This is all the information that an employer needs to have before he or she decides whether to read your resume further or not. So, include all the relevant information, but remember that this is just a summary of your profile.

Easily accessible contact information

We would suggest that you start off your resume providing relevant contact information. Don’t make hiring managers hunt your resume for your contact in case they need to call you for an interview. On an online resume, make sure that you hyperlink your email id and, it goes without saying, include all social media profiles that are relevant to the application. LinkedIn is the first on this list, followed by Twitter and the rest. However, resist the temptation of including all your profiles, because while creative designers may need to include their Instagram and Behance profiles, accountants and engineers may not. As we warned you earlier about dying ATS, what is replacing them are such social media profiles. So keep these profiles up-to-date and be active on them. And please, for the love of God, don’t be that person who tries to be cute by not including an email address at all… do you really want to make it harder for potential employers to reach you?!

Titles and fonts

Your resume may not get read word to word by the employer so make sure you have highlighted what you don’t want them to miss out on in case they choose only to scan or skim through it. Keep such position titles or phrases in bold, so that even someone who glances at your resume gets a full picture without having to read what is written under every point. Ditch traditional fonts like Times New Roman, Arial and Courier for more modern and chic fonts like Garamond, Cambria and Calibri. The standard font size can vary from 10 to 12 point for the body, with larger sizes acceptable for headings or subheadings. Always remember that different people may have different font settings on their computers, so it’s best to send a resume that has uncommon fonts in PDF format so that the appearance is not tampered with.

So what does it all mean? That infographics and social media resumes are the wave of the future (remember the video resume)? Probably not but it pays to keep apprised of what everyone else is doing. In the long run, though, it’s always best to have an easy to read, targeted, honest, and consistent resume ready at hand for when that dream job finally does come along.

Good luck!

How Your Resume Should Look in 2017 | Monty Majeed via Your Story

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

Crafting a “Tailored” Resume

Thursday, September 15th, 2016

Since the advent of modern computers, the job application process has certainly become more complicated than it once was. These days, instead of a typed letter of intent sent along with your resume via snail mail, to be screened by an HR clerk perhaps on the other end, you now have Application Tracking Software, massive job board application systems, and “shot-in-the-dark” emailing to hiring managers, all of which has made your job search a hundred times easier and a million times harder than it ever was before.

Imagine the postage and time necessary for each application in the past… now, it’s just a few button pushes and your resume is carried along automatically to the hiring company… to be trapped in an email spam folder, or discarded by an ATS robot for something as simple as using “online content” instead of “digital content”.

You’re also certain of getting into a much bigger pile of applications than ever before, as the ease of applying means dozens, if not hundreds, of totally unqualified people send along their resume as if it’s nothing, for just the merest possibility of an interview, or out of shear desperation, making it easier and easier for your resume to get lost in the shuffle of human and robot eyes.

So, it’s now become common to hear the advice “tailor your resume” to get around these obstacles. If you tailor your resume to a particular company and role, the choir says, it will have a much better chance of sneaking through the filtering of robots and a greater likelihood of being noticed by tired HR clerks, which in turn increases its chance of eventually being seen by hiring managers and the real decision makers.

The instructions are clear: no more stock and bog-standard resumes. Now, you’re making the suit fit the wearer. Certainly a lot more work than before.

encrypted_resume

But a major question remains: how do you craft a tailored resume?

Here are a few quick expert tips to get you started:

Actually Read and Try to Understand the Job You’re Applying For

First things first: Sit down with a highlighter and really read the job description. Go through and highlight the points that seem important (think the ones that are mentioned repeatedly or anything that’s slightly out of the ordinary) and the points that you could speak to with your particular experience and skills.

This is always step one—after all, you can’t tailor your resume for a position if you don’t really know what the gig entails.

Make Your First Point Immediately Relevant

Next, with your newfound knowledge of what the hiring manager is looking for, take your resume, find the experience that would make him or her most excited about your application, and rework the document so that’s what’s at the top. Maybe it’s your current position, or maybe it’s some specialized certifications or the freelance work you do on the side. Whatever it is, make it the first section of your resume.

And yes, even if it’s not the most recent. There’s no rule that says your first section must be “Work Experience.” Tailoring your resume means finding what is most relevant, creating a section for it, and filling it up with experience or qualifications that will catch a hiring manager’s eye. If that means nixing “Work Experience,” creating a “Marketing and Social Media Experience” section, then throwing everything else in an “Additional Experience” section, then so be it.

resume

Revamp Your Bullets Even for Less Relevant Experiences

Now that your relevant experiences are at the top of your resume, that doesn’t mean you should ignore everything else. Nope, it just means you need to pull out the relevant bits of those experiences in your bullets.

From the job description, you’ll likely find more than just the technical qualifications needed to complete the job. Strong communication skills, ability to work in a team, and other soft skills are probably listed as well. So, while your tutoring experience might not be directly related to the sales position you’re interested in, you can definitely still highlight some of the soft skills that both positions require.

Check to See if It’s Clear Why You Are Applying

Finally, your last quick assessment to make sure you’ve successfully tailored your resume is to see if someone else—like a friend or mentor—can explain why you’re interested in the position just based on reading your resume. If your friend can’t suss out why you’re applying or how you’re a good fit, then more tailoring is likely needed.

This largely used to be the role of the cover letter, and many companies and hiring managers still appreciate receiving these, but because of the shear number of applications they will likely be reading through, you can’t rely on them ever reading or even seeing it… so you’ll need to factor this into the resume itself as well.

Of course, sometimes there’s only so much you can do. If you’re making a big career change and you just don’t have the relevant experience, then no amount of tweaking bullets can spell that out. In this case — and only in this case, I might add — you may actually want to use an objective statement to properly explain your interest in the position.

Tailoring your resume, especially if you’re applying for a lot of positions, certainly isn’t the most exciting or enjoyable part of applying for a job, but it’s definitely one of the most important these days. After all, regardless of media reports to the contrary, the resume is not a “dead” document and is still essential… and it’s the document that decides what first impression you make. It might take a little extra work, but it’s worth it to be that much more memorable.

Good luck!

What it Really Means to “Tailor Your Resume” | Lily Zhang via The Muse

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

How Long Is Too Long for a Resume?

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016

The age-old question, that afflicts new college graduates, senior executives, and foreign applicants alike: how long should my resume be?

The dynamics of the question have changed significantly in the last few years, as online application and electronic resumes have become the norm.

The problem with the question is that it’s not framed properly. For people who prefer certainty, the real answer is disappointing: it depends.

In some cases, a long resume will do you no favors but in other cases, being too brief will cripple your chances.

Let’s look at some times when it pays to be brief:

long resume

  • Online Applications: When you’re submitting your resume to a company website or online job board (which is generally not the best way of approaching a company or job, though probably the most frequent), it pays to know your audience: the machine. ATS machines are fickle, easily confused entities, so it pays to keep format and length to standard when dealing with them, lest they spit you out with asterisks and hissing.

    And since your resume, in this case, will be stacked on top of myriad others being submitted via the same portal, getting your foot in the door would be better served by being brief, concise, and neat.

  • Human Resources: The bane of the modern corporate world (unfairly, to some extent), the HR professionals set to watch the outer walls of each corporate citadel are frequently overworked and tasked with sorting through thousands of resumes for jobs that they may or may not understand (and likely have never done), in order to meet metrics that may have nothing to do with department needs.

    In that environment, anything out of the ordinary regarding your resume (typos, excessive length, improper formatting, too many exclamation points) is likely to send it into the black hole instantly.

  • College Graduates: Someone just out of school will probably have a shorter resume, naturally, and one page tends to be the standard for college graduates or entry-level professionals.

    While it might seem like a good idea to dredge up every job you’ve ever done back to fry cook at McDonald’s, searching for those oh-so-relevant “cross-functional” and “intangible” skills, or adding all of your personal interests, if it ends up padding your resume beyond one page, it’s probably better to leave it off, especially if it’s not strictly related to the position for which you are applying.

There are plenty of times, however, when an expanded resume will come in handy:

stickynote

  • Hiring Managers: Once you’ve managed to get past the gatekeepers and your resume into the hands of the person you will likely be working under, they will probably want to see something far more extensive than just a one-page summary. Since at this stage, they aren’t sorting through a stack of 1000s of resumes, it will be coming down to a choice between just a few candidates, and having those extra details could make all the difference in being chosen for the position.

    If a Tax Director, for example, knows the department will be needing someone with FAS 109 experience, but of course HR didn’t include that in the job description, and you’ve got it on your resume, even though it may have seemed a minor thing, that could be what seals the deal.

  • Recruiters: Recruiters are a strange breed and very needy. If you’ve worked with them for any length of time, you’ll likely find yourself filling out dozens of forms and templates and being sent sample resumes to “update your resume”, probably with very little in the way of guidelines besides “make it more like this.”

    But since they are working directly with Hiring Managers on many occasions, they will probably not be interested in short resumes either, since all the details you provide could be what determines whether you’re selected for an interview (and whether they get the commission).

  • Referrals: If you have a former colleague, manager, or friend who can get you the inside track on a new role, it pays to have something more detailed at the ready, since it’s going to be read directly by the person responsible for hiring.

  • Format: In addition to situations where the person you are sending the resume to makes a difference, there also comes a point when you just can’t fit it on 1-2 pages anymore. A few lines just seem to fill out onto the next page, no matter how precise you are, leaving a big empty white space at the end.

    And no one wants to read tiny 8-point font with the margins shrunk almost to the page borders… and the game of decreasing font-size and zooming in Word might seem like a good idea until the person on the other end tries to import into an ATS system or print it.

    So in that case, a longer, fuller resume would be preferable to an empty white page, something important cut out, or formatting tricks.

  • Career Length: Obviously, the further in your career you are, especially if you’ve worked at many jobs and at many companies over the years, the longer your resume will be. A finance executive would have almost no space left for anything but titles if he restricted his resume to one or even two pages.

So what’s the bottom line? You’ll probably need a short and a long version of your resume, depending on who you’re sending it to and at what point in the process you are.

There may never be a need for a CV style, exhaustive treatise on your entire professional history back to your paper route and yard work and the articles you wrote for your high school journalism class, but it would pay to have an extended version with more details available just in case a recruiter or hiring manager wanted to see more before an interview, after the screening process matured to a later phase.

That one extra line could make all the difference.

Good Luck!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

4 Easy Steps For Creating A Targeted Resume

Wednesday, March 16th, 2016

Targeted resumes (customized resumes) get interviews and get jobs. Would you use the same resume to apply for both a teaching position and an office job? You’d better not if you want a decent shot at getting an interview.

A customized resume is one that is tailored to a specific job. You’d start with your resume template and strategically customize it to feature the skills and accomplishments that best match the typical job description for the job you want (or, even better, to a specific job you are applying for).

Why Custom Tailor A Resume At All?

Why? Because many companies don’t immediately read your resume anymore. Instead, they file it with the other 700 resumes they received and feed it through a computer filter called an Applicant Tracking System, which only looks for ‘keywords.’ This system excludes resumes that don’t contain keywords matching the job posting and spits out the resumes of applicants whose resume language closely matches the job skills required.

Think You Can Game the System?

ATS technology is getting smarter every day – keywords in a block of text dumped into the resume at the end will be ignored. The filters look for ‘context.’ That is, these filters want to see those keywords used with and near other relevant words. In other words, the system cannot be gamed.

Also, real, live people still read many resumes – and they are open to being impressed and persuaded. A good resume makes the employer want to hire you based on your resume – that’s the reason they call you in for an interview (to make sure you are as impressive in person).

The Process

First, you’ll start with your original resume, which has the information universal across all potential targeted resumes you’ll create (contact info, work experience, education, etc.). Next, you’ll convert that master resume into a targeted resume:

1. Copy Keywords From Job Descriptions

Read the job description (noting the position title) then copy the whole thing into a separate document. Do a search for six other job descriptions that use the same title (search the web or an online job site). Copy these entirely into the same separate document.

Finally, you can opt to check the free US Department of Labor Statistics’ free download, the “Occupational Outlook Handbook” since it happens to contain common job descriptions for US occupations that you can use in your job description collection (copy and paste the relevant job description to your list).

2. Determine Which Keywords Make The Most Appearances

These job descriptions contain words in common – KEYWORDS, words relating to THREE categories:

  • Education
  • Experience
  • Skills/Certifications

You are going to create a “tag cloud,” also known as a “word cloud,” using any online tag cloud generator (TagCrowd.com or Wordle.net work very well). These word clouds make the most commonly used words in the descriptions leap off the page. You will know exactly what skills, experience, and position titles are demanded by the position. Copy a list of the TOP 10-20 keywords that relate to the job you want in this situation.

3. Add The Keywords To Your Resume

Take the experience, credentials, and education identified by the tag clouds and include them in your resume. Input the Job Title in your template, then in the Summary section at the top of your resume you should include keyword transferable skills that relate to this role.

4. Capture The Keywords In Your Accomplishment Statements

Write your accomplishment statements to capture some of the keywords. This is what makes you the perfect candidate for this job! These statements should reflect skills that are your strengths and only skills that you want to use again. Be sure to repeat each skill listed in the Summary section in the section discussing your work history so that there is emphasis on your specialty in that area.

That’s it! Just make sure you are writing for real people in spite of the potential of ATS screening.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

4 Resume Tricks That Will Definitely Backfire

Thursday, February 26th, 2015

Bad job search advice. It’s everywhere.

Don’t shoot the messenger (even though he’s also a purveyor of job search advice).

It’s everywhere for a number of reasons, including:

  • Those delivering it often have a bias that affects the nature of the counsel (e.g., spouses, parents, BFFs).
  • There are no licenses or certifications that career coaches are required to carry (which results in a mixed bag of talent in the world of “experts”).
  • Textbook advice—the kind that many of us have the most ready access to during our formative years—can be severely old school (or worse).

Unfortunately, if you don’t use care in choosing trusted sources for job search advice, you may run into resume advice that teaches you how to “trick” the applicant tracking system (ATS) or hiring managers. I’m not here to say that there are no effective “resume tricks,” but there are a few that could very well backfire on you.

Here are four of them.

1. “Borrowing” Entire Phrases Right out of the Job Description

Yes, yes, yes: You absolutely should study the job description for each job you plan to pursue, and you should mirror some of the keywords that describe the skills and qualifications on your resume. You should not, however, lift entire sentences or text blocks from that job description. This will put you on the express train from solid on-paper match to shyster who’s trying too hard.

2. Thinking a Functional Resume Will Serve as the Perfect Disguise

It’s so common for job seekers with career gaps to use the old “hide the gaps with a functional resume” trick that, every time I see one, I just assume there’s going to be a gap. And then I set out to find it. Functional resumes are almost never the right solution. Not only can it be difficult for an ATS to read and parse a functional resume into the electronic database, it also screams “I am hiding something!” Better to use a hybrid resume with a strong summary at the top of the page followed by career history (with details) in reverse chronological order.

3. Listing Completed College Coursework as a Degree

Oh, have I seen heartbreaks with this one. Among them, a job seeker who was about to be hired by one of my recruiting clients—a global manufacturing firm—for a field engineering role. He actually didn’t need the degree as a requirement for this job, but he still felt it necessary to list a bachelor’s degree on his resume. Unfortunately (for him, me, and the hiring manager, who loved the guy), he was a few credits short of having that degree. This little nugget of information came out when the firm’s HR department did a standard degree verification. He did not get the job.

It doesn’t matter if you’re 20 or two credits away from earning the degree. If you didn’t finish it, you need to state “Coursework completed toward __,” not “Have degree.”

4. Fudging Dates (and Then Having Different Dates on Your Application)

Let’s face it. Sometimes it’s just easier to say that the job you stormed out on last July actually ended in November. Smooth over that gap, right?

Wrong. Fudging dates is not only called lying, it’s an easy way to land yourself in hot water with decision makers, especially if you accidentally list out different dates on the official job application. You can certainly strategize if you need to de-emphasize time gaps (for instance, use years instead of months and years), but fudging dates can be a true recipe for disaster.

Without a doubt, it can be confusing, overwhelming, and downright mind-numbing trying to figure out how to set up a resume that snags attention and positions you to sail through the hiring process. As you consider the “tricks,” always keep in mind that some are clearly better than others.

(Avoid these.)

Original from Forbes

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

Resume Trends for 2015 and Beyond

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Resume writing is constantly shifting and changing. Although resumes are only one part of the job search journey, they are still a vital requirement in every job seeker’s toolbox. Compile a resume incorrectly and you could find yourself being overlooked by employers and losing out on opportunities to advance your career.

Yet it can be challenging to know what is trending as ‘current and savvy’ in resume writing versus ‘old-fashioned and obsolete’. In order to increase resume success you need to keep abreast of evolving advances. Here’s some quick advice for the upcoming year.

Resume Trends for 2015:

  • Brevity and more concise content are growing in importance. Even more targeted positioning, messaging, and branding are required to market one’s self. Resumes need easy-to-follow and easily digestible points.
  • Short branding statements are replacing lengthier resume profiles.
  • As ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) continue to advance, so does the need for compatible resume formats. Job seekers must use the appropriate resume format when applying for online positions.
  • Employers spend the majority of time reviewing the most recent role in a resume, so these roles must captivate and pack a lot of immediate punch.
  • With the changing economy it is becoming more common to see short-term contract, multiple part-time roles, or diverse industry experience in a resume. The key is presenting varied work history in a relevant format that still aligns with targeted job requirements.
  • Infographic and video resumes are gaining momentum. When used correctly, for the right industries, these visual resumes can help job seekers stand out.
  • Integrating the right keywords in a resume increases the chances of the document being read – either electronically or by an actual person.
  • Overuse or misuse of keywords is cautioned. Only add keywords to a resume in proper context, supporting them with examples of application and impact.
  • If content is king in a resume; design is queen (for non-ATS applications). Spend equal amounts of time on content AND format. Employ savvy design components to attract attention, make certain elements stand out and, guide the reader through the document.
  • Modern resumes commonly contain hints of color, unique section headers, different fonts, italics, decorative lines, charts, images, testimonials, or boxed text to capture and keep the reader’s eye.
  • Finally, remember that resumes are career story-telling and not career obituaries. Avoid generic tasks or boring job overviews and focus on results, achievements, and accomplishments. Always demonstrate value.

Original from Career Impressions

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

Top Ten Mistakes to Avoid on Your Resume

Thursday, September 5th, 2013

It’s deceptively easy to make mistakes on your resume and exceptionally difficult to repair the damage once an employer gets it. Often, in order to weed out candidates for openings that receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications, a simple spelling error is enough for HR to send a resume straight to the recycle bin. So prevention is critical, whether you’re writing your first resume or revising it for a mid-career job search.

Before you send your resume out, make sure to check it against the following list. If you can avoid these common errors, you’ll be one step ahead of the competition in this very competitive job market.

1. Misspellings and grammatical errors are killers. Spell check then proofread by reading each word aloud. Then have your document reviewed by a career coach or a friend or family member. It’s hard to catch your own mistakes, so having someone else read your resume for you will help.

2. Incorrect or Missing Contact Information: Double-check even the most minute, taken-for-granted details on your resume — sooner rather than later. If you’re not getting any bites on your resume, it may just be that your phone number or email address is incorrect. And if you’re tempted, for some crazy reason, to leave a phone number or an email address off your resume, think again; an employer might come across your resume years down the road and if you don’t have all your contact info there, you may mess a great opportunity. At the very least, don’t make it any harder for a recruiter or a potential employer to get a hold of you.

3. Not including keywords that match the job posting. Your resume should include as many of the same keywords that appear in the job listing as possible. If your resume doesn’t have the right keywords, it most likely won’t get noticed because you won’t appear to be a fit for the job (not to mention, you won’t have much luck getting through the robots).

4. An outdated resume will make you look obsolete. Your resume should be updated for every job you apply for. Be sure to update your skills and education sections, as well as your work history. And if you’ve added certifications or training, be sure to add that as well.

5. Including Too Much Information: Don’t tell your readers everything about each job. Focus on the highlights; keep your document to 2 pages max (you’re unlikely to get anyone to read further anyway, if they’re interested). Use formatting techniques like bullets and short paragraphs to enhance readability. Limit your resume to the last 10 – 15 years of work experience if it would otherwise go on for too long. Remember: you don’t need to include everything you have ever done.

6. Leaving Off Important Information: You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you’ve taken to earn extra money for school or to bide time during the recession while looking for something better or more long-term. Typically, however, the soft skills you’ve gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think. And if you create an employment gap by removing jobs, it might make things worse.

7. Writing position descriptions that don’t show what you accomplished: Avoid job descriptions which simply list your duties or responsibilities. Instead write active statements that showcase relevant skills and accomplishments. Make sure the employer can easily see how you added value in your role.

8. Lack of Quantifiables: Related to Number 7, job seekers often omit quantifiables that would substantiate claims about their skills and accomplishments. Instead, they take refuge in murky language like “improved performance” and “led a winning team.” Use numbers or percentages to reflect the improvements you’ve achieved. CPAs can point to specific processes made more efficient and to specific amounts of money saved. IT professionals can list expertise with specific software packages and applications, as well as successful deployments and business-cost savings due to technology enhancements. Operations professionals can talk about cost controls and productivity

9. Graphic Crimes: Photos on resumes are a bad idea since resumes inspire enough snap decisions without having your picture on them. Resume readers are making go or no-go decisions all the time so it’s safest not to give them a reason to pass over your resume by having a superficial reaction to your photo. On top of that is the technical reason for keeping photos off a resume: Namely, graphics files tend to choke applicant tracking system software. Finally, legal issues lead many human resources departments to reject all resumes containing photos to avoid accusations of discrimination.

10. Attempting One Size Fits All: Whenever you try to develop a one-size-fits-all resume to send to all employers, you almost always end up with something employers will toss in the recycle bin. Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | No Comments »

Your Resume – Summary vs. Objective

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

The days of writing a career objective are long over. The objective was traditionally reserved for recent graduates or professionals changing fields or industries to indicate to hiring managers the kind of position they wanted, as this might not be immediately apparent from their resume since it would either have little experience or unrelated experience. It soon became fashionable for everyone to write a career objective at the beginning of their resume. However, most recruiters rightly point out that hiring managers don’t want to know what a job seeker wants from an employer but what the job seeker can offer to the employer.

It is now standard procedure to include a brief summary rather than an objective. The summary is designed to provide the employer a quick snapshot of what you have done and for how long, outlining your strengths, skills, and expertise (especially intangibles).

Summary or Objective of a Resume

It is important to know what a summary statement should include, as there is no set format and templates should be avoided. Some of the key ingredients are:

– Mention your industry, your work experience in years, and the kinds of companies you have worked for.

e.g., Financial Services, 20 years, private and public sector, Fortune 500, etc.

– Include important functional and vertical skills or expertise you demonstrate.

e.g., back office, service delivery, music composition, lyricist, accounting, software specialist, etc.

It is also important to include keywords from the description of the job that you are applying for. Otherwise, while the human element (HR) might be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, that you have some possible relevance to the job, the Application Tracking Software surely won’t and you’ll be filtered out before they even see your resume.

– An executive summary should not attempt to confuse or deceive the reader. It must be honest and consistent with the rest of the resume. Be concise and avoid generalizations. Think of it as a quick road map to what the hiring manager will be reading further below.

– The summary should be just that: a summary. It should summarize the details and the breadth of your career and resume. And it should be able to convey your background in less than 20 seconds.

Problems occasionally arise, however, when a professional is attempting to move into an adjacent profession, such as when a musician wants to be a lyricist or a teacher is applying for math tutoring near me or applying for role as a personal trainer. The goal then is to make the employer understand that you have transferable skills that are applicable to the role for which you are applying, even though you don’t have any or much direct experience. The summary can be an excellent place to accomplish this, as it will explain the situation immediately to the hiring manager and provide the lenses through which the hiring manager should read the rest of your resume.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in resume writing | 1 Comment »