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Why You Need to Hire a Professional Resume Writer

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017

If Your Resume Isn’t Opening Doors, Get Some Professional Help

Job searching sure is expensive. After all, it costs money to dry clean your interview suit, fill up your tank and drive to each and every job interview. And at a time when you’re counting every nickel and dime, you don’t want to spend any more cash than necessary.

But if you’ve been job searching for some time without success, it may not be what you’re saying, but how you’re coming across on paper. That’s where a resume writer comes in. Resume writers are not just professional writers, but they’re experts in making your resume stand out from the rest of the applicant pool. Here’s why you might need a resume writer, and why it’s such a good investment.

1. U Can’t Right Good

Let’s say you’re an accountant.

Dollars and cents are your game, not words. So if you’re struggling to express your previous work experience well—and your writing confuses HR professionals like advanced math perplexes most of society—a resume writer can help. He/she can discern what needs to be on your resume (and perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t), and express it all professionally.

2. You’re Stuck in the Past

When you look at your resume, you think it looks totally awesome. But when a hiring manager sees it, all he’s seeing is the year 1986.

Like music and fashion, even resumes have to be stylish so they can get more than a passing glance from a potential boss. If you’re not sure of what the current trends are, a professional service can give your resume the extra savoir-faire it deserves. From the quality of the paper it’s printed on to the template used, the writer will make sure that your resume reads—and looks—its best.

3. You’re Not Getting Interviews on Your Own

You know your work experience is impressive and your workplace skills are stellar. So why aren’t you getting any interviews?

The main reason could be your subpar resume. A professionally written resume can open doors for you that might lead to a great job. It’s also good to keep in mind you might even need several versions of your resume, depending on the type of job interview you have. These advanced nuances are things with which a professional resume writer can assist.

4. You’re Shy

To you, a resume is a necessary evil. It’s basically a depiction of all your previous accomplishments and accolades, and frankly, you’re not the bragging type.

You might need an expert to help you through the process if you have a hard time talking about yourself, much less writing it all down on paper. There’s no shame in getting help with this because writing about yourself is one of the toughest assignments, and you’re often your own worst critic.

A professional resume writer will know how to spotlight your most worthy accomplishments because he’s looking at them with fresh, unbiased eyes. Let him turn your resume into something that’s personable and professional.

5. You Have Issues

Maybe you left the workplace so you could raise your family, and now there’s a huge gap in your employment history. Or perhaps you’re changing career fields and don’t quite know how to revamp your resume to show off the skills you have for this new industry. While you can’t rewrite history, a professional writer will know just how to accentuate the positives on your resume, and write away any negative aspects.

Hiring a resume writer may not be an option for everyone and some people can do the job on their own. But for those who have the necessary skills but are struggling to get interviews, a professionally polished resume can be one of the best investments you make as you continue on your job search.

So if you’re looking for an edge, an upgrade, and a boost to your job search contact us today!

5 Reasons to Hire a Professional Resume Writer | Sara Sutton Fell via Salary.com.

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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

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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.

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6 Secrets of Great Resumes, Backed By Psychology

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015

After reviewing, analyzing, and writing many resumes over the years, I’ve come to the realization that most people don’t think like psychologists. And in doing so, they sell themselves short.

Here are six ways to change that:

1. Quantify Your Impact

Tip: Show your accomplishments in numbers, not just words. It’s such an easy way to standout since few people do this. Answer questions such as: how much money did you manage? How many people attended your last event? How many views did your promotional video have?

Examples:

  • Weak: Managed a budget to plan large-scale events for students
  • Strong: Managed $12,000 budget to plan large-scale events for 2,500 students
  • Weak: Compiled a pitch deck for buyout of automotive company
  • Strong: Compiled a 44-page pitch deck for buyout of $53 million automotive company
  • Weak: Wrote articles on entrepreneurship and technology
  • Strong: Wrote 8 articles on entrepreneurship and technology, generating 107,000 page views, 8,003 likes, and 3,723 tweets

Reason: Greek philosopher Aristotle taught three pillars of effective persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos. He believed most in the power of logos, which means persuading others using logic, evidence, and facts. By quantifying your impact, you’re doing exactly that. You’re providing evidence to underscore the significance of your accomplishments.

2. Make Your Interests As Quirky As Possible

Tip: To quote Drake (another great philosopher), you need to “start from the bottom.” The last line of your resume is where many people list their interests, but don’t actually say anything interesting. You like movies, sports, and traveling? How original! If you’re going to use this section at all (and it’s becoming less common), say something that could strike an emotional chord or spark a memorable conversation mid-interview. At the very least, be highly specific.

Examples: Settlers of Catan, Quentin Tarantino films, Mediterranean cooking, Lego Star Wars collections.

Reason: In Give and Take, Wharton professor Adam Grant emphasizes that similarities matter most when they’re rare. “We bond when we share uncommon commonalities, which allow us to feel that we fit in and stand out at the same time,” he says. Your interests are a huge bonding opportunity with your resume reader. Don’t waste it.

3. Show The Competition

Tip: This one gets me every time. So many people win awards, get into selective programs, and do other impressive things but don’t convey the full amazingness of those accomplishments. It’s because they don’t show the competition; they don’t reveal how many other people were gunning for that very same spot.

Examples:

  • Weak: Won Granny Smith University’s Innovation Competition
  • Strong: Won $1,000 for Granny Smith University’s Innovation Competition (80+ entrepreneurs competed)
  • Weak: Accepted into Johnny Appleseed Management Program
  • Strong: Accepted into Johnny Appleseed Management Program (9% admit rate, Granny Smith University selects 50 students per year)

Reason: Social proof is one of the most powerful principles of influence, according to psychologist Robert Cialdini. By showing your competition, you emphasize how coveted your accomplishments are. Many people tried, but only you succeeded. By doing this, you safeguard yourself in case the recruiter hasn’t heard of your program, award, or honor – which they most likely haven’t and won’t bother looking up.

4. Ask An Employee For Feedback

Tip: Relationships are more important than resumes. Before applying to any company, always connect with an employee – whether through information sessions, introductions, or alumni outreach. If the conversation goes well, kindly ask for feedback on your resume before applying.

This accomplishes two things. First, it’s an extremely efficient way to customize your resume to different companies. Employees offer highly specific edits (“hey try using this buzz word, we love that”). Secondly, this is an awesome way to internally pass along your resume without even asking. If an employee finds you impressive, kind, and sincere, there’s a good chance they’ll put in a word with recruiters.

Example:

Hey Jeff,
Great chatting yesterday! I really enjoyed hearing about your experiences at [Company X] and I’m excited to apply for [Position Y].
I know you’re super busy, but could you spare 2 minutes to share any feedback on my resume before I submit? Even a quick gut reaction would mean a lot.
Best,
Jon

Reason: The Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon refers to people’s tendency to more readily complete larger requests after they’ve already agreed to smaller ones. By asking for feedback, you’re doing just that. Requesting two minutes of their time is an easy starting point, especially if you’ve built rapport beforehand. Before you know it, they may help out in bigger ways by making referrals, brokering introductions, and more.

5. Associate Yourself With Big Brands

Tip: Build instant credibility by associating yourself with trusted institutions, even if you’ve never directly worked for one. Did any of your clients include Fortune 500 companies? If you worked at a startup, was it backed by notable venture capitalists? Were you featured in any major publications? Well-known brands shine when recruiters scan resumes so find a way to include them.

Examples:

  • Strengthened relationships with 7 strategic partners (including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble & Facebook) through follow-up meetings with senior leadership
  • Hired and managed 6 students from Penn and Yale including programmers, engineers, and graphic designers
  • Collaborated with Zagat’s “Restaurateur of the Year” Stephen Starr to run a Philadelphia-wide Restaurant Week at 8 different venues

Reason: Authority is another one of Cialdini’s principles of influence. If you don’t have it, the best way to convey authority is by associating yourself with those who do.

Bonus Tip: for college students, an easy way to do this is by becoming a campus ambassador for a notable company.

6. Follow The “Rule of Seven”

Tip: Great resumes send a consistent message. They convey a personal brand. They make recruiters think, “this kid has done this before. If we hire him, he’ll fit right in.” To accomplish this, follow the Rule of Seven. Find buzzwords (and their derivatives) on the company’s website and repeat them seven times in your resume. For instance, when applying for marketing jobs, use verbs like “marketed,” “advertised” and “promoted” to describe your accomplishments. When applying to a startup, use verbs like “built,” “created,” and “initiated.” And so forth. If you’re really crafty, you don’t have to change much when tailoring to different jobs.

Example:

  • For Marketing Job: “Marketed YouTube Campaign Video featuring CNN’s Larry King (9,400 views)”
  • For Startup Job: “Created YouTube Campaign Video featuring CNN’s Larry King (9,400 views)”

(by the way, notice the mention of CNN in there? Everyone knows Larry King but CNN is another recognized brand that recruiters gravitate towards. Tip 5 in action.)

Reason: The old adage says customers must see an advertisement seven times before they take action. Apply the same thinking here. After all, your resume is the ultimate personal marketing tool. Make sure you position yourself properly so recruiters know you’re a fit.

Bonus Tip: One of the biggest missed opportunities is when people write “summer intern” on resumes. Stop doing that! Specify your role (ex: “marketing intern”). It’s another branding opportunity. Another way to fulfill the Rule of Seven is through your “relevant coursework” section (if you have one). When applying for a finance job, for example, list statistics and quantitative classes first.

Original from Forbes

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Stop Screwing Up Your Job Search In These Ten Ways

Thursday, February 12th, 2015

From submitting illegible résumés to blurting salary numbers in the first interview to wasting precious hours applying to the black hole of online job listings, job seekers make a series of common and egregious errors. If you’re looking to ride the economic recovery and stronger job market in 2015, then avoid these ten common errors to make sure you’re not sabotaging your chances to land a great new job:

1. Giving out references that don’t sing your praises

You don’t want a reference to damn you with faint praise. Ask if the person is willing to say you walked on water. If not, find another reference.

2. Laying out your résumé in a microscopic font

Too many candidates think they need to fit all of their qualifications onto a single, illegible page. Either cut down the word count or let the copy flow onto a second page.

3. Failing to say glowing things about your former employer

Even if you were laid off from your last job, find a way to say positive things about your last employer. Hiring managers identify with your former boss, not with you.

4. Saying negative things about your own track record

Even if you are looking for work because your most recent venture has had problems, find a way to put a positive spin on your experience.

5. Talking too much at the start of an interview

It’s fine to give a 30-second summary of your accomplishments, but then you should go into questioning and listening mode, and respond to the interviewer’s cues.

6. Lamenting your difficult job search

Even if you’ve been on a long job-search slog, find a way to make it sound positive, as though you took a sabbatical by choice and you’ve enjoyed your time meeting with many different contacts.

7. Being honest about your weaknesses

The rhetoric of job interviews should be sunshine and light. You can talk about a challenge you overcame, but emphasize your accomplishment rather than the problem that preceded it.

8. Saying how much money you want to make

Lots of people get anxious about money and bring it up in the first interview. This is a mistake. If you are asked about your salary requirement, you can say, “money is important to me but at this point in my career, fit is the primary issue.” Avoid being the first to name a number.

9. Getting impatient with the process

Know that hiring decisions can drag on for months. Pestering your contacts repeatedly by phone and email will not speed up the process.

10. Spending all your time answering ads and sending out blind résumés

For many job coaches, this is “the number one, catastrophic job search mistake.” People don’t get jobs through blind applications, but rather through networking and people they know.

Original from Forbes.

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The Biggest Resume Lies — and How Job Seekers Get Caught

Thursday, October 16th, 2014

Why You Shouldn’t Fudge Facts — and How to Make the Truth Sound Better

Desperate times often call for desperate measures — and in a brutal employment market, some job seekers may be tempted to falsify their work or education history in order to make themselves more attractive to potential employers. HireRight.com, a provider of on-demand employment background screening, found that 34 percent of job applicants lie on resumes.

But job seekers who stretch the truth are playing an ever-riskier game. Background checks are much easier now. It’s all pretty open on the Internet. And many companies and recruiters now employ background-check providers who specialize in sniffing out untruths.

The Gray Area Between Fact and Fiction

Almost all career experts advise job seekers to customize their resumes to individual jobs they apply for. So where’s the line between self-promotion and falsehood? Some experts say it can be hard to define. The dictionary says that ’embellish’ means ‘to make beautiful,’ which is when a candidate is great at self-promotion. The difference between that and a damaging lie varies by industry and profession.

For instance, financial executives are subject to more intense scrutiny than many people going into entry-level positions that don’t involve money.

But at any point in your career, stretching the truth is risky — especially on official job applications. Any uncovered fib is liable to severely damage your reputation in the workplace.

Most Common Resume Lies

According to Forbes.com, some of the most common resume lies concern:

  • Education
  • Employment dates
  • Job titles
  • Technical skills

These are the same resume areas that, if you fudge them, can cause problems — the Internet has made it much easier to verify a person’s claims about education, for instance.

And some recruiting firms are sleuthing far beyond a candidate’s given references to corroborate his claims — for instance, finding and contacting the candidate’s former colleagues via LinkedIn.

People think that they can make up and embellish details about companies that have been sold or gone out of business. But LinkedIn, Facebook and our wide-ranging networks will put a quick stop to most efforts to change history in our favor.

Truth or Consequences

And even if false credentials get you the job, those untruths may come back to haunt you. You’re subject to immediate dismissal if it turns out you misrepresented something.

If your company is acquired, for instance, the acquirer’s HR department may perform an audit of its new employees. Or your background may be checked when you apply for a promotion. Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson, former Notre Dame football coach George O’Leary and celebrity chef Robert Irvine are just three of the people who made news when false background information cost them high-profile jobs.

Keeping It Real

Career experts have practical advice on how to deal truthfully with some of the problems that may cause people to lie — follow it, and you’ll be able to sleep more easily at night.

  • Employment Gaps: Just because you weren’t getting paid for something doesn’t mean you weren’t being productive and gaining skills. If you volunteered or worked on your own projects, say, you should speak to those things on your resume, in a cover letter or in an interview.
  • Misrepresentative Titles: Job seekers need to lay claim to projects and results that may not have been in their formal job descriptions. Here’s an example: An office manager took on HR in her company after the HR coordinator left. The office manager’s title was never changed, but she took on responsibility for payroll, benefits, and so on. She put all of that on her resume, and changed her title to ‘Office Manager (with HR responsibilities).’ That’s a perfectly good way for her to brand herself, because she hasn’t changed the title to something her old employer wouldn’t recognize or support.
  • Past Salaries: If you feel you were underpaid, you should arm yourself with information about the salary you should be earning.
  • Skills: If you’re tempted to lie about having a technical skill, for instance, the right thing to do is clear: Gain that skill by enrolling in a class (or committing to learning it on your own). Then you’ll be able to explain to potential employers truthfully that you’re working on getting up-to-speed in that area.

    Original from Monster.

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Five Resume Tips for Foreign Workers

Thursday, August 7th, 2014

In our last article, we provided advice for Americans seeking work abroad; this time we’re covering what job seekers who are emigrating to the U.S. need to do to update their resume/CV to U.S. standards. There are many differences between international resumes and American resumes and these differences can determine whether or not your resume gets looked at by employers at all.

You don’t want something like your resume to get in the way of the perfect job, especially given the complexity of US work visas, legal fees, and innumerable other obstacles that stand in the way of foreign workers. That’s why it’s so important to have a clean, updated resume that fits what American employers are looking for, so you’re that much closer to a:

Below, we’ve pulled together a few examples of the differences between U.S. resumes and international resumes and tips on things to avoid.

  1. Be straightforward: American resumes are clear, concise, and usually chronological. On the other hand, international resumes are often very detailed and not always chronological. Have your most current experience and/or education listed first and go from there.
  2. Don’t include personal information: U.S. resumes do not include age, relationship status or religion, whereas some international resumes do include this information. It’s important to leave these personal details off of your resume because they could complicate your application. Employers legally can’t use information like your age or personal beliefs to make a hiring decision, and they don’t want to see it on your resume.
  3. Keep your info relevant: It’s also important to only include relevant information on your resume. U.S. resumes are typically shorter than international resumes and are used to market job seekers through brief descriptions of relevant experience, education and skills. While on the other hand, international resumes usually give detailed explanations of academic and formal work experience. Employers don’t have a lot of time to look over resumes, so the easier you make it for them to see your work, the more eager they may be to call you in for an interview.
  4. No selfies please: Actually, do not include a photo at all. You should let your skills and expertise listed on your resume sell you instead.
  5. Update your formatting: Follow American standards for formatting details on your resume. For example, when including your phone number you should leave off the plus sign and take a look at how Americans list their address. You’ll notice a few differences and you’ll want to adhere to American standards before submitting your application.

The job market in America is competitive and opportunities for overseas professionals are limited. To ensure the best possible chance for job search success, make sure that your primary branding document, your resume, conforms to US standards and does a good job selling your unique skills and background.

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10 Tips for Writing an Entry-Level Resume

Thursday, May 22nd, 2014

Unfortunately, many career centers have misinformed new graduates regarding what a resume should look and sound like. As a result, entry-level resumes tend to be plagued by bland resume formats and poorly-written, outdated objective statements.

Instead, as a young professional, your resume should communicate how you can assist the employer with meeting their needs; it must help the employer see your value by telling them exactly how the company will benefit from hiring you.

How can you do that? Here are ten tips to get you started:

1. Include a Fact-and-Figure-Based Introduction

Fight the temptation to include generic and broad-based objective statements that can apply to a multitude of job seekers. Instead, in five to eight bullets, use facts, figures, metrics, and examples from your work experience to show your value and potential.

2. Maximize Your Experience.

It’s effortless and looks streamlined, but listing only your previous employers and job titles on your entry-level resume can leave potential employers not only unimpressed, but also wondering what exactly you did.

Add two or three bullet points for each position on your entry-level resume, detailing a few of your primary (and most impressive) responsibilities in the order that they apply to the position you’re seeking. You can also include volunteer work on your resume if it shows necessary skills. You’ll expand your credentials while also tailoring your experience to fit the job. However…

3. Do NOT Just List Your Responsibilities

Yes, it’s good to give the employer an idea of what your general duties and responsibilities were, but it’s also very effective to show them what you accomplished and what you can bring to the table. How did you go above and beyond expectations? Quantify whenever possible.

4. Use Their Language.

Incorporating words or phrases from a job listing into your entry-level resume is a great way to catch prospective employers’ eyes. If they’re looking for a “hard-working team player,” you might mention in your resume that you thrive in “team” environments and throw yourself into “hard work.” You’ll leave your employers musing that they couldn’t have said it better themselves.

5. Show Your Range.

“Past experiences” on your entry-level resume can include more than just previous jobs.

Detailing your proficiency in other areas, like specific computer programs or foreign languages, can add a lot of value to your entry-level resume. Even highlighting unrelated but important extracurricular activities on your resume can reflect your commitment to a goal – plus, you never know when an employer might bond with you over a shared love of water-skiing!

6. Add Testimonials

Another great way to give your resume veteran appeal is to include testimonials. This is still a relatively new concept and is something hiring managers may be pleasantly surprised to see. So take this opportunity to add about two or three very short quotes from an old boss, former professors, or other influential people in your field. This approach not only works as a great resume filler but helps make you that much more desirable as a candidate.

7. Incorporate Awards And Recognitions

If you’ve received awards or recognition in your short career span, don’t be shy about listing them. It’s great to be recognized for your accomplishments—and even better when an employer looks upon them favorably and even considers hiring you as a result.

Just because you’re getting your foot in the door at the entry-level doesn’t mean you’re not highly qualified for the job you want. So take time to really think about your accomplishments to date and how they make you an amazingly appealing candidate.

8. Avoid Common Mistakes

No matter how many times it’s repeated, 80% of all resumes are submitted with glaring typos. So, let’s say it again:

  • Proofread the resume
  • Get a second or third opinion
  • Don’t use the personal pronoun “I”
  • Don’t refer to yourself in the third person

9. Put Some Thought Into Your Brand

Consider how you want to brand your resume visually and verbally. Think about how each one of these should reflect you as a candidate, and be strategic about your resume choices. Choose a format that presents you as a professional—not unqualified and unprofessional. Just because you are an entry-level candidate does not mean your resume has to look basic and boring.

10. Sell Yourself!

When writing an entry-level resume, you might not have the experience that other positions require, but you don’t have to apologize or sell yourself short. Even if you can list only a couple of past accomplishments on your entry-level resume, you can describe the skills you’ll bring to future positions.

Remember these tips and strategies when writing your resume, and you’ll have a much better success rate winning interviews!

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Four Things That Can Send Your Resume into the Trash

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

You may be the perfect fit for a job — but a hiring manager is never going to find that out if he trashes your resume after a mere glance. Even in this age of online professional networking, a great resume is still the foundation of a successful job search.

It’s common knowledge that spelling errors and grammatical bloopers are trash triggers (and these simple mistakes top many recruiters’ lists of resume pet peeves). But is there anything else that job seekers are unwittingly doing wrong? We asked some recruiting managers and career experts about the resume errors that cause them to crumple and toss a resume at first look — and some of their answers may surprise you.

1. Your Resume Is Badly Formatted

Looks matter. Career experts list misaligned indentations and double spaces as a couple of the things that make a resume start to look like it belongs in the garbage. The fix? Use tabs for indents, and search your document for stray double spaces.

Also beware of being too creative. Many hiring managers don’t like it when they receive resumes with funky fonts. It is not professional and it makes the resume harder to read. When choosing resume fonts, opt ones that are widely used and readable, such as Calibri or Arial, and use no more than two fonts with their associated bold and italic styles.

2. Your Resume Is Immature

Other hiring managers we talked to said they had immediately trashed resumes with pictures on them — for example, of cartoon character Bart Simpson (in the case of one applicant for a technical writing job) or of a kitten (an applicant for a customer service job). Cute resume additions like these are for kids — not professionals.

3. Your Resume Is Too Templated

Longtime recruiter Mike Monroe says that unaltered, familiar resume templates from word-processing programs annoy him. “This won’t automatically put you in the trash, but it tells me that you have put less thought into your resume than your competition,” he says.

Jessica Campbell, an HR manager, says one of her pet peeves is “when a candidate has used a template resume,” but hasn’t updated it before sending it. (And if you use Word’s Track Changes feature to edit your resume, make sure to accept all changes in the final version before submitting it.)

To prevent your resume from ending up in the trash for this reason, customize your resume for each job you apply for using the language of the job ad and highlighting your most relevant experience.

“When the resume is not tailored to the position, it shows you don’t really understand what the employer is looking for and are just hoping your resume fits some of the criteria,” says career expert Heather Huhman, author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships: The Truth About Getting from Classroom to Cubicle. “To avoid this mistake, show the employer how you fit those [criteria] through your previous experience, skills and expertise.”

4. Your Resume Is Sneaky

Some hiring managers distrust people whose resumes have no dates on them. Gaps are not a problem. The problem is when you try to be deceptive.

David S. Williams, founder and CEO of salary consultancy SpringRaise, agrees, saying that if you are or have been unemployed, don’t try to hide it. “You may be doing yourself a disservice because you may be a strong candidate for a position, but you tried to hide your current status,” he says.

A better tactic is to be straightforward on your resume, and then use your cover letter to tell the story of your career’s progress — including information about how you maximized your time away from the 9-to-5 routine. And do remember to write a cover letter — not doing so is another guaranteed way to get your resume thrown into the trash, according to the experts.

Original from Monster.

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Choosing Your Resume Strategy: Specialist or Generalist

Monday, August 15th, 2011

In a buyer’s market, you may be tempted to throw all your skills on your resume, praying that the sheer variety of your experiences will overwhelm an employer. After all, you wouldn’t want a potential employer to overlook that one gem in your background that could really set you apart.

But does the generalist resume work best today? Not necessarily. Recruiters say emphasizing the breadth of your experience depends on what you’re looking for.

The Generalist’s Advantages

Positioning yourself as a generalist could be effective if you:

  • Target Small Companies: A company with fewer than 500 employees may see a job seeker with a broad base of skills as giving them more for their money. At tiny companies or startups, a broad array of skills is often essential due to the need to wear different hats.
  • Target Downsizing Companies: Organizations that consolidate functions will often want someone who can do many things, such as a single HR generalist who can handle compensation and benefits as well as recruiting functions.
  • Will Take Any Job: Recruiters agree that the scattershot approach yields scattershot results even in the best of times. But if you simply want a foot in the door of a company — any company, doing anything, anywhere — selling yourself as a jack-of-all trades could pay off.

The Specialist Positioning

Selling yourself as a specialist is preferable if you:

  • Know Exactly What You’re Looking For: If you’re sure about what you want and know how your skills match up to the requirements, make the case that you’re the one they need and don’t muddy your resume with a variety of unrelated skills.
  • Work in a Competitive Industry: These days, employers who used to receive dozens of resumes for a position may see hundreds or thousands. The person who fits the job best, particularly in a competitive field, is more likely to get the job than someone who can do a bit of everything, recruiters say.
  • Seek a Job Requiring Specialized Skill: An employer filling a job that requires deep knowledge of industrial automation, forensic accounting or video game design, to name a few, can usually find a candidate with the exact skills to match the job. If you don’t have the specific skills, your knowledge of gardening, accounting or music theory, while nice to have, won’t make up that deficit.

The Best Approach

Still not sure which approach is best? Recruiters recommend playing it safe by positioning yourself as a “specialist, with breadth.” To do this:

  • Research a job opening and the company to find out exactly what skills are needed and what other skills might be useful.
  • Emphasize the depth of your expertise in the most necessary job skills — the ones that actually match the job description — and add your compatible skills at the bottom of the resume.
  • Don’t send out a hodgepodge resume. You’re more likely to confuse the recruiter or the hiring manager, who may think of you as a dabbler without depth.

This tactic, recruiters say, will cover your bases by showing the breadth and depth of your skills, and that could be a winning combination in a tight job market.

When more people are vying for the same jobs, it’s even more important to show your skills fit well. If you are a generalist, then you should be able to tweak your resume to fit the position. A resume should show how you fit the requirements, not make them guess.

If you possess the ‘nice to have’ skills, then show them, but not at the expense of the ‘must have’ skills. In most cases, if you are not competitive on the must-haves, you will not get the job.

Original article by Larry Buhl

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