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1. A BLAND OR GENERIC OBJECTIVE:
If your objective could be applied to a marketing resume
as easily as a resume for an accounting position, then
your objective says nothing and will get you nowhere. An
objective is NOT some required paragraph at the top of
the page that is an exercise in 5 lines of job speak.
It's an actual and real description of your skills as
they're related to who you are and what you want. It
should vary with the type of job for which you are
applying.
2. BLAND JOB DETAILS:
"Responsibilities included overseeing construction of 4
Hilton Hotels in Tri-City Metro Area, each 50 floors in
height." Yeah? So what? That doesn't say if they went up
on schedule or if you brought the projects in under
budget. It doesn't say if you took all four from site
work up or if the guy handling two of the four hotels
was fired and you were promoted to overseeing all four.
Differentiate yourself from the others coming in to
interview. If you don't tell the hiring company how you
will be an asset to them, how will they know?
3. WHO'S THE MYSTERY COMPANY?:
Don't assume the name and purpose of your company is
common knowledge. If it's a competitor, it might be, and
if it's in the same industry and located nearby, it
might be. To be on the safe side, provide a sentence or
two about the focus of your company's products or
services.
4. ANOTHER JOB, ANOTHER
PARAGRAPH: Don't keep adding on to your resume job
after job, year after year. By the time you're in your
40s, you need to have weeded out some of the earlier
stuff. You don't need all the college activities, just
your degree. You don't need ALL 5 bullets for each of
your first two jobs.
5. REFERENCES: Shouldn't be
listed on your resume. "References available on request"
is the proper phrase. You present them separately when
they're requested. This isn't about protocol. This is
about protecting your references so they aren't called
until you and the company are serious about each other.
6. IT'S NOT A STORY!: Don't
- whatever you do, DON'T - write your resume in the
third person!
7. SKIP THE PERSONAL INFO:
You might think your weekend baseball coaching or your
church choir participation shows you're an interesting
and well-rounded person, but they're irrelevant. If the
interviewer wants to know who you are as a person, aside
from the job interview and your qualifications, he'll
ask.
8. DEGREE DATE: No matter
how old you are, don't leave the date of when you
graduated off your resume. It looks like you're hiding
something (well, you are, aren't you?), and then
everyone counts the years backwards and tries to figure
out how old you are. Sometimes you can be ruled out -
just for leaving the date off. If you're trying to hide
your age by not stating the date, what else might you
not be forthcoming about?
9. SPELL CHECK, SPELL CHECK,
SPELL CHECK: Spell checking visually by you AND
someone else, any fewer than three times, isn't enough.
And don't forget to check your punctuation.
10. GETTING YOUR RESUME OUT
THERE - part one: Don't use one of those resume
blaster things. Half those sites aren't even valid. You
don't know how it will come out on the other end. You
don't even know where it's going or if the landing
targets are employment related. It's bad form and
just....NOT the way to find your perfect job. Finding
your perfect job takes focus, attention, detail,
individuality, tailoring, specifics. Resume blasting is
about as far from that as you can get.
11. GETTING YOUR RESUME OUT
THERE - part two: If it's an ad, you probably have
instructions as to how to send it. If it says email, cut
and paste it in the form, AND attach it. You never know
what it can look like on the other end because of the
variety of settings available to each user. Quite
frankly, you're better off not emailing it at all,
because it usually just goes into cyber space, and then
it's all about the hiring company - but unfortunately,
besides not sending it at all, sometimes that's your
only choice. Emailing your resume takes any option for
further participation right out of your hands, because
often there's not even a name given for a follow up
contact. You have no other option than to wait and
wonder. (And half the time it's going to HR or an admin
department to be scanned into an electronic database.)
12. GETTING YOUR RESUME OUT
THERE - part three: If you know the company, call
and ask if they prefer email, fax, or snail mail. I know
a recruiter who never even opened his email. Because he
was listed in The Kennedy Guide to Executive Recruiters,
he received so many resumes emailed to him cold (so NOT
pro-active) that he just did a mass delete every
morning. Candidates contacted for a specific search were
requested to snail mail their resume to him. How about
that? I'll bet less than 10% of those who emailed their
resumes even bothered to follow up to see if it was
received (this isn't a numbers game).
13. RESUME VISUALS: Ivory
paper. Black ink. Individual pages. No plastic, 7th
grade, science report cover with the plastic slider or
metal push down tabs. Your name centered at the top, not
on a cover page that says "Introducing Clifton Lewis
Montgomery III". No exceptions. Your resume is a
professional document, not a school book report or an
art project. Until every resume is done this way, yours
will still stand out in the crowd.
You are the product, and your
resume is the marketing piece. To find your perfect job
you must differentiate yourself from the other people
who will be interviewed.
Your resume must be specific,
individualized, easy to skim so it invites a closer
reading, and focused on the differences you've made with
your previous companies, as well as the accomplishments
you've achieved with - and for - them. This tells the
hiring company what you can do for them - and it IS
about the hiring company, not you.
Of course this assumes you meet
the requirements for the job - otherwise it doesn't
matter how good your resume is! The resume is what gets
you in the door. If your resume is poorly written, looks
sloppy, is difficult to read, is cryptic in any way, or
necessitates being slogged through to learn your
information (they won't bother), you won't even get in
the door. And how can you decide whether you like the
company, if they've already decided they don't like you?
Judi Perkins has been a
contingency and retained search consultant for 25 years,
with a short stint in the temporary and local permanent
placement market. She has owned her own firm and been
hired repeatedly by numerous clients. Learn how to ace
an interview - and thousands of other job tips at
http://www.findtheperfectjob.com. |
