Resumes are your calling card for entering new roles, companies or industries. Aside from the old adage of "who you know" that still stands the test of time, you'll need this 8.5 x 11 piece of paper that can probably spell the difference between thousands of dollars with bonuses based on this initial agreed amount and your livelihood. This is important stuff, so why not take the search seriously and "play the game?" 50% of hiring managers or recruiters will look at your cover letter, but more than 80% will look at your resume. If you want to stay competitive, get a solid resume that includes your targeted interests, credentials, transferable skills, some keywords for applicant tracking systems, and your compelling statements woven into your experience or accomplishments section. The biggest reason you might overlook any potential opportunity is format/style and content. If you don't make sense of yourself on the page, and it looks sloppy, why would anyone else take it seriously?
I always tell my clients, "If the hiring manager is frowning, you've lost the battle for the 6-second rule." The 6-second rule is the time it takes for a hiring manager/recruiter to review your document before considering further reading for possible interview consideration, or move on to the next candidate and practically trash your resume. The other main reason is that you don't have any meat. I also say words that are ambiguous and make people look for that word when checking your resume. Don't fool the reader. And don't slow them down. Also, words like "Championed, Responsible for a Spearheaded" are dated. Rather, think in terms of business quantifiers that everyone can understand and most likely follow in their respective roles. Words like “enhanced, optimized and improved” go much further for a candidate. Also, drop the personal pronouns! Only use I, we, you, etc. in your cover letter!
Hiring managers and recruiters want to know what you did to make money, save time, reduce costs, retain a client, streamline a process, optimize efficiency, reduce waste, etc. I call these business quantifiers. Think about productivity, monetary values, workflows, process improvements, etc. What is your value to a potential recruiting organization, and how can you translate that value into words on a page that make up your overall message? Finally, making a resume yourself is something that many decision makers notice. If you are not a mechanic, why try to change the engine? If you're not a writer of sorts, or even an actual resume writer, why try to put yourself in a bad light when you can spend a few hundred bucks on something more meaningful and impressive? As I mentioned before, it could add up to thousands of dollars and your livelihood is counting on it, so get it right. You only get one chance to make an impression, don't be the one to bury yourself under the candidates who are doing things the right way.
Some continue to write pet peeves:
1. Capitalize anything and everything. Make sure everything you write is accurate and follows the rules of English grammar!
2. Do not put dashes between numbers in your phone number. I don't like deciphering numbers when I'm in flight.
3. Misspelled words. Come on guys! There is a spelling and grammar checker! Not to mention dictionaries, both old books in print and online editions.
4. Using ambiguous or unclear verbiage. Quite frankly, if I have to look that word up, you failed. Never try to outsmart the reader.
5. Placing your creepy picture on your resume. Don't scare anyone with any image. Keep them for your LinkedIn profile.
6. Too long. Let's put your whole life story out there, why not? No! Nobody cares about your amazing time at Dell in the early 1990s. Keep a detailed employment summary for a maximum of ten years of experience.
7. Too much information. While I'm sure all seven of your children are beautiful, let's not list their names, ages, and hobbies in the Interests section.
8. I don't include relevant details like your degrees, dates, employer location, college education, etc. If I have to guess, I'll move on.
9. Bad formatting. Visual clutter such as different fonts and frames creates confusion in applicant tracking systems. These are robotic screeners that The Livelihood Makers and Breakers (LMB) used to identify you based on the "buzzwords" or keywords in your resume.
10. Only paragraphs? The only place for an entire paragraph is the summary, and even that should be no more than three sentences.
11. Too messy. If your resume looks and feels like a document that was written and sent in twenty minutes, it won't make a positive impression.
12. A sense of entitlement. A delivery that sounds presumptuous or entitled turns readers off. Again, don't trick readers with eye-rolling sentences like "I'm by far the best worker in our office."
13. Abbreviations and Abbreviations. While you should use terms that are common in your target industry, don't add too much jargon or heavy words. If the LMB doesn't understand what you've written, how are they going to pass it on to the next level of decision makers?
14. Too nervous. Any hint of bitterness, anger, or hostility will seriously undermine the credibility of your resume. Keep your tone warm, relaxed and friendly.
15. Too many redundant or wasted words. Too many "as" or "so that". Cut out the words! Less is more in this day and age of Twitter.
16. Do not use action verbs! Always start with a bang!
17. Use of the word "responsible". Stop it. Please.
18. Too much white space! You don't need a page and a half. It's either one concise page or two full, detailed pages.
19. Confusion about employment history such as missing dates, accomplishments, company location, etc. If I have trouble understanding what the hell you're communicating in the first eight seconds, I move on.
20. Too much information for the big out. The further into your past, the less detail you should have. Likewise, don't throw in irrelevant information. Even your basic contact information doesn't need to take up more than two lines.
I hope some of these resonate and help improve your marketing materials. Remember, it's important to treat your job search like you're convincing the person on the other end that you're the best fit! Save them the headache of reading your credentials and make it easy for them. They want you to be able to fight.
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