What do you think of my resume? What’s wrong with my resume?
Why isn’t anyone responding to my resume? These are some of
the first questions I get as a Career Transition Expert. Let’s
start off with the basics and acknowledge that contrary to many
resume-writing books, THE resume is not the most important part
of a job search. Your resume can be an effective tool if
designed and used correctly. It can also mar and hurt your job
campaign. So let's take a look at some of the --BAD NEWS RESUME
BOO BOOS-- I’ve garnered over the years. I have no doubt that
these 5 tips will change the way you look at your resume.
Tip 1: LOV'EM BUT LEAV'EM
I mean your friends and family that is...be sure to leave them
out of your resume rewrite campaign. If you don't believe me,
give your resume to 5 of your best friends or relatives and see
if you don't get 8 different opinions. Everyone has a preference
and, everyone has an opinion. Uncle Harry, the CPA, may want you
to list every job you had since you were 19, but unless you're
sending it to the IRS forget it. The best thing you can do with
your friends and family is to give them your resume with specific
instructions. First, make sure you tell them what you’re looking
for. Second, encourage them to bird dog their friends. You
never know--your Aunt Hazel may be godmother to a CEO. And above
all communicate! Make sure you follow up with whomever they gave
your resume to and ask for more leads and advice.
Tip 2: ASK & YE SHALL RECEIVE
Get a second opinion on your resume by giving it to 2 people
who you really respect and admire, and or 2 folks that know the
industry or field you want to get into. Four critiques are
plenty and don't change your resume until all verdicts are in.
No use in modifying, cutting, pasting, and annihilating what
you’ve written. If you've engaged a consultant--trust your
consultant’s advice. Otherwise, you'll confuse yourself and you
may end up with a disjointed mess. So first sit down with your
notes, see if there’s a common thread, and if the suggestions
feel good in your guts, do the surgery. In the end your resume
has to be you.
Tip 3: FAILURE TO ENGAGE
Make like a Star Trek Captain. In order to get somewhere
you’ve got to ENGAGE. Ever open your snail mailbox at home and
groan? Watch what you do. If you’re like most people, you’ll
read the first several lines, which takes about 3-5 seconds.
You’ll read the top of the letter, the bottom of the letter
and then decide whether you want to spend some time on what's
in between. Otherwise you'll toss it. Likewise with resume
readers. So engage your reader quickly, top and bottom. Here's
4 bonus tips:
-- Don't confuse the reader. Tell them what you want in your
Objective. If it's more than one line, then you probably
don’t know what you want. Write a clean, crisp, clear
Objective or leave it off.
-- Objective Statements are optional. Don't confuse the
Objective with the Summary Statement. Your Summary should
be well...a dynamic Summary of YOU. Three to five lines at
the most.
-- Don't generalize yourself thinking someone is going to like
something about you, you'll end up looking like the last
three Summaries they read--ho-hum. They know you’re
hardworking, no need to stuff that in your Summary right?
-- If you’re not sure of your focus and must make your
Objective and Summary more generalized, then plan on using
the telephone a lot more so you can Engage the hiring
entity. Actually you should plan on using and using and
using the telephone. If you aren't comfortable with the
phone look for our upcoming Teleseminar "HOW TO USE THE
TELEPHONE TO GET A NEW POSITION" on the ARALeadingEdge
site, http://www.ARALeadingEdge.com Details will be
coming up in the next month.
Tip 4: THE DAILY GRIND
Some people write their resume as if everyone wants to know
exactly what they do from the time they get their coffee in the
morning to ad nauseum at 5:00 PM. Hit the high points; don’t
drone on paper, every job duty in the last 4 years with Wigit
Corp. does not need to be accounted for. Give them the sizzle,
let them call you if they want the steak. Some people write a
four-page cow and wonder why they never get a call. When
Harriet HR has 150 to 1,000 resumes in her email, it's risky to
even think your going to get consideration from her if she has
to slog through your 9 to 5. She's got her own to worry about.
Tip 5: POLISH OR PERISH
Print the dang thing and read it out loud to yourself. You’ll
get a real eye opener and you'll find some stuff where you'll
say ugh--like the word too for two or their for there. Use an
old proofreader’s trick to catch misspellings (no Virginia, you
cannot trust your computer) read the lines from right to left.
Avoid hackneyed trite terms: results oriented, seasoned
(sounds old doesn't it?), self-motivated--but of course!
Here's one of my favorites: I'll start reading and on the first
line is the word "developed" then on the 4th line is that same
old hiccup. Whoa there it is again on the 8th line, by the 5th
"developed" I'm starting to wonder if the guy is a photographer,
not a project manager. Watch out for duplicate words.
Since we're polishing I have a couple of other axes to grind:
-- I'm talking to Joe and he tells me he's taken a month off
after being downsized. As I glance down at his resume, I
see it has 2000 to present. To present? Seems like he
could have spent the last month changing the ending date
on his last job. At that point, I start to question his
integrity and his work ethic. Keep your resume current.
The "I didn't have a chance to update it" doesn't fly well
with an employer.
-- Yes, at least 10% of the executives out there put white
lies, little fibs, whatever you want to call them on their
resumes. It’s dishonest so don’t be one of the 10%. What
is it you don't understand about "Thou shall not"?
-- Your Summary Statement looks like you copied every phrase
in every resume-writing book you found Saturday afternoon
at Borders. Sparkling vocabulary is great, but be genuine.
Being genuine, that’s the key in life and in writing your resume.
Laura leads the Free Resume Boo Boos Teleseminar weekly, every
Wednesday at 1:00 or 7:00 pm Eastern For details or to make
reservations go email mailto:seminar@araleadingedge.com or
call 1-888-280-5291 ext. 16 now.
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