Resume advice

Right now, there are a lot of people who are probably scouring every website, blog, book, and consultant service looking for ways to improve their resume. I’ve said it myself, your resume is the first thing that any recruiter or hiring manager will see so it is important to put your best foot forward. Clear, professional, and focused to the type of work/industry/company that you are applying for is what you need in a resume. But for some people, that’s not enough anymore. Now, it has to be remarkable. It has to better, cooler, hipper, whatever, just MORE than anyone else. And I think the hysteria around resumes is getting a little out of hand.

I understand the desperation and the desire to get noticed. It’s heartbreaking to know that you would kick butt in that position if only you could get a chance. Unfortunately, sometimes what gets you is not how good you are, but how good your competition is. So what can you do about it when the only thing you think you can control is the resume you send out? You desperately seek out any perceived advantage you can get and so you focus so much energy on your resume.

Let me be straight with you: Yes, your resume is important and yes, it needs to be good. But is having the best resume the best strategy for getting a job? No, it’s not. A great resume has the potential to get you noticed, but you know what else can get you noticed? Networking, Blogging, going straight to the hiring managers, etc. Repeat after me: Do not put all your eggs in one basket and do not pin all your hopes on your resume.

In my time recruiting, I’ve seen hundreds of resumes and I know what I like to see, which is not necessarily what everyone else wants to see. But here is a list of things that will immediately turn me off:

- Bad grammar, spelling, barely coherent and poorly constructed sentences.
- Hard to read, either due to clarity of the information presented or because of poor font/size of text/arrangement.
- Not having someone look it over for you. (doesn’t have to be a professional, just someone whom you trust to spot errors)
- Having an objective geared to an entirely different job (such as stating how you want a job in sales when applying for a HR position).
- Not listing the company, location, and dates of employment.
- Not listing educational level or degree obtained or sought.
- Not geared to the job you are applying for (for example, a technical position where you don’t list any computer skills)
- Adding personal information or commentary (for example, I really loved/hated this job/boss)
- Not providing a succinct description of what you did in your past positions.
-Not listing up-to-date contact information (for example, a working phone number)

That’s it. Everything else is just gravy. Some careers expect more from a resume, but most people only need to make sure that they follow basic resume advice and avoid the errors above. Seek professional help if you want or need to, but keep in mind that the best resume in the world still may not get you the job. Successful job hunting is not so straight forward. So good luck to you all out there, I’m right there with you.
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