Archive for Resumes
November 26, 2007 at 2:51 am
· Filed under Resumes ·Tagged , job boards, job posting, Resumes
Many job seekers find the job posting boards enticing because they appear to be an effective method of search and the opportunities posted seem plentiful. But the reality is that a meager 3-5% of candidates in search find their positions through the posting boards. While we don’t recommend spending countless hours on-line scanning the boards, we do recommend leveraging the information you gain from the postings to create a more efficient and strategic search plan. Here are a few ways to accomplish just that.
· Only post your resume for the positions with a real match. Don’t expect “I’m a fast learner” to work when you’re competing against a large applicant pool.
· If you find a good match on a posting board, don’t just zap your resume out into cyberspace and hope for the best. Go directly to the company’s website to see if you can post there as well. Review all open positions to see if you can identify growth trends or other changes within the company.
· Review job postings to gain perspective on the compensation for particular positions. Validate the information you gather by comparing it to information from recruiters and colleagues. Having this knowledge will make you a more effective negotiator when it is time to discuss the compensation associated with a job offer.
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June 27, 2007 at 10:17 pm
· Filed under Resumes
Recently, one of our staff writers saw a panel presentation with five college recruiters from five of the country’s top employers. Hands down, their biggest pet peeve when it comes to resumes is typos. Many recruiters and hiring managers agree that having a typo on a resume is the fastest way to get placed in the “no” pile. It can be hard to review your own resume. By the time you finish it, you are so close to the situation that it can be hard to spot errors. Here are a few suggestions for catching those pesky typos.
- Use spell-check wisely. Spell-check is a great tool, but supplement spell-check with several human rounds of proofreading.
- Read the document backwards. Doing so forces you to slow down and pay attention to each word rather than skimming the sentence.
- Ask a friend or trusted colleague to proofread the document. It’s amazing what a fresh set of eyes will spot.
- Get an 8th grade English teacher to read your resume. OK, maybe they are harder to come by, but if you know one, grab them. They will know it all when it comes to spelling and grammar.
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May 14, 2007 at 4:43 am
· Filed under Resumes
If you are a recent college grad, your GPA can be a great way to show your value add to a potential employer. Include your GPA on your resume if it is above a 3.5. If your overall GPA is lower, but your GPA in your major area of study is a 3.5 or higher, use that average instead.
If you do not have an outstanding GPA, focus on key internships, community service, volunteer work, leadership roles in fraternities, sororities, and sports teams, or summer employment to differentiate yourself from your competition.
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May 7, 2007 at 4:49 am
· Filed under Resumes
Most people’s resumes have exhaustive lists of job tasks but never chronicle how those job tasks contributed to the bottom line for the company. Without an accomplishment focused resume, your document is bound to get lost in a sea of mediocrity. Stand out from the crowd by showcasing examples of how you help the companies you support make money, save money, and save time.
An exercise to help you think of your experiences in terms of accomplishments is to identify the problems or challenges you faced on the job, the actions you took to overcome the obstacles, and the results achieved by your actions. By creating these stories, you capitalize on what makes you unique, rather than dwelling on the tasks that are part of many people’s jobs that make you forgettable.
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May 5, 2007 at 5:05 am
· Filed under Resumes
Good content helps make a good resume. But sometimes people include so much content in the resume that they sacrifice design and end up with a document that has so much text that it suffocates the reader. Chose a font size no smaller than 10 point and break the text up by using bullets and spaces rather than big blocky paragraphs. Keep the margins to at least .6 on all sides. These strategies will make your document more “user friendly” and encourage the hiring manager to read on.
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May 4, 2007 at 2:11 am
· Filed under Resumes
Your email address is part of your professional image and a critical piece of information on your resume. Email addresses that are cute, silly, provocative, or difficult to key just won’t cut it with hiring managers. Chose an address that is some combination of your first and last name and avoid using long strings of numbers or letters that don’t form a word. Email addresses are part of your professional persona. You want to stand out from the crowd because of your unique accomplishments, not your unusual email address. Keep it simple and professional and you will quickly elevate your credibility with hiring authorities.
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March 5, 2007 at 4:36 am
· Filed under Resumes
Frequently job seekers use objectives at the top of their resume. Perhaps it is because they have seen objectives used on resume samples or resume templates. Including an objective on the resume is generally a mistake. Objectives communicate the job seeker’s interest and goals, usually without consideration of the employer’s needs. Employers are sourcing candidates because they have a business need. Your resume needs to quickly communicate how you will fill that need. Competencies and accomplishments need to be communicated succinctly at the top of the document via a profile or summary section. This section serves as your hook for employers, and if you create interest in the top portion of your resume, your reader is more likely to review the document in more detail.
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