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What is a Waste of Space, Unprofessional or Inappropriate on Your Resume?

November 29th, 2017

I found the above picture yesterday in a search for graphics, and it immediately struck me as perfect for my article. While everyone writing their resume is doing so in earnest and with the best information they have, often the person writing it may have received bad resume advice from friends and family, used poorly written sample resumes or just be winging it to get their resume done for a potential job. There are several items that jobseekers put on their resumes that are unnecessary, take up excess space, and look unprofessional. Here are a few I see on a regular basis:

–An Objective: Instead of putting a tiresome, repetitive objective about how you want to work for a company that loves you and hugs you and will take care of you forever, how about the job title for the specific job you are applying for, and for which the resume is tailored. There will be no doubt by the reader what you are applying for, and the job title is most likely a keyword in their system. Then add a list of job/industry related keywords, or three bullet points highlighting great accomplishments, or a one sentence statement of purpose. Make sure anything you use at the top of the document with your job title is also communicated in the body of the resume.

–References Available Upon Request: The interviewers already know this, just bring your reference listing to the interview.

–Your Picture: A picture on LinkedIn is great, but not on your resume. Not only is there a potential for discrimination but the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) don’t work well with pictures.

–Fancy Graphics: Similar to above; this is great for handing your resume to someone, but not for the ATS. Chances are the ATS won’t be able to read the document, or it will place a multitude of unrecognizable symbols in your resume.

–Personal Information: I have actually seen the following on resumes: person is in “good health,” has 10 children, height and weight numbers, hobbies that are a little too personal and don’t relate to the job or create interest, and spousal details. Again, there is discrimination potential, and these items are not appropriate for the document.

–Obvious Skills: Microsoft Office; it is always better to give the specific programs – like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. You can also do the following: Microsoft Office: Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint, and then you have all the potential keywords. Phrases like detail oriented, email usage, and problem solver can go away too, they are blaringly general.

–Be Detailed: Never use general information and vague keywords when you can be precise or explain something in a reasonably short bullet point. However, let’s not use too short of a bullet point. For instance, I see the following constantly on resumes: “Answer Phones.” That isn’t a bullet point, it is a very short statement. Here is a bullet that describes answering phones. Answer five-line phone system, including distribution of calls to appropriate parties, and fielding of general inquiries. A five-line phone system is a whole different animal, and tells a potential employer that the company you worked for was probably very busy, and you had a lot phone calls to manage. The other merely says you know how to answer a phone. In this case, more is better. Avoid one and two word bullet points, they tell the reader nothing.

–Use of Responsibilities or Duties include: Okay, I will come find you and tear up your resume if you use these phrases to begin a bullet point. HR hates them, recruiters hate them, resume writers hate them. Why, because they are overused! Enough said, find a thesaurus for better action verbs.

–Unprofessional Email: I actually saw this email address on a resume at a career fair – CMYNPPLRNG, yes, it says “see my nipple ring” in vanity plate parlance. Also avoid your name and the year you were born – let’s not just give things away. How about using your name and the last four digits of your phone number or the numbers in your home address?

–Professional development or civic and professional memberships: Want to provide meaning to your professional development, and professional and civic involvement, put a year, or year-to-year with it. The date offers context to the reader as to how relevant and recent it is in your career.

–Outdated professional development: Do you really remember that 1995 Project Management course – probably not. So, instead go with the last 10 years, and only list the best of the best. You can always take an addendum to the interview with a comprehensive listing of professional development, if in the last 10 years there are copious amounts.

Space is precious on a resume, whether you have a one-page or three-page document, you want everything on the document to be useful to the reader. Remember, if your resume makes it past the ATS, and the initial 10-15 second screening, it will be read – make it all count!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Careers, Job Search, Personal Branding, Resume Writing
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Proofing Your Resume and Cover Letter

September 26th, 2017

Proofing a resume or cover letter both for the writer or the numerous friends and family who often review, can be a daunting task. You want that document to be perfect. You’ve heard that one mistake could cost you a job. First, let’s do away with that myth. Thinking that someone is taking your one, two or three-page resume and cover letter, reading it, and then dismissing you from consideration for one error somewhere in the middle the document typically doesn’t happen. Nearly every resume I review for client companies or at career fairs has a couple of errors in it, and this is after a person has typically done multiple reviews and had others review it multiple times. Most hiring managers and HR personnel reading the document are first doing an initial scan if it gets through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Then, only if you make it into the “qualified” pile they will actually read it. To be truthful, that reading, while more detailed, is not for spotting every error in the document unless those errors are jumping out at them!

Most people reading your resume understand there may be a minor error or two. I assure you their resume probably has typos in it too. Add to that some of the strange things an ATS can do to the document, like inserting weird characters where they don’t belong, or changing all you letter “d’s” to “g’s,” which does happen, and now your potentially perfect document is inaccurate, or at least peculiar looking! That is not your fault and something readers on the other side of the ATS need to understand. What they don’t want to see are glaring errors, like your name or the company name misspelled, bad grammar, missing or incorrect punctuation, erroneous or misspelled industry terminology and acronyms, and overused action words.

So, how do proof your own writing? First, walk away from that document. It doesn’t matter if it is a resume, cover letter, reference list, reference letter, or any other career related information, you need to step away before reviewing it. Don’t write a resume that can impact your ability to get a job and then feel the need to send it out the same night. You will regret it most every time. Come back the next day and read it again with fresh eyes. Then walk away again for a few hours, come back and reread. Now walk away again, come back and read that document to yourself out loud. This allows you to catch syntax errors – those sentences and phrases that just don’t “sound” right. Sometimes what sounds great when reading it “in your head” doesn’t quite work when you read it out loud. Lastly, read it backwards. Yep, I said backwards. Certainly this seems laborious, but it actually allows you to catch additional errors like missing punctuation, misspelled industry or technical terminology, company names, and occasional repeated words like “the the,” more easily. When you read it back to front, the “reading what you think you wrote” issue goes out the window. How it sounds isn’t important at this point. Reading in reverse is all about spelling and punctuation.

As a final thought, know that regardless of how many times or how carefully you read your resume or cover letter for errors, we are still human, and so are your family and friends. You still just might have missed something. My feeling is that if a person reading your resume doesn’t understand that every once in a while we make errors – then that person or organization may have larger issues. Primarily having a mindset that says you can’t ever make an error. Typically these organizations will also give you the work of three people, demand you get it done with no overtime or constant forced overtime, or put you on salary so you can work 90 hours a week. If you misspelled your name, company name, or something painfully obvious on the resume, like writing HIPAA with two “p’s ,” then take your medicine (sorry, couldn’t resist the healthcare pun). However, if in the middle of the document you used “united” and accidentally spelled “untied” or Microsoft Word just didn’t catch a misspelling, and that is their major determining factor in an interview or hiring decision, consider yourself lucky. They may have saved you another job search.

Categories Career Management, Job Search, Resume Writing
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The Value of References

March 24th, 2016

Job seekers often send their resume with “References available upon request” included in the document. However, this information is unnecessary, as it is expected that you will be able to supply references, whether you have said so or not. A reference listing (a separate page from your resume listing each reference and their contact information) should only be included with your resume if the job ad specifically asks for the listing.

Prior to any job interview, you should prepare a separate list of references you can leave with the interviewer. This list should have the same heading design and font as your resume, and include each individual’s name, current title, company name, business address (optional), email address, telephone number, and a short sentence on how this person knows you (Former supervisor at ABC Company).

Your references can and should include former supervisors, co-workers, employees, professors, vendors, and clients, as employers are not interested in talking to friends or family members, who typically know little about your work habits and abilities. Before preparing your listing, always obtain permission from the reference directly, and let them know when you have provided their information to a potential employer. Knowing about the specific job you have applied for will give them an opportunity to prepare for any questions the potential employer may ask them.

Once you have prepared your listing, make numerous copies to take with you to job interviews, so you can leave a copy with the interviewer(s). Keep in mind that a letter of reference, no matter how glowing, does not have the same impact with employers as the ability to speak with your employment references and ask them specific questions about your performance and work ethic.

This article was co-written by Karen Silins and Janet Barclay, and their information is included below:

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Janet Barclay is a former employment counselor who helps career practitioners and other solopreneurs to maximize their online presence by creating websites and blogs as well as providing blog promotion, proofreading and editing, content management, and WordPress technical support services. She can be reached through her website OrganizedAssistant.com.

Categories Job Search
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Volunteering and Your Job Search – A Job Search Tip

June 12th, 2015

A Piece of the Jobseeker Puzzle

Get out and volunteer if you are out of work, working part time or are underemployed. Besides helping you to feel better about your situation, show HR and Hiring Managers that you are willing to get out and work, even if it is unpaid work. Furthermore, a regular volunteer opportunity (at least once a week for at least four hours a week) can be added to your resume as a current job, with “Volunteer” as the job title (typically with no more than one bullet point of description). Remember, work is work, whether you get paid for it or not!

Categories Job Search
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Shake It Off

February 11th, 2015

Bias Wordcloud

About two to three times a year someone writes a “Nasty-Gram” article about how all Career Coaches and Resume Writers are charlatans, and naturally professionals in this industry get very upset. This is what happened in the most recent case with Matt Charney’s article on Recruiting Daily. Mind you Matt is “friends” with many of us, including me on some social media outlets, so this was a bit of surprise coming from him. This is a man who describes himself on Twitter as “snarky and gangsta” and purposely works to get under people’s skin. Mr. Charney can also be outrageously funny and has a passion for jobseekers being treated well, something I truly appreciate. The thing about this particular article that really angered our community was his purposeful targeting of colleagues for which Mr. Charney, a very smart guy, didn’t really do his research, but definitely made his suppositions from the limited research as if it were fact. We need to shake these things off as an industry and continue to do our job well as professionals. Matt is actually, from what colleagues say (I made a couple of calls), a pretty good guy, but I will, as a response from an industry professional that has been in business as a Resume Writer, Career Coach, and Business Coach for 16 years, make a point in this article about the ignorance of blanket categorizations.

Just as in Mr. Charney’s industry, there are people who become a Career Coach or Resume Writer for the wrong reasons, including the hobbyist, the “might get rich” people , the “don’t know anything about the industry” people, the lazy “simple template” people, and the “I think I’m qualified because I offered some career advice or wrote my own resume” people. When I mentor new resume writers and career coaches I tell them plain and simple – you impact a person’s ability to earn a living, get a job, put food on the table, pay their mortgage, and sometimes self-worth, you had better know your craft, and constantly be educated in it!!!

I also work with recruiters frequently and many of them are good friends and individuals who are incredibly knowledgeable, and I regularly recommend these recruiters to my clients. Just because there are a few people in recruitment who don’t understand recruitment, HR, applicant tracking systems, the hiring process in general, and only want the potential client commission (the jobseeker be damned), doesn’t mean that is how everyone in the industry operates.

Here’s just a small list of job titles that regularly get complained about in an uninformed manner as if everyone in that profession is problematic:

Recruiters and Headhunters (internal/corporate, contingency and retained)

Web Designers

Human Resources Personnel

Police Officers

Accountants

Doctors

Home Improvement / Construction Personnel

Attorneys

Salespeople

…and any government employee, just to name a few…

So, let’s take a detour about the harm of judging without proper information. I learned early in my life of the preconceived notions others can have about a profession – my father was a Kansas City, Missouri Police Officer. No other profession gets the kind of ill treatment and almost gleeful bad press as police officers. Despite their hard work, he and his colleagues were, and still are, called racists, cruel, stupid, Neo Nazi’s, pigs, and many inappropriate words I can’t put in this article. From being cursed at, yelled at and sometimes nearly killed for giving someone a speeding ticket, to being shot at for trying to stop a crime in process, both the dangers and inane comments are endless. Yes, some police officers have been awful people, but most civilians know that this is a very small portion of the profession as a whole and don’t spend their time putting ill-informed comments on the Internet saying all policeman are bad.

My father was a true hero in every sense of the word and taught me never to make blanket assertions about a person, their job and industry in general, race, religion or politics, but to look at the whole individual and their true intent. Here’s a small encapsulation of his career: Medal of Valor, Police Officer of the Year, Police Officer of the Month, featured on television (multiple interviews), the Kansas City Star, and The Call, numerous commendations, promotion to Detective, promotion to Sergeant, promotion to the head of the Auto Theft Unit, progression to Central Patrol Desk Sergeant in one of the toughest inner city precincts, and Sergeant on the street and Watch Commander (a huge honor), and where he loved to be – helping people directly. He also passed the torch in both the lives he touched and police officers he mentored.

I know personally he experienced bias and assumptions merely because of the badge he wore, but didn’t allow the ill-informed to keep him from protecting the public. He shook the comments and biases off so he could do his job well. I am proud to say I am his daughter, I look like him, have his Type A personality, have no fear of speaking in public, am entrepreneurial (he always wanted to own a business), and I don’t judge everyone in stereotypes due to what might have been a bad experience or just ignorance. Just as my father, we as a profession should not allow an occasional uninformed article to affect our work.

Every single profession, inclusive of entrepreneurs, has the malignant personality, the lazy, the exploiter, the hobbyist, the racist or bigot, the micromanager who trusts no one, and the inept. To categorize an entire industry negatively makes the person complaining look bad, NOT the industry, as most people reading Mr. Charney’s article will take it for what it is, blathering for attention – sorry Matt, but you are way off base this time (but I still love most of your posts and articles and will continue to share them online – as I am not judging you on just one article). Some people like to complain about others to make themselves feel better as a person, and some to make people mad. Shake it off, it’s not worth the anger, worry or emotion. To quote the Taylor Swift song that I used for the article title, “and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate,” SHAKE IT OFF!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps her pulse on the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Opinion, Personal Branding
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HOW A FUNCTIONAL RESUME FORMAT CAN HURT YOUR JOB SEARCH

March 17th, 2014

Job Search

Let me start this blog post with a personal remark – I like functional resumes as part of a marketing package for clients, but I also understand the reality of how they are viewed, thus this article. A general resume with no focus aside, the most common mistake I see when critiquing resumes at a job fair or seminars/workshops is the functional resume format. While functional resumes are certainly not the evil incarnate some make them out to be, and can be a nice addition of marketing material to a job search, they are problematic for the great majority of jobseekers. Don’t take my word for it, recently I asked an HR and Recruiting Roundtable group directly what they liked and disliked about functional resumes. Unfortunately there was nothing they liked. The group came up with ZERO reasons for liking a functional resume. This group however did give many reasons why they disliked a functional resume format – here are some paraphrased quotes from that conversation:

1) Functional resumes don’t work effectively in the ATS (applicant tracking system). Anytime you apply online, and either browse and attach your resume, or copy and paste your resume into a job board or employer career site, you are using an ATS. These systems work by utilizing keyword and key phrase searches and specific algorithms for searching documents including reverse chronology of your employment (the preferred format) with accompanying bullet points. If you use a functional format the algorithms can’t “locate” your employment info and bullet points together and thus only your employer, job title and employment dates show up and all those bullet points most likely get skipped.

2) HR, Hiring Managers and Recruiters want to see your career progression. Just having a list of skills within a few bulleted points followed by a separate section with employer, job titles and dates provides no context for where or how you acquired your abilities, or how you used them in a given job. Ultimately the reader has no idea where you obtained a given skillset as all bulleted points are lumped under one area of experience or a few general headings of expertise.

3) Savvy readers think you are hiding something, including long-term unemployment, several employment gaps, or outdated experience.

4) It screams to any HR Manager, Hiring Manager or Recruiter that you are unemployed or a career-changer.

5) Functional formats tend to have mostly general statements instead of detail in how you used a competency or skill in the workplace and how it benefited an organization.

6) Hides your employers, job titles and dates of employment at the bottom of the page as if you are ashamed of where you worked.

7) Typically only a one-pager, and despite all those rumors of the one-page rule, for most jobseekers these do not provide enough information for the interviewer to determine you are a qualified candidate. Most jobseekers have two or three-page resumes.

8) Recruiters use Boolean searches for keywords and key phrases, and since most functional resumes just have a “bullet point” section and are often one-pagers, they lack detail. So, the ability to be seen in these searches with the necessary repeated keywords, key phrases and appropriate detail throughout the bulleted points will be limited or non-existent.

Ultimately the ATS is one of the biggest reasons to use the preferred reverse chronological format. I have access to some of these systems and when a functional resume is utilized the system simply doesn’t know what to do with it and deletes a bunch of your career information – all that hard work to write a resume, and most of your important career information never makes it past the system. So, if the systems you are applying to online like reverse chronological formats, and detect your resume information in an expected order which includes employer/company name, job title, dates of employment and bulleted points with keywords and key phrases, why would you give it any other format? I always tell my clients and seminar/workshop participants “play to the crowd.” The crowd in this instance is the ATS and it wants reverse chronological. Furthermore we know HR Managers, Hiring Managers and Recruiters prefer the reverse chronological format, so why not provide them what they want. I know this won’t end the debate about functional formats, but the facts are painfully obvious. Use a functional resume for a one-page marketing document, possibly in lieu of a business card, and use the reverse chronological for the rest of your job search.

Categories Resume Writing
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Is the Resume Dead?

February 21st, 2013

Job Interview

This was my recent answer on a Goggle+ thread as to whether the resume is dead:

No, because the resume ultimately helps you to develop the information/data/verbiage to communicate your personal brand – essentially it is a marketing document and tool, no longer just static and non-interactive because of its multiple uses. From utilizing content for appropriate social networking and blogging to online applications and in-person networking, to showcasing writing ability, it is still a necessary tool in hiring. It is no longer just a piece of paper.

While yes, I am a resume writer, I am also a career coach in personal branding, networking (including social networking), interviewing, job search, career exploration and transition, and career management, which also includes aiding businesses and their owners in marketing. I would have enough business just on the coaching side alone, but find the resume along with the detailed interview process I go through an absolute necessity in formulating my clients overall job search or business strategy. The resume and a comprehensive process to create it dovetail’s the development of additional marketing verbiage so essential in JobSearch 2.0 and Business 2.0.

The resume will never be dead, but will morph with the times, just as it has always done. We will see the use of resume mills and forms-only to fill out for the design of career documents replaced by personal interviews and actual time spent strategizing for it true use – marketing. As I began to state above in the first paragraph, resumes and cover letters are used in job search, interviews, networking, writing examples, to plan social media, blogging, website verbiage and selection of keywords for SEO, and career planning and management. I’ve seen these articles come out regularly saying the resume is dead over the last 20+ years of my former HR career and current resume writing and career coaching business – and they never go away, they adapt.

Categories Job Search, Resume Writing
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