Resume Tips – Page 15 – Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Blog

6 Dumb Things People Do When Submitting Their Resume

May 9, 2015 by Jeff

There are a thousand and one dumb things people do to sabotage themselves and their job search. Here a few of the most egregious mistakes people make.

1. Stupid file names for their resume . I received a resume this week from a technology executive who should have known better. He has a good background but named his resume file some like, “His Name cut and paste August 2009.”

Why would you ever include the expression, “cut and paste” as part of the file name for any document, even if it is true? It just tells the reader that you threw something together quickly. Is that the message you want to convey to an employer or recruiter you want to be impressed by you?

2. Including a cover letter as a separate attachment. No one opens a cover letter file because it is a waste of time. Why? Because most people don’t know how to write a good cover letter so why bother?

It is far better to write what you might consider a cover letter in the message are of your email, instead of doing that. Don’t do the kind of addressing and salutation you might if you were writing a formal business letter. Use the space to make the case for how your experience fits what they are looking for.

3. Embedding your name, address and contact information as an embedded header at the top of your resume. This one is a subtle one and would require you to understand how corporations and recruiters work.

When organizations and recruiters import data about you into their systems, they don’t manually type your information into their systems, they use parsing software to read it and populate fields. With many types of this software, embedded headers will interfere with the software doing that and your information having to be manually imported.

Who has time for that? The result is you will miss out on opportunities.

4. Mass emailing your resume in the “TO:” field of your email. Why would you want to tell people that you’ve emailed your resume to 165 employers and recruiting firms?

5. Not spell checking your resume. I understand that certain words will go through a spelling checker even though they might be misused.

For example, for years, the words, “NOVEL” would pass through a spell checker even though the intended word was, “Novell.”in particular, visually check any professional term carefully to insure that your resume does not have misusages or misspellings.

6. Submitting the Same Resume Over and Over Again to Every Job as though your one resume will make the case for every job you apply for. Everyone knows the expression, “The broken watch is right twice a day yet people violate that simple true statement by emailing the same resume over and over again to every job they apply for as though every job is identical.

Tailored resumes help people receive good results. Flipping the same resume over and over again like burgers at a fast food restaurant will give you poor results.

Isn’t showing care when you submit your resume worthwhile?

Four Simple Steps to Better Resume Results

May 9, 2015 by Jeff

Is every job description you read the same? No.

Is every job you submit your resume to the same? Of course they aren’t.

If all these job descriptions are different, why do you submit the same resume?

Every day, people send the same generic resume out as though each position was identical and each employer was attempting to hire identical skills and attributes. Too often, the results they receive are like the broken watch that is right twice a day-hit or miss success.

They list their name, address, phone numbers and email address, list an objective, education, and chronology of experience with dates of employment. The resume includes some successes or accomplishments. This is their resume.

In the days prior to computers when changing a resume required you to re-type different versions, this made sense. Today, when computers allow you to customize, spell and grammar check documents so easily, you are missing out on opportunities and costing yourself money by being lazy and not tailoring your resume for each opportunity you are interested in.

Here are several steps that you can do to improve your resume and get better results.

1. Each employer will be interested in different attributes of your experience. They often indicate it by the items they describe in their job ad. Emphasize the experiences that you have that relate to the skills being sought and the functions you will perform in the job they will ask you to perform. If you are applying for a staff position, emphasize your staff experience and minimize your management experience. If you are being hired to be a leader, write about your recent leadership.

2. Employers are more interested in recent work, rather than work you did many years ago. Use more space in your resume to highlight recent experience, rather than things you did before George W. Bush became President.

3. Like setting a goal where you make them specific, measurable, achievable within a specific period of time, describe your successes or achievements concretely. Reducing costs is a nice start but it is more powerful to describe something as reducing operational costs globally by 2%. Increased departmental sales by 27% resulting in… You get the idea. Use action verbs wherever possible

4. Ask someone you trust to critique what you’ve written. Too often, people believe that they can do everything by themselves without asking for help. Ask a friend in your industry to critique what you’ve written to insure you’re on target and aren’t missing the mark. You can also order a resume critique from me.

When you go to a restaurant and order a meal, you have the expectation that it will be prepared in a way that will please you and be presented on the plate beautifully. Writing a great resume requires that you be the chef and prepare a meal that is both visually appealing and tastes great too!

Tailoring Doesn’t Always Refer to Your Wardrobe

May 9, 2015 by Jeff

He has been a friend and client for many years, has heard me talk about it for at least a decade and still made the mistake that kills more resume submissions than anything else.

For my search firm readers, how often do you receive a resume that causes you to scratch your head and wonder what the person was thinking of who sent their resume? With me, it happens more than a hundred times a day.

Almost every resume I receive does not show the skills required to do the job even when I make it clear in my advertising to send their resume in Word ONLY IF YOU HAVE THE REQUIRED SKILLS.

And if you think I have time to call everyone and ask them about the experience they have that fits the position for which they forwarded their resume, you’re wrong. I don’t. If I called everyone who emailed, waited for them to get back and qualified them for the missing part of the fit, I would never have time to do the marketing that helps people land the jobs I get for them.

So here is the simple solution–stop flipping the same resume to job ads like they are burgers at a fast food restaurant. Tailor your resume to the position.

Pretend a six year old is going to read it. Would your son or daughter at that age be able to figure out that you are qualified to do the job?

Yes, that means you will have 50 or 100 versions of your resume and you will need to track which version you sent to whom.

So what.

A broken watch is right twice a day and a generic resume will get you some interviews.

You will get more and better interviews if you tailor your resume to the specific job description, rather than sending the same one over and over again.

What Employers Look for When They Read Your Resume

May 9, 2015 by Jeff

I think it is extremely simple to figure out how to construct a resume– find out what a company is looking for and tell them that you have done the exact same thing before.

As I tell people, “Pretend a hyperactive 6 year old is going to read your resume– make the fit obvious to them.”

But doing that seems to be too hard for most job hunter to do because they keep flipping the same resume over and over again to every job ad they see as though that will get them lots of interviews . . . which it won’t.

Why do I say that? Because the broken watch is right twice a day and sending the same resume to every job ad is like the broken watch–it will get you some results but you can do better.

How?

Firms only care about relevant work that you have done within the past few years that fits what they are looking for. Copy and paste the requirements of the job into the body of the resume where you have performed the task specified. Then, detail what you have done in that chronological section of your resume that explains the experience you have that relates to the specification even if you use the same or similar language to what is in the job description.

Next remove extraneous information that has no relevance to the position you want to interview for.

Doing this will make the employer feel confident that interviewing you will not be a waste of time.

Put a Resume on Your LinkedIn Profile Page

May 9, 2015 by Jeff

Most people think their LinkedIn profile is enough to be found online. I want you to take that tool a touch further by putting a PDF of your keyword rich profile as a resume there, too?

Why is that helpful?

Easy. It is downloadable.

It can be imported into an applicant tracking system so that you can be “found” again in the future whena new position materializes.

After all, the person who gets ahead isn’t always the smartest or work the hardest . . . although those are great qualities to have. people get ahead by remaining alert to opportunity whether they are internal or external to their firm.

Hence, placing a resume on your profile allows someone to easily import it into their data base for you to be found in the future, complete with phone number and email address.

To find a resume feature on LinkedIn, go to www.LinkedInLabs.com so that someone who is looking for someone with your experience can search for a particular skills and find you, download your resume and import it into their system.

Another thing that is worth doing is putting your resume on a web site or webpage so it can also be found by recruiters who search beyond job boards looking for free resumes

SnapPages.com offers a free site plus a free resume builder so that recruiters who use Google or one of the metasearch tools can find your resume and contact you.

And isn’t it important to put yourself in a position to be found?

Most people think their LinkedIn profile is enough to be found online. I want you to take that tool a touch further by putting a PDF of your keyword rich profile as a resume there, too?

Why is that helpful?

Easy. It is downloadable.

It can be imported into an applicant tracking system so that you can be “found” again in the future whena new position materializes.

Hence, placing a resume on your profile allows someone to easily import it into their data base for you to be found in the future, complete with phone number and email address.

Another thing that is worth doing is putting your resume on a web site or webpage so it can also be found by recruiters who search beyond job boards looking for free resumes

SnapPages.com offers a free site plus a free resume builder so that rexruiters who use Google or one of the metasearch tools can find your resume and contact you.

And isn’t it important to put yourself in a position to be found?