Be Your Own Headhunter

4 Simple Things That Hurt Your Resume

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

When we review people’s resumes, we often see a basic document with lackluster content and outdated formatting.  These are pretty common, but what we also see are resumes that contain some pretty fundamental mistakes.  Here are some examples of things to not do:

1.  Under the document properties section of your resume, make sure it shows you as the author of your documents.  Having someone else’s name there, particularly if the name is completely different from yours, can make employers wonder. At worst, it suggests that you borrowed (or copied) heavily from another person’s document.

2.  Include basic contact information.  It always surprises me to see a resume in which someone has not included a mailing address, as many employers do still mail rejection letters.  Also, the phone number you include on your resume ideally should be a line that only you can access.  The e-mail address you use should be a personal address, not your e-mail address at your current job. I would also encourage you to include your customized LinkedIn URL. It makes it easier for the employer to research you and you get to ensure they are finding the right “you” on LinkedIn.

Wordy Resume? Consider An Addendum

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

If you feel your resume is too lengthy, it probably is. These days, resumes longer than two pages with very little open space are likely to remain unread.

However, there are options to shorten your resume for marketability, and transfer your more detailed "nuts and bolts" information to a separate document. This is called an addendum and it is especially useful for IT and academic professionals who may have a lot of certifications, trainings, speaking engagements, or published work that should be highlighted, but will bog down a resume.

It is becoming increasingly popular to offer a shortened resume, or "executive summary", that highlights your best attributes, including hard skills (e.g. computer software knowledge) and soft skills (e.g. sales know-how). Then, you can use an addendum to present at an interview or send upon request. An addendum is an often bulleted listing of your detailed qualifications that serves to essentially back up your resume data.

For example, your resume may state, "Successfully presented Oracle training to five large-scale conference audiences." Then, your addendum would actually list those conferences with dates.

Why You Don't Stand Out From The Crowd - Here's A Tip, It's Your Resume

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Jessica Holbrook

Ultimately your goal is to create a resume that will garner the right attention and eventually the right job. Problem is – your resume is getting you absolutely no hits, zero feedback, and not so much as one call from a prospective employer. Sound familiar? Keep reading to figure out why.

– Your career summary is boring. It sounds like every other job seeker out there and is a large blanket paragraph that could describe half of the known workforce. Solution: Customize your career summary so that no one else could possibly use it for themselves.

Is Lack of Focus Dragging Your Resume Down?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Jessica Holbrook

How many of you can honestly say you know exactly what you want to be when you grow up? Maybe you already have it figured out, and maybe you are already living and working it. If you are, does your resume know that?

I work with clients every day and speak to hundreds of job seekers every week that have no idea what they want to do. I ask, “Well, what do you want to do?” Then I receive the blanket, “I just need to feed my family.” Or, “I just need a job—I don’t care what it is.” I understand the current market and economy. But folks, having no direction or focus for your career and job search are going to get you nowhere fast. When I look at your resume, I need to know in the first three seconds: who you are, what you do, and why you’re good at it.

What do recruiters want from a resume?

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Amit Puri is the Managing Consultant at Sandbox Advisors. He has over 10 years of business and HR related experience, with companies such as Bain & Co, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Sandbox Advisors is based in Singapore and provides career management and HR consulting services in Asia.

We asked a few recruiters what they like and what their pet peeves are, when it comes to resumes. Here’s what they had to say.