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Your #Career : Add This To Your Resume After Deleting Your “Objective” Statement…A “Performance Summary” Puts a Fresh (and Tech-Savvy) Spin on an Outmoded #Resume Feature.

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Since most resumes are written to cast a wide net, they basically just recite everything the writer has done, but this approach dilutes the all-important data density that makes your resume discoverable. In order for recruiters to find your resume in the vast databases they search through, you need to focus on a specific target job, then get the role’s relevant keywords front-and-center where ATS, or “applicant tracking systems,” will detect them.

And as it turns out, one of the best ways to do that is by resurrecting–but with a twist–the dusty old “objective” statement you’ve been told dozens of times to cut.

Related: How To Trick The Robots And Get Your Resume In Front Of Recruiters

WHY YOUR “OBJECTIVE” DOESN’T MATTER

No one reads resumes for fun–only when there’s a specific job to fill. That means recruiters and hiring managers are fixated on the skill requirements of the job openings they’re looking to fill. Consequently, a resume that starts with “Objective” and focuses on what you want out of your career as the opening paragraph does nothing to help you. After all, nobody really cares what you want at this point (save that for negotiating an offer), so putting that right up top wastes prime ad space.

Headlines of all kinds, including the one at the top of this article, act as signposts, telling the reader what’s ahead–and that holds true on your resume, too. So replace “Objective” with a more relevant and compelling heading: “Performance Summary” or “Career Summary” tends to work well. Right away it flags for the reader that you’re going to tell them what you can do or what you’ve already done, rather than what you want.

Under this heading, highlight your capabilities as they relate to the demands of the target job, using the words, phrases, and acronyms listed in job postings for the type of role you’re angling for. Make sure you include objective criteria for your customers’ needs, too. That helps your resume’s discoverability by ATS, and it grabs the reader’s attention.

Related: Try These Resume Templates For Every Stage Of Your Career

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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WHAT GOES INTO YOUR SUMMARY

To write a good performance summary, you need to get inside the heads of your prospective employers’ customers to discover what they collectively want. Yes–think past the hiring managers and recruiters for a second, and consider the organization’s end goals instead: the people it’s trying to serve.

I’ve laid out some tips for doing this in one of my books, but for present purposes, the gist is just to think about your own capabilities as they relate to customer needs. How can what you do directly help them? The answer to that is the basis of your performance summary.

Here’s an example:

Performance Summary: 9-plus years of marcomm experience in new technologies executing high-impact, cost-efficient, media outreach for brand awareness, b2b marketing, and business and public-policy audiences. Expert in crisis communication and corporate reputation maintenance. Bilingual.

  • Five years managing disbursed internal and external communications teams.
  • Adept at developing marcomm strategy with teams spread across all EMEA cultures.

Note those keywords that are likely to get swept up by an ATS: “marcomm” for “marketing communications,” “b2b” for “business-to-business,” “EMEA” for “Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.” And the bullets help you quickly break out a couple of key highlights.

Using employers’ language to describe your capabilities, wherever you can, creates a tightly focused document that establishes a clear match between your skills and employer needs. That, after all, is your resume’s real objective.

Martin Yate is the author of  Knock ’em Dead: The Ultimate Job Search Guide.

Three Ways To Highlight Your Career Successes On Your Resume.

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It’s amazing how often someone I’m working with will begin lamenting their lack of career success. And almost every time, during the course of our chatting and doing a “deep dive” into this person’s work history, I’ll come away dumbfounded at how wrong they are.

It’s not that you don’t have enough successes; it’s that you’re taking most of them for granted! Correcting this is essential if your resume is going to stand out. Here are three ways to get there:

1. FROM THE OUTSIDE IN

Let’s say you have a shortlist going of roles you’d be perfect for. Take a close look at the major things they’re asking for and ask yourself: What projects have I worked on that touch on this? Let’s take the following job posting excerpt for a Director of Change Management position:

Liaised with Organizational Effectiveness Leader on global HR change strategies and initiatives.

You can use this for fodder for a great accomplishment such as:

Played integral role in the development and launch of “ONECompany” initiative transforming a regional, U.S.-based HR function into a global one. Defined HR change strategies in close partnership with Organizational Effectiveness Leader, and worked heavily with counterparts in Asia and UK to achieve critical roll-out milestones.

Related: Here’s How To Write The Best Resume For Your Industry

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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2. FROM THE INSIDE OUT

What drives you? Is it the challenge and exhilaration of turning a cutting-edge technology into a launched product? Is it solving internal conflicts and getting teams playing on the same page? Is it leveraging analytics to improve the user experience? Jot down three to five of your key driving motivators. Now use them as fodder for resume accomplishments.

Here’s an example of a resume accomplishment inspired by a driving motivator:

Revitalized vendor and partner relationships through deploying a value-driven sales and marketing strategy emphasizing long-term relationships versus “quick wins.”

Related:Try These Resume Template For Every Stage Of Your Career

3. PROGRESSIVE GRANULARITY

Be on the lookout for opportunities to either elaborate upon, or else split up, major successes into a series of accomplishments. I call this “progressive granularity” because you’re finding new material through getting more detailed about the work.

Here are three “before” examples:

  • I turned the underperforming New Mexico region into one of the biggest U.S. sales growth drivers for the company.
  • I generated over $26 million in annual, recurring revenue through closing deals with major healthcare and security companies.
  • I cut the formerly eight-day month-end closing process for product allocations down to two.

And now here are three “after” examples that demonstrate progressive granularity in action:

Transformed New Mexico region into a top-three U.S. sales growth driver through:

  • Building three high-performance sales teams from the ground up and introducing customized strategies across Home Health, Hospice and TeleHealth product lines.
  • Reinventing the product demonstration process for greater impact and a shorter sales cycle.
  • Identifying and differentiating high-value (or Tier 1) business opportunities from lower-value (Tier 2 and lower) opportunities, and efficiently allocating company resources accordingly.
  • Secured over $26 million in annual, recurring revenue through closing deals with Company X, Company Y, and Company Z, with the latter a multi-year exclusive.
  • Leveraged deep understanding of the Healthcare and Security sectors to achieve buy-in at the highest levels.
  • Cut eight-day month-end close process for product allocations down to two through building a comprehensive suite of standardized processes and tools, garnering buy-in from department heads, and training staff in adoption.

FastCompany.com | January 12, 2018 | BY ANISH MAJUMDAR—GLASSDOOR 2 MINUTE READ

#BestofFSCBlog : These Methods Will Finally Help You Organize Your Job Search Better.

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When you’re actively looking for a new job, you can’t afford to wing it on the organizational front. Whether you apply for five jobs or 100, you’ll soon find yourself buried in an extraordinary number of resumes, cover letters, job descriptions, and interview invitations. If you don’t keep them carefully organized, you may not identify the right opportunity–or worse, you’ll flounder when the right opportunity comes along.

If you want to stay on top of all of the applications, LinkedIn requests, and other digital paraphernalia that go along with your job search, it’s time to break up with your bad organization habits. Here are seven techniques that will help you overcome the most common job hunt organization issues so that you know the where, what, who, and how for your next interview:

1. IF YOU AREN’T GOOD AT ORGANIZING . . . FIGURE OUT WHY

Organizational skills aren’t one-size-fits-all. There are just as many ways to be disorganized as there are to be organized. Instead of haphazardly applying “organization tactics” to your job search, try to identify specific ways that you tend to be disorganized and troubleshoot those issues directly.

For example, do you tend to lose hard copies? Digital apps will be where it’s at for you. But if you forget anything that isn’t written with pen and paper, a paper calendar or sticky note wall will be a better solution. And if you aren’t sure how you like to stay organized, try something new. If you’re usually an Apple Calendar kind of person, start using a paper planner, or vice versa.

2. IF YOU HAVE A HARD TIME FOLLOWING UP . . . USE A SPREADSHEET

When your job search is in full swing, it’s way too easy to send an email and forget it. Not only can this cost you when you aren’t following up at appropriate intervals, but it can also make you feel like you’re constantly treading water without getting anywhere. Your job hunt becomes an overwhelming, never-ending headache instead of a systematic, purposeful journey.

Combat this by starting a detailed spreadsheet that tracks all the pertinent details of your job search, such as the company, job listing, and contact details. As you move through the job hunt process (and the interview process), highlight the steps you’ve “completed” so you can show yourself just how much work you’ve done along the way.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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3. IF YOU NEED REMINDERS . . . GO HIGH TECH

There’s nothing wrong with manual spreadsheets that lists all of the job search details you need to know if it’s working for you. But if it’s not working for you– if you frequently forget to update the spreadsheet, and you’re never quite sure about what your next step should be–you need to take your job search into the 21st century with a free online project management tool like Trello or Wrike.

Using a project management tool as a job seeker allows you to organize all of the job search details and automate when and to whom you should send a follow-up note. You can also adjust your settings to automatically receive reminders when it’s time to update the individual jobs or check in on the progress of the hiring manager.

4. IF YOU’RE A VISUAL PERSON . . . TRY STICKY NOTES

The sticky note wall is a tried-and-true organizational method that works for writing a book, setting goals, and yes, getting a new job. First, pick a large wall you can divide into three or four columns. At the top of each column, mark out a different stage of the job process or your job search to-do list (e.g., “Draft Resume,” “Apply,” “Interview”). Then, write each job on a sticky note and set it in its appropriate column. As you work through your job hunt and make progress, move the sticky note to the next step.

Not only can it be very motivating to see your progress in such a visual way, but it is easy to get a quick snapshot of where you are in the process by simply glancing at your sticky note wall. Pro tip: You can also use the “Sticky Notes App” on your phone or computer if a digital version of the sticky notes would save you the wall space.

Related: Job Searching? Skip The Job Boards And Take These Five Steps Instead

5. IF YOU FORGET THE DETAILS . . . KEEP THOROUGH NOTES

If you’re speaking to one or two prospective employers each week, it can be tough to remember who’s who and what you talked about. If you don’t take careful notes, you may unwittingly repeat yourself or send a thank-you note to the wrong person and reference the wrong conversation. Talk about awkward!

If that sounds like something that could happen to you, use a free tool like Microsoft OneNote or Evernote to keep track of the meetings you have. For extra memory help, pull the LinkedIn photo of the person you’re speaking with into the note sheet and capture notes like the person’s company, job title, and location. Not only can you look at a picture of a real person when you’re in the midst of a phone screen interview, but you can also easily go back and remember who you spoke with when you’re considering job offers or writing thank-you notes.

6. IF YOU’RE LOSING MOTIVATION . . . MAKE A LIST OF REASONS YOU’RE SEARCHING

If you find yourself putting off your job search or simply not looking forward to any part of the process, you’re letting the discomfort of a job hunt distract you from the reason you’re looking for a new job. Get back in the right headspace by bringing the focus back to what motivates you.

Make a list of the reasons you’re looking for a new job–toxic workplace, skipped over for a promotion, low salary, etc.–and keep it in a prominent place. Not only will this motivate you to stick to your plan and find a new job, but it will also prepare you for the interviews ahead by keeping your deeper purpose of your job search front and center.

7. IF YOU’RE FEELING BURNED OUT . . . SCHEDULE SOME DOWNTIME

Little tasks can pile up, especially if you’re managing a full-time job during your job search. Instead of spending a whole day on your job hunt once a month and getting frustrated with your lack of progress, set short but regular periods of time to check in and make consistent progress. A half-hour two or three times a week will ensure that you’re responding to hiring managers at appropriate intervals and staying on top of new opportunities as they come out.

Related:This Is What It’s Like To Search For A Job As A Black Woman

A job search is a job of its own: You’re practicing time management, patience, and even customer service as you balance your search with your current job. But you don’t have to let the complexity of all the resumes, cover letters, applications, and interviews throw you off. Just find an organizational method that works for you so that the energy you put into the job search pays off with a new job–not a new headache!

 

FastCompany.com | January 10, 2018 | BY SARAH GREESONBACH—GLASSDOOR 6 MINUTE READ

 

Your #Career : Exactly How To Decide Which Skills To Put On Your #Resume …Don’t just List every Software Program you’ve Ever worked With. Take these Four Steps instead.

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You know what your goal is when you’re writing your resume: You’ve got to capture recruiters’ and hiring managers’ interest in a way that separates you from everyone else in the stack.

But while you’re hopefully savvy enough to avoid listing “Microsoft Office” in your skills section, you may be missing your chance to show off what you’re really skilled at–by bragging about skills that aren’t as valuable as you might think. Here’s why, and how to fix it.

Related: How To Trick The Robots And Get Your Resume In Front Of Recruiters

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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Our national obsession with STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) skews job seekers’ thinking about what counts as a resume-worthy skill. Even for semi-technical and non-technical roles, many proudly tout the programming languages they know, their experience with design programs, and their work with particular databases. They hope the accretion of these skills makes them seem like modern “digital natives” (a term often burdened with ageist assumptions) worthy of landing an interview.

It’s no doubt that technical skills are crucial for jobs across many industries. Indeed, some reckon that even tech candidates tend to lack the hard skills employers require; if your coding job requires a lot of Java-based programming, you’d better know your Java. But a lot of what separates the good employees from the great is not their technical expertise–it’s their ability to work together with their colleagues. People skills, also known as “soft skills,” matter a lot. So one of your main goals in writing your resume should be to show off how great your people skills are.

Consider the familiar rap against liberal arts majors. How many college students majoring in history, philosophy, or literature get harangued at family gatherings by well-meaning relatives who think they’re pursuing a worthless degree? Because who needs a historian, philosopher, or literary critic at a business meeting? Actually, lots of companies do.

I run a program at the University of Texas called the Human Dimensions of Organizations. At the undergraduate level, we work with students to understand the soft skills underlying courses in the liberal arts. A class about the history of the Camp David Accords also teaches strategies for mediating disputes. A course exploring the philosophy of belief also teaches about the ways people’s knowledge can be affected by arguments. A semester exploring 19th-century English literature creates opportunities for empathy and for recognizing the roots of modern industrial practice.

The point here isn’t to argue for the value of a humanities education. It’s that every job seeker needs human-based skills to land a job offer. People’s collected workplace (and classroom) experience leads them to develop skills beyond the technical abilities mentioned in a job listing’s “requirements” section. Which means your resume needs to demonstrate that you’ve done exactly that.

Related: These Are The Skills You Should Exclude From Your Resume

SO WHAT ARE MY SKILLS, EXACTLY?

Figuring out which of those skills you should highlight comes down to these four steps:

  1. Identify one or two of the biggest projects you’ve worked on since taking your current job.
  2. Reflect on the biggest challenges to success in those projects.
  3. Ask yourself what you had to do (get specific–which specific steps did you have to take?) to overcome those obstacles. Those skills are the ones that you need to highlight on your resume. Some of them may be interpersonal, and others might be more technical, but chances are, none of them are “Excel.”
  4. Find the clearest, most concise way to describe those skills in terms that show off your abilities with regard to what the job listing calls for.

For instance: Did the team disagree about how to pursue a project? Did you play a role in helping your coworkers arrive at a common vision? If so, you’ve developed skills in mediating disputes and building a collaborative environment. Or did you have to take a poorly defined problem and turn it into a series of discrete challenges that you could tackle with individual projects? If so, you’ve honed your skills in project design and implementation, not to mention your team communication skills.

One benefit to going through this process is that it helps you understand your skills in practice. They won’t be these diffuse, abstract things you’ll struggle to talk about on job interviews. Instead, you’ll be able to discuss exactly what role you took in the project that inspired that line on your resume–and why, thanks to your amazing skill set, you’ll be able to meet similar challenges on your new team.

A final word of warning, though: Don’t oversell your abilities. If you’re generally not that good at resolving disputes, don’t put yourself in a position where you  may be forced to do that on a regular basis. Yes, highlighting your soft skills is key to actually getting noticed. But you (and the people you work with) won’t be happy in a position that doesn’t match what you’re actually best at.

FastCompany.com | January 4, 2018 | BY ART MARKMAN  4 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : 5 Components of an Attention-Grabbing Resume…You Only Get a Few Seconds for your Resume to Make the Cut, but That’s All you Need When you Know What Hiring Managers are Looking For.

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A resume is one of the most important documents you attach your name to. The content on these few pages can drastically change your life, presenting you with new opportunities or taking you down a new career path altogether.

ResumeInHole

With 2017 right around the corner, many “career change” New Year’s resolutions will be made. If you are seeking new opportunities or testing the job market, make sure your resume isn’t missing any of these components.

1. Flowing story.

Your resume tells your story, so make sure it is easily understood and has a great flow to it. Hiring managers have hundreds and sometimes several thousand resumes to scan, so if they are confused at any point while reading yours, it will quickly end up in the trash.

Your story should be very clear. The person reading your resume should be able to quickly understand who you are, what you currently do, what you have done in the past, when and where you have done it and how good you were at doing it.

If you need guidance, consider using a free resume builder to help tell your story using a pre-made template.

Related: Here’s How to Determine If College Is Worth the Cost

 

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2. Strong top-third.

The top third of your resume needs to quickly grab the attention of its reader enough that you get placed in the “review for consideration” pile. It’s important that you sell yourself strongly in the beginning, as nobody is going to read every word of your resume on the first round.

The average resume receives only six seconds of review time, so take that into consideration when you are putting it together. Determine how much of your resume can be read in six seconds, and make sure you are building a strong argument for yourself in that small window of time.

3. Formatted for easy reading and skimming.

Your resume will receive more attention if it’s broken down into bite size bullets and sections, rather than long drawn-out paragraphs of information. If you have a lot to say, that’s fine, just break it up into an easy to digest format.

Nobody wants to sit there and read massive blocks of text. Highlight your key points through creative formatting that allows a reader to skim through it and still retain the important parts. Nobody has time to read a resume top to bottom — use formatting to your advantage — selling yourself without writing a novel.

Related: What New York City’s New Freelancer Law Means for All Small Businesses

4. Use descriptive keywords especially in the beginning.

Regardless if an actual human or software is reading your resume, the right keywords will make yours stand out. Many human resource departments use an applicant tracking system, or ATS, which allows them to filter applications based on keywords, skills, former employers, length of experience and education. Using descriptive keywords in the beginning of your resume will help you get the attention of this software, or catch the eye of a human, if the company has someone manually scanning applicants.

Related: Making Tons of Money Means Nothing If You Don’t Have a Passion for Your Startup

5. Be specific when describing your success.

Saying you were “good” at something isn’t enough — you need to be specific. Why were you good at something? What did you specifically accomplish? Include measurable success to back up your claim of being good.

What is going to draw more attention?

  • Increased sales and production while managing a large sales team.
  • Increased sales by 218 percent while managing a team of 32 in-house sales representatives.

“Providing specific examples to what you have accomplished makes your resume much stronger and adds the supporting evidence that employers want to see,” advises Hannon Legal Group founder, James Hannon. Don’t be afraid to include impressive accomplishments — these are your selling points, so don’t think of this as boasting and bragging.

Entrepreneur.com | December 15, 2016 | Jonathan Long 

Your #Career : Should You Apply For Your Dream Job If You’re Not Qualified?…Recruiters Weigh in with some Surprising Advice on the Importance of Being Qualified to Get the Job you Want.

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 There it is: your dream job. There’s just one problem. You don’t meet all the qualifications.

If your résumé is hard to read, no one will.

It’s a conundrum. Should you channel your inner life coach and go for it? Or should you follow the rules and wait until you have the right experience or credentials? If you sit it out, you may miss a great opportunity. On the other hand, you don’t want to waste your time or, worse, alienate hiring managers by wasting theirs.

It’s a tough question, but you should almost always err on the side of “go for it,” says career expert Cynthia Shapiro author of What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here? 44 Insider Secrets That Will Get You Hired. After all, everyone has to take a job that stretches skills if they want to move ahead. Before you do, these career coaches and recruiters recommend asking yourself these six questions.

AM I 51% QUALIFIED?

Shapiro’s rule of thumb is that you should meet 51% of the listed qualifications. That’s an arbitrary estimate, but her point is that a job listing is like a house-hunter’s wish list: You ask for everything you want and understand that you’ll likely have to compromise.

“What they’re really looking for is an intangible that they can’t put in a job posting. If you’ve got 51% of what they’re looking for, you should proudly send your resume in,” she says.

 

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AM I MISSING REQUIREMENTS THAT ARE NECESSARY TO DO THE JOB?

Obviously, if you lack a specific degree, license, or specialized training necessary or legally required to do the job, you need to earn that before you apply. But what if you’re lacking the years of experience or some other less objective credential? Still go for it, says Maddie Stough, HR recruiting practice team leader at LaSalle Network.

For example, if the job description requires five to seven years of experience, she says, “You should be looking at it if you have three to 10 years of experience.” Use your resume and cover letter to highlight the responsibilities held and achievements within your job that align with what your stretch job will require.

CAN I EXPLAIN MY JOB PROGRESSION?

A spotty background with a year here and two years there is usually only problematic if it’s not strategic, says James Philip, managing director of executive search firm JMJ Phillip. You should be able to show that you didn’t just change jobs for the next title bump or pay bump, but that you were strategically increasing your experience and developing your skills, Phillip says.

“If they’ve just jumped jobs, there’s going to come a time when they haven’t really honed in on a craft,” he says. Be sure to highlight the career-focused reasons for making the moves you did.

IS MY RESUME A STRETCH?

First, make sure that you’re not stretching the truth on your resume to get your stretch job, Shapiro says. It’s very easy to find out if you actually held a title or hold the degree you have, and employers are increasingly likely to check references or even conduct a background check. So don’t include anything that isn’t true. But you can also show your best side without being deceitful.

When you’re writing your resume and cover letter, think of them as marketing tools, Shapiro says. Companies can usually teach job skills. Many are looking for intangible qualities like emotional intelligence, which is considered to be one of the fastest growing job skills. They also look for enthusiasm, corporate fit, attitude, and approach, which often can’t be taught, she says. Use your documents to convey how you approach challenges, look for ways to improve situations, and achieve success, she says.

HOW BIG IS THE COMPANY?

Phillips says it’s usually easier to stretch into a smaller company than a larger one. Big companies may have preliminary screening that matches resumes with job qualifications. If you’re in the applicant “slush pile,” you could be taken out of the running before you have a chance to shine in person. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to land that big-company job, he says. However, smaller firms may be more willing to take a chance on someone who is a little inexperienced.

DO I HAVE A CHAMPION?

A champion can change the equation, Stough says. If you have a contact, friend, or colleague who is giving you a warm introduction or recommendation for a stretch job, you’ve got a real advantage, she says. So before you apply, scour your network and LinkedIn contacts to see if you know someone (or know someone who knows someone, an otherwise “weak” connection) who can put your resume in play with a “thumbs up,” she says. That can go a long way toward getting you in front of hiring managers so you can sell yourself.

 

FastCompany.com | GWEN MORAN |  11.23.16 5:00 AM

#BestofFSCBlog : 34 Things you Should Remove from your Résumé Immediately. A MUst Read!

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If you want to pass that test, you need to have some solid qualifications — and the perfect résumé to highlight them.

0218_land-interview-resume_650x4551-300x210 (1)

Here are 34 things you should strike from your résumé right now.

1. An objective

If you applied, it’s already obvious you want the job.

The exception: If you’re in a unique situation, such as changing industries completely, it may be useful to include a brief summary.

2. Irrelevant work experiences

Yes, you might have been the “king of making milkshakes” at the restaurant you worked for in high school. But unless you are planning on redeeming that title, it is time to get rid of all that clutter.

But as Alyssa Gelbard, career expert and founder of career-consulting firm Résumé Strategists, points out: Past work experience that might not appear to be directly relevant to the job at hand might show another dimension, depth, ability, or skill that actually is relevant or applicable.

Only include this experience if it really showcases additional skills that can translate to the position you’re applying for.

3. Personal details

Don’t include your marital status, religious preference, or Social Security number.

This might have been the standard in the past, but all of this information could lead to discrimination, which is illegal, so there’s no need to include it.

 

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4. Your full mailing address

A full street address is the first thing Amanda Augustine, a career-advice expert for TopResume, looks for to immediately cut from a résumé.

“Nobody needs to have that on their résumé anymore, and, to be quite honest, it’s a security concern,” she tells Business Insider.

5. More than one phone number

Augustine suggests only including one phone number on your résumé, and that number should really be your cell phone, so you can control who answers your incoming phone calls, when, and what the voicemail sounds like.

“Also, you don’t want employers trying to contact you in five different places, because then you have to keep track of that,” she says.

6. Your hobbies

In many cases, nobody cares.

If it’s not relevant to the job you’re applying for, it’s a waste of space and a waste of the company’s time.

Free- Man on Skateboard with Sign on Ground

7. Blatant lies

A CareerBuilder survey asked 2,000 hiring managers for memorable résumé mistakes, and blatant lies were a popular choice. One candidate claimed to be the former CEO of the company to which he was applying, another claimed to be a Nobel Prize winner, and one more claimed he attended a college that didn’t exist.

Rosemary Haefner, chief human-resources officer at CareerBuilder, says these lies may be “misguided attempts to compensate for lacking 10o% of the qualifications specified in the job posting.”

But Haefner says candidates should concentrate on the skills they can offer, rather than the skills they can’t offer.

“Hiring managers are more forgiving than job seekers may think,” Haefner explains. “About 42% of employers surveyed said they would consider a candidate who met only three out of five key qualifications for a specific role.”

8. Too much text

When you use a 0.5-inch margin and eight-point font in an effort to get everything to fit on one page, this is an “epic fail,” says J.T. O’Donnell, a career and workplace expert, founder of career-advice site Careerealism.com, and author of “Careerealism: The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career.”

She recommends lots of white space and no more than a 0.8 margin.

Augustine agrees, warning particularly against dense blocks of text.

“Let’s be honest: You’re looking this over quickly, you’re glancing through it, your eyes glaze over when you get to a big, long paragraph,” she says.

9. Too many bullets

In the same vein, you can also overload your résumé with too many bullet points, which Augustine calls “death by bullets.”

“If absolutely everything is bulleted, it has the same effect as big dense blocks of text — your eyes just glaze over it,” she says.

Augustine explains that bullets are only to be used to draw attention to the most important information. “If you bullet everything, everything is important, which means really nothing stands out,” she says.

Free- Time Mans Watch

10. Time off

If you took time off to travel or raise a family, Gelbard doesn’t recommend including that information on your résumé. “In some countries, it is acceptable to include this information, especially travel, but it is not appropriate to include that in the body of a résumé in the US.”

11. Details that give away your age

If you don’t want to be discriminated against for a position because of your age, it’s time to remove your graduation date, says Catherine Jewell, author of “New Résumé, New Career.”

Another surprising way your résumé could give away your age: double spaces after a period.

12. References

If your employers want to speak to your references, they’ll ask you. Also, it’s better if you have a chance to tell your references ahead of time that a future employer might be calling.

If you write “references upon request” at the bottom of your résumé, you’re merely wasting a valuable line, career coach Eli Amdur says.

13. Inconsistent formatting

The format of your résumé is just as important as its content, Augustine says.

She says the best format is the format that will make it easiest for the hiring manager to scan your résumé and still be able to pick out your key qualifications and career goals.

Once you pick a format, stick with it. If you write the day, month, and year for one date, then use that same format throughout the rest of the résumé.

14. Personal pronouns

Your résumé shouldn’t include the words “I,” “me,” “she,” or “my,” says Tina Nicolai, executive career coach and founder of Resume Writers’ Ink.

“Don’t write your résumé in the third or first person. It’s understood that everything on your résumé is about you and your experiences.”

15. Present tense for a past job

Never describe past work experience using the present tense. Only your current job should be written in the present tense, Gelbard says.

16. A less-than-professional email address

If you still use an old email address, like BeerLover123@gmail.com or CuteChick4life@yahoo.com, it’s time to pick a new one.

It only takes a minute or two, and it’s free.

17. Any unnecessary, obvious words

Amdur says there is no reason to put the word “phone” in front of the actual number.

“It’s pretty silly. They know it’s your phone number.” The same rule applies to email.

18. Your current business-contact info

Amdur writes at NorthJersey.com:

This is not only dangerous; it’s stupid. Do you really want employers calling you at work? How are you going to handle that? Oh, and by the way, your current employer can monitor your emails and phone calls. So if you’re not in the mood to get fired, or potentially charged with theft of services (really), then leave the business info off.

19. Headers, footers, tables, images, or charts

These fancy embeddings will have hiring managers thinking, “Could you not?”

While a well-formatted header and footer may look professional, and some cool tables, images, or charts may boost your credibility, they also confuse the applicant-tracking systems that companies use nowadays, Augustine tells Business Insider.

The system will react by scrambling up your résumé and spitting out a poorly formatted one that may no longer include your header or charts. Even if you were an ideal candidate for the position, now the hiring manager has no way to contact you for an interview.

Free- Business Desk

20. Your boss’ name

Don’t include your boss’ name on your résumé unless you’re OK with your potential employer contacting him or her. Even then, Gelbard says the only reason your boss’ name should be on your résumé is if the person is someone noteworthy, and if it would be really impressive.

21. Company-specific jargon

“Companies often have their own internal names for things like customized software, technologies, and processes that are only known within that organization and not by those who work outside of it,” Gelbard says. “Be sure to exclude terms on your résumé that are known only to one specific organization.”

22. Social-media URLs that are not related to the targeted position

Links to your opinionated blogs, Pinterest page, or Instagram account have no business taking up prime résumé real estate. “Candidates who tend to think their personal social media sites are valuable are putting themselves at risk of landing in the ‘no’ pile,” Nicolai says.

“But you should list relevant URLs, such as your LinkedIn page or any others that are professional and directly related to the position you are trying to acquire,” she says.

23. More than 15 years of experience

When you start including jobs from before 2000, you start to lose the hiring manager’s interest.

Your most relevant experience should be from the past 15 years, so hiring managers only need to see that, Augustine says.

On the same note, never include dates on education and certifications that are older than 15 years.

24. Salary information

“Some people include past hourly rates for jobs they held in college,” Nicolai says. This information is completely unnecessary and may send the wrong message.

Amy Hoover, president of Talent Zoo, says you also shouldn’t address your desired salary in a résumé. “This document is intended to showcase your professional experience and skills. Salary comes later in the interview process.”

25. Outdated fonts

“Don’t use Times New Roman and serif fonts, as they’re outdated and old-fashioned,” Hoover says. “Use a standard, sans-serif font like Arial.”

Also, be aware of the font size, she says. Your goal should be to make it look nice and sleek — but also easy to read.

26. Fancy fonts

Curly tailed fonts are also a turn-off, according to O’Donnell. “People try to make their résumé look classier with a fancy font, but studies show they are harder to read and the recruiter absorbs less about you.”

27. Annoying buzzwords

CareerBuilder asked 2,201 US hiring managers: “What résumé terms are the biggest turnoffs?” They cited words and phrases such as, “best of breed,” “go-getter,” “think outside the box,” “synergy,” and “people pleaser.”

Terms employers do like to see on résumés include: “achieved,” “managed,” “resolved,” and “launched” — but only if they’re used in moderation.

Close-up of businessman preparing bomb in office

28. Reasons you left a company or position

Candidates often think, “If I explain why I left the position on my résumé, maybe my chances will improve.”

“Wrong,” Nicolai says. “Listing why you left is irrelevant on your résumé. It’s not the time or place to bring up transitions from one company to the next.”

Use your interview to address this.

29. Your GPA

Once you’re out of school, your grades aren’t so relevant.

If you’re a new college graduate and your GPA was a 3.8 or higher — it’s OK to leave it. But, if you’re more than three years out of school, or if your GPA was lower than a 3.8, ditch it.

30. A photo of yourself

This may become the norm at some point in the future, but it’s just weird — and tacky and distracting — to include a photo with your résumé for now.

31. An explanation of why you want the job

That’s what the cover letter and interviews are for!

Your résumé is not the place to start explaining why you’d be a great fit or why you want the job. Your skills and qualifications should be able to do that for you — and if they don’t, then your résumé is either in bad shape, or this isn’t the right job for you.

32. Opinions, not facts

Don’t try to sell yourself by using all sorts of subjective words to describe yourself, O’Donnell says. “I’m an excellent communicator” or “highly organized and motivated” are opinions of yourself and not necessarily the truth. “Recruiters want facts only. They’ll decide if you are those things after they meet you,” she says.

33. Generic explanations of accomplishments

Don’t just say you accomplished X, Y, or Z — show it by quantifying the facts.

For instance, instead of, “Grew revenues” try, “X project resulted in an Y% increase in revenues.”

34. Short-term employment

Avoid including a job on your résumé if you only held the position for a short period of time, Gelbard says. You should especially avoid including jobs you were let go from or didn’t like.

Vivian Giang and Natalie Walters contributed to earlier versions of this article.

Businessinsider.com | November 21, 2016 | Jacquelyn Smith and Rachel Gillett

 

Your #Career : 13 Verbs Employers and Recruiters want to See on your CV/Resume…Survey of 150 Employers to Find Out What they Want to See on Your Resume – and Here is the Consensus.

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CV writing: it’s a deeply awkward process – from working out which tense to write in (hint: do past tense) to deciding whether to list your love of paragliding among your hobbies.

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But now CV writing service StandoutCV has surveyed 150 employers to find out what they want to see on your resume – and the consensus seems to be that those who can manage, deliver, improve and reduce (very Austerity Britain) are more employable.

In fact, the word “managed” came out on top, with 92 per cent of employers saying they wanted someone who can take responsibility. Meanwhile, 65 per cent of employers said they’d like someone who can negotiate.

1. Managed

Shows recruiters you have control over your responsibilities and are able to drive results

2. Delivered

Shows the end product of your work by explaining what you have delivered

 

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3. Improved

If you’re an employee who can be brought on board to drive positive change within an organisation, you will be invaluable

4. Reduced

Reducing company spending or resource use in particular is hugely beneficial

5. Planned

Planning is the backbone of success

6. Supported

Showing that you can support others is another way of proving that you can be relied upon

7. Influenced

The ability to influence others is a necessary talent for getting things done in any industry

8. Trained

Shows you have of expertise in your field along with the gravitas and communication skills to deliver training sessions

9. Resolved

Businesses face problems every day: if you can prove your ability to resolve issues, you will impress recruiters

10. Presented

Public speaking of any kind can be a daunting task but it’s a hugely valuable skill for any employee to have

11. Analysed

Data is a vital currency in any organisation, but it’s worthless without staff who can analyse it and understand its implications

12. Developed

Development drives progress and advancements across all aspects of life

13. Negotiated

People often assume that negotiation is purely a tool for sales staff; but actually, it can be applied to many areas of business.

Read the original article on City AM. Copyright 2016.

Businessinsider.com | October 27, 2016 | Emma Haslett, City AM

Your #Career : 9 Mistakes that Will get your Résumé Thrown in the Trash…Having a Résumé riddled with Errors is like Shooting Yourself in the Foot before the Race even Starts. There are Minor Problems that Hiring Managers Might Overlook or Forgive.

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And then there are the mistakes that’ll get your application thrown out faster than you can say, “It was a mistake to put my CV in Comic Sans font.”

ResumeInHole

Here are several devastating résumé errors that’ll get you immediately tossed into the rejection pile:

Vivian Giang contributed to an earlier version of this article.

Distracting typos and grammatical errors

An abundance typos and grammatical errors tell the hiring manager one thing — you didn’t care enough to take two seconds to double check your résumé. So why should they take the time to read it?

Lies

Don’t lie on your résumé. You’ll get caught — immediately or eventually — and it’ll be super awkward for everyone involved. If you’re really concerned that you have no experience relative to the role, it’s better to just be honest and hope for the best.

Salary information

“Some people include past hourly rates for jobs they held in college,” Nicolai says. This information is completely unnecessary and may send the wrong message.

Amy Hoover, president of Talent Zoo, says you also shouldn’t address your desired salary in a résumé. “This document is intended to showcase your professional experience and skills. Salary comes later in the interview process.”

Ridiculous fonts

Don’t get fancy with your font choices.

Curly-tailed fonts are also a turn off according to J.T. O’Donnell, a career and workplace expert, founder of career-advice site WorkItDaily.com, and author of “Careerealism: The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career “People try to make their résumé look classier with a fancy font, but studies show they are harder to read and the recruiter absorbs less about you.”

Less is more when it comes to the font you use on your résumé.

No mention of required skills or experience

This one’s pretty basic, but if you don’t meet any of the minimum qualifications, your résumé’s probably going to get tossed (especially for management-level positions). Hiring managers don’t have all day to pore over CVs that don’t meet their criteria.

You don’t even have to be unqualified! Your résumé might just be so bad it fails highlight any of your actual strengths and experiences, leaving the hiring manager feeling like you’re not a good fit.

 

Telling the hiring manager what you can’t do

In Business Insider’s previous roundup of disastrous résumés, one applicant revealed that they didn’t want to deal with angry customers in the future.

The résumé is only the beginning of the application process. Don’t start off with such a negative tone.

Nonsensical formatting

There’s no reason to get creative with your formatting (unless you’re in a design-based industry and you really know what you’re doing). Everyone else, use a standard template. Anything too complicated will just annoy the reader.

Complete lack of relevant experience

How does that waiting job you had in high school apply to the financial internship you’re applying for?

Clogging up your résumé with useless tidbits is a surefire way of landing in the “no” pile.

 

Businessinsider.com | September 2, 2016 | Jacquelyn Smith, Rachel Gillett and Áine Cain

Your #Career : 10 Quick Changes That Help Your Resume Get Noticed…If the Applicant Does Not Obey the Rules, the Resume or Application Goes into the Proverbial Black Hole and Never Reaches its Intended Destination.

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The adage “What you don’t know won’t hurt you” is very misleading, especially for people in transition or otherwise contemplating a career change. Not only is the contention untrue, but also it in fact hinders the ability to get what you want. Furthermore, it conveys a false sense of positive feeling. For example, those in transition are advised to customize their resumes to the job openings they’re applying to.

ResumeInHole

Sounds logical, but it’s a laborious process that can take hours of close work, even though, at the end of the process, clicking on Submit or Apply gives a sense of satisfaction. But it’s a false satisfaction because nowadays, most if not all such submissions are going through electronic software called an applicant-tracking system, or ATS, which has its own rules.

If the applicant does not obey the rules, the resume or application goes into the proverbial black hole and never reaches its intended destination. That’s where the hurt comes in, because the applicant will never learn why it happened or how to correct the process for next time.

 

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So, what to do?

 

Here are several suggestions. They apply only to electronic job applications, which means you should have two versions of the resume: one for ATS software so that it will reach a recruiter and another one for a human.

  1. Submit your resume in Microsoft Word format.
  2. Do not include tables in formatting the text.
  3. Be aware that there are many ATS providers, including archaic and new versions. As a candidate, you have no way of knowing which one your resume will have to deal with, and pdf files or files formatted in other ways might not be able to get read into every type of ATS software.
  4. Don’t format your resume by way of the use of a resume template.
  5. Use the standard, customary section headers for sections and put them on separate lines.
  6. Type those section headers in all capital letters, such as “Professional Experience,” but do not type anything else in all caps. Of course use a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, for the words in course titles and for all proper nouns.
  7. Be consistent when listing your previous companies and titles — whichever you want to list first for emphasis.
  8. List a company name with its appropriate suffix such as Inc. or LLC. Otherwise, the company name could be mistaken for a different company.
  9. Separate each resume section by a blank line, but never add a blank line within a paragraph.

Do not number the pages because computers see all information as continuous. Your page number would wind up appearing at random somewhere in the middle of the document.

As you can see, the foregoing steps may appear as details, but as another adage goes, “The devil is in the details;” and that notion could be both crucial and decisive for your future career.

 

Entrepreneur.com | August 27, 2016 | Alex Freund