BlogHer - Even the Smartest People Can Have Rotten Resumes: How to avoid looking bad on paper - Comments

Resume "Magic"

Robin Ogden — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:45:57 -0500

After reviewing what seems like a billion resumes in my career I also think it is worth mentioning that candidates truly need to 'focus' and target the content they list on the top half of the first page of their resume. (By target I do not mean you should list the employer's job description verbatim - that is always a big mistake).

When I am teaching resume training workshops I try to drive home the point that if you don't catch an employer's interest on the first page it won't matter what you've listed on your second page - it will never be seen. Afterall, statistics show that a resume reviewer may spend all of 30 seconds looking at your resume before they decide whether it gets passed on or declined.

Therefore, it's important to think of the top half of the first page as your billboard, or advertising section. The top half is not where you list your specific employers it is where you want to showcase your various key accomplishments and the results you have delivered during your career.

Robin Ogden
http://www.firedupcareers.com
http://www.careeradvicetalk.com

Thank you!

jasonalba — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:35:03 -0500

Jory - thank you for posting on this and referencing The Resume Experiment! You can see from the comments by Dan, Louise and Brad that I had real experts weigh in on this ...

I am not an expert in resumes (mine stunk - that's why I couldn't really contribute like these guys did) - but I'm passionate about personal career management. I got laid off and was not prepared - not for a job search, and not for the emotional rollercoaster that accompanied it.

I am a huge proponent of proactively managing your career, future transitions, personal brand, personal network, etc.

This post is a great support and wrapup - thank you!

Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com

I wish they made resume classes mandatory at colleges

Skye — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:36:07 -0500

I've had the distinct pleasure of reviewing resumes of UT Austin students who just graduated - ack! Why does a 21 year old need a two or three page resume?
__

Flooded Lizard Kingdom
Heroine Content

Objectives & Interests/Hobbies

Brad Attig — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:48:35 -0500

Objectives can be useful and even necessary when used for the right purpose and the examples in the first comment are excellent in how not to use them.

As commented on above, it is often good for the resume screener. They see "Design Director" in the objective and it gets passed along to the VP of Design. Consider someone making a major career change. An objective can help clarify what the individual is seeking. Someone with 15 years of P/T administrative work or volunteer work, while raising a family, now has decided to put the degree to work and become an educator. Donâ€™t think putting that in the cover letter will do it; they have a tendency to get separated from the resume.

While I normally advocate leaving off interests and hobbies, that also is not an absolute. Several years ago I was recruiting for a high level director position, 200K+. I submitted 3 well qualified candidates, who all had perfect credentials, backgrounds and resumes. The SRVP didnâ€™t like any of them. I submitted 4 more, not quite as stellar in my mind, the SRVP still didnâ€™t like them. Near the end of the search, I shot off 1 more candidate. The person was qualified, but I didnâ€™t put too much effort in presenting them and they had interests and hobbies on their resume. I didnâ€™t even take the time to remove them since I expected the same result as the first 7 resumes.

Salt-water fly fishingâ€¦..

Seems my 8th candidate liked to salt-water fly fish and the SRVP wanted to learn to how to salt-water fly fish. Guess who was interviewed and got the job?

One-in-a-million? Yes. But if you are applying to a sports oriented company they might be interested in your kite-boarding hobby. I donâ€™t think it hurts.

Brad
www.MyRetailCareer.net

More on Objectives

Louise Kursmark — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:31:41 -0500

As one of the resume writers who participated in Jason's exercise, I appreciated and enjoyed your comments!

I agree with Dan that most objectives are a waste of space on the resume. BUT I also think it's ESSENTIAL for candidates to tell readers WHO THEY ARE, right up front on the resume. Identify yourself and tell the world what you're great at! Otherwise, frantically busy HR people and hiring managers will move on down the pile.

So, in essence, both Jory and Dan are right! Don't waste my time, but let me know who you are and what you do.

Louise Kursmark
Best Impression Career Services, Inc.
www.yourbestimpression.com

Thanks + Objectives

DanielRSweet — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:00:07 -0500

Jory,

Thanks for your comments on this. I hope the Mystery Candidate (and everyone else) got some good input on his resume on this.

I'm pretty sure that, after the beating we gave him, nobody else is going to volunteer their resume again anytime soon. Unless, of course, you have your resume updated....?

As far as the objective goes, you have to understand who they are for. And it isn't you!

The objective is for the first line of defense (also known as the low-level HR person who will usually be the first to see it) since they don't really know what they are looking for in a resume.

As a hiring manager in the process, you're more concerned with what they've really done because you understand your area much better than HR.

Dan

A second opinion

Elisa Camahort — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:34:11 -0500

Agree with the vast majority of above except: the objective.

When I was running a product management team and reviewing countless resumes I never even read a person's objective. Why? Because inevitably they had "customized" the resume for my job and the Objective read something like this:

"To do [exactly what your job description says you want something to do] leveraging my skilles and experience to deliver high value and quantifiable results."

Or something equally specific, but simultaneously generic.

I also absolutely would leave "outside interests and hobbies" off a resume. If you're auditioning for a commercial, it might be relevant. I don't have the time, if reviewing many many resumes, to care about your hobbies otherwise.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Even the Smartest People Can Have Rotten Resumes: How to avoid looking bad on paper

Jory Des Jardins — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:20:52 -0500

Years ago I dated a man with an incredibly impressive career background. A tech executive, he was seeking new employment, and he asked me to review his resume. Having been a print editor early in my career, I'm asked to do this quite often, as if aligning the gerunds in your list of qualifications will make all the difference. Looking back, I suspect that this man desired more that I see his impressive credentials than I provide my honest feedback on his CV.

The result was not what he planned. I opened the document, saw a wall of words that ended with "Won seventh-grade science award," and wondered to myself, "How did this guy ever obtain gainful employment?"

I'm amazed at how a resume can make or break a perception. Though I had dated this man for several months and respected his business savvy, the impression left by his resume was that he was insecure (every job had 10 bragging points, rather than three our four key, quantifiable accomplishments); unfocused (who would want to read a resume that looked wordier than Tolstoy?), and amateurish (a seventh-grade science project? He was in his mid-30s!).

Though I love to espouse the eventual end of the resume, it still is a key factor in setting an initial impression. And though I've been asked to review many resumes, I haven't solicited feedback on my own--I'm en English major, after all! At the end of the day I've felt I could adequately make my case, though truth be told I can count on maybe one finger the number of times my resume got me a job.

When I became a manager at a startup without an HR team and had to sift through hundreds of resumes for a person I desperately sought to lighten my load, I became painfully aware of the arrogance with which I had formerly relayed my own qualifications--I saw it in every resume I dismissed.

Like the candidates on my reject pile, I never included a concrete objective--why limit myself to a specific job?, I rationalized: the hiring manager might just be blown away by the breadth of my experience and offer me a bigger, better job. I loved to sprinkle in the who's that I worked for, rather than the what's that I did.

But now, as a hiring manager, it was so critical that I find someone with very specific experience that the wheat almost separated itself from the vague, unfocused chaff. Things that I didn't think mattered on my own resume suddenly mattered a lot: Misspellings in a cover letter? That employee would likeluy not pay attention to detail. Inability to state specifically what position he was seeking? That candidate was too indecisive to get this position. No mention of computer skills? I don't have time to walk this person through a crash course in Powerpoint.

I realized that the boring, concrete crap that I thought wasn't very interesting was reassuring to see on paper.

I was rather intrigued with a recent series on Jason Alba's blog, JibberJobber. Alba enlisted a group of top-notch hiring experts from such pubs as About.com and CareerHub, recruiters, and resume writers to chime in on a reader's resume, breaking it down more granularly than I would ever have the patience to do myself. The exercise is a useful one, however, more than I imagined.

What I thought would be a remedial exercise in the fundamentals of resume writing was more an advanced course in entering the mind of a hiring manager. The resume was posted (with some details left out for privacy purposes).

Starting with initial reactions there were some very useful bits of advice from recruiter , regarding the overly simplified contact information of the applicant, who opted for the currently trendy name and email addy approach:

Itâ€™s a red flag because if not freely given, there can be an ulterior motiveâ€¦ is the candidate from out of state? Why does the candidate not want us to know where he lives? Is s/he going through some personal crisis that is causing upheaval that will effect his/her work? Companies have relocation money in their budgets and they will spend it for the right candidate.

I've often wondered, do I include my blogging in my resume? My article writing? While these items may make me look "well-rounded", including non-job-related items can confuse more than impress, according to Chapman:

As I read further, I notice that there seems to be a battle going on between whether this particular person wants to be an employee or work for him/herself. While including outside interests or other pursuits at earning income can be a positive, one must present them so that they intensify the attractiveness of a candidate as an employee and not as someone who might not be committed to the company; another potential read flag. â€“ You must present as clearly as possible all and only the work history which will be attractive and desirable to the potential employer.

Says Daniel Sweet of FRACAT (Free Resume And Career Toolbox):

A more astute HR person or recruiter will see a generic resume that says: â€œI Donâ€™t Know What I Want To Do With My Life. Would You Please Figure It Out For Me?â€

And while no one necessarily enjoys making a quanitifyable case for her worth to the company, postitioning yourself as a cost center doesn't help. Chapman adds:

Every employer must justify the expense of an employee. Chiefly that is done by the employee creating more revenue than he or she costs the company in salary, benefits, and bonuses. The more valuable employees provide higher value by increasing overall sales higher than or by saving more money than their co-workers. â€“ You must include achievements of cost reductions or increased revenues to position yourself above the competition.

And was I being picky about my former flame including his seventh-grade science project, or his love of marine life in his resume? According to Sweet:

As an employer, if see a candidate who has so many revealed extra-curricular activities as you have listed, it says that Iâ€™m never going to have your full attention, focus, and effort directed to the work youâ€™re doing for me.

In the content review section of the series resume writer Barbara Safani makes a distinction that the resume "communicat(es) tasks rather than accomplishments."

The candidateâ€™s current resume does nothing to distinguish him from his competition. Lots of people have skill sets similar to this candidate. What makes him different?

Imagine you are buying a new productâ€¦letâ€™s say itâ€™s a dishwasherâ€¦every brand has its own pitchâ€¦some dishwashers save water, some are better for the environment, some are faster, some are quieterâ€¦you get the picture. The consumer buys one of the dishwashers based on the product benefits, not its featuresâ€¦they all wash the dishesâ€¦the consumer needs to decide which dishwasher provides the most benefits to them. With a resume, accomplishment statements with key metrics best showcase a candidateâ€™s benefits. Task statements merely convey features of the candidateâ€™s experience.

Check out the Wrap Up if you don't have time to sift through the reams and reams of expert review.

At the end of this exercise I was clear that resume writing is hard! Often we don't know how we come across on paper until we are managers ourselves, and even then we forget what a hiring manager wants to see. I also have a newfound respect for resume writers. In fact, this English major has changed her tune on self-service. I belive that shelling-out for a second opinion is worth it.

Jory Des Jardins also writes at Fast Company Experts Blog and Pause.