Lately, I've noticed an increasing number of job hunters and career changers are confused about the ambivalent advice they receive on resume writing. It's an annoying "everyone-is-an-expert" situation.
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There are two reasons for this dilemma:
1. There are no fixed rules regarding resumes.
There are no binding, always-applying rules for your resume. There are certain current industry standards, but those are subject to the ever-evolving demands and requirements of the job market. The bottom line here is you cannot really say something is clearly wrong or clearly right. Obviously, this leaves room for discussion and a lot of “well-meant advice.”
2. Everyone has created a resume.
Pretty much everyone has written a resume at some stage in their lives, and this process might have led to interviews. Or remember your uncle, who reviewed five resumes eight years ago for his local pawn shop, and is now your family’s veteran HR expert? You see, you are pretty much surrounded by career and resume experts everywhere you go.
The risk.
Obviously, it is hard in this situation to judge what advice is good and what is not. Let me give you an example from my practice:
Recently, one of my own resume clients came back with feedback regarding my first draft for his resume and said that, even though he thought it was great, he had feedback from two independent people that thought the top third of the first page of the resume should be changed.
Now, that was going to be interesting (just in case you are new to the resume world, the top third of a resume is THE most important part of the entire document). I asked the client if he was comfortable sharing the source of this information. It turned out, we had feedback from a close family member and a best friend. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this, but it led me to asking the following questions:
How many resumes do they screen, scan, and review on a weekly basis?
How many people do they invite to interviews based on their resume reviews on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis?
I am pretty sure you can imagine the answers.
Neither one of the reviewers dealt with resumes, hiring nor anything career-related professionally. This alone could be an indicator that you should judge and evaluate their input carefully.
Again, there is nothing wrong with asking people that are close to you, but there is an even bigger pitfall than the limited amount of resumes your beloved ones might deal with.
The time they take.
If you ask one of your best friends to read your resume, how much time will they dedicate to help you out?
If they are a truly good friend, they will reserve some time for this task and they will most likely not answer any phone calls while diligently examining your single most important career document.
I would say they probably spend anywhere between five and 15 minutes analyzing your document.
And that is the BIG problem.
No hiring manager or recruiter in the world is going to take that amount of time and diligence to look at your resume. Remember, a recruiter might be looking at 40 resumes a day and will spend anywhere between 10 and 20 seconds “scanning” your resume, possibly while on hold on the other line.
Your best friend or spouse will keep reading on, even if the top third or your resume is a bit lengthy, or contains a huge chunk of text, and they might be delighted with your volunteer experience on the bottom of page two. Too bad the recruiter or HR professional will never read this part if you don’t immediately catch their interest in the top third of your resume.
So, what happened to my client?
Even though he still remained somewhat reluctant, I was able to convince him that the top third was not too short, but contained exactly what was needed to catch and maintain the attention span of a professional on the hiring end. Is that the reason why he got the interview with the organization he really fancied? I chose to believe that it was one of the reasons.
Do you feel like giving your resume the professional eye? If so, just send me an email via my website www.windhof-communications.com, and I will provide you with a free resume check.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.