Are You Tripping Over Your Resume Missteps?
In today's down-turned job market, employers need to quickly identify your qualifications more than ever before
. It is not enough to simply list your technical skills, soft skills, and credentials. They must tie in with the requirements of a position.
HR managers often search job boards to locate candidates with the right skill sets, education and experience. They are also bombarded with resumes from internal and external sources such as department managers, employees, email, fax, and even postal mail. It is anyone's guess how many resumes are screened and reviewed for each job opening.
It is a very time-consuming and frustrating task to find a good candidate pool. This reason alone should be enough to motivate any candidate to take the extra steps to make the selection process easy for the hiring manager. What is that? First, researching the company. Then, including the most essential information in the resume.
If a resume is disorganized, unfocused and boilerplate, it will certainly fail to pass the screening test. There may be good information contained in the resume, but if the information is not presented properly, it will not grab the reader's attention.
How can a job seeker make a good first impression in order to ensure that their resume is selected from dozens of resumes? Knowing what the company is about and what the expected qualifications are is a good place to start.
If a job seeker distributes their resume by e-mail, fax or job boards, it is likely that their resume will not be accompanied by a cover letter. To make a great first impression without a cover letter, a resume profile or summary at the beginning of the resume will help to highlight their qualifications in a narrative or a bulleted list.
The profile or summary section will enable a hiring manager to quickly identify what is unique about a candidate. Remember, they know exactly what they are looking for. They have hundreds of resumes to review, so they want to find it fast. A summary will also given them a sense of the job seeker's written communication skills. This will hold true throughout your resume.
If you include a summary or profile section, cover areas such as years of experience in certain types of positions, educational credentials, community involvement, technical expertise, awards and an overview of your soft skills, such as attributes, that relate to the position in mind.
For instance, if you are targeting an accounting position, emphasize how detail oriented you are, and provide examples of your research, analytical and reporting skills. You can support this type of information by listing the types of research you have done and reports you have prepared.
If you are applying for a marketing position, list your creative and project-oriented skills, with an emphasize on your understanding of product branding, marketing tools, and methods you have utilized, such as print, online, email campaigns, and event marketing.
Do not be too general by overusing phrases such as, "Highly organized team player with excellent research and communication skills". It is important to emphasize how you have these skill specifically by making reference to something in particular rather that lumping them together without thought in one sentence.
You do not want to be viewed as someone who just throws phrases around without really considering how you are coming across on paper. An HR manager will think you are not professional enough to ensure your resume communicates your value. You risk being perceived as having poor research skills or worse, being lazy.
To avoid this misstep, try using better phrases such as, "Project oriented with four years of experience coordinating and executing highly visible marketing events for a major pharmaceutical company."
If you are unsure how to approach the process, consider hiring a professional resume writer. Review samples of their work so you do not invest in a resume service that uses a standard approach to create your resume and cover letter.
Do not get tripped up by fancy words, paper, designs and the one or two-page rule. Focus on the requirements of the position, writing clearly, and keeping it real and typo free. Give the hiring manager what they are looking for. Make it easy for them to find what they need to pre-qualify you. The only way you will know what that may be is to do your research on the company and the requirements. This will also prepare you for the interview.
Lastly, do not include your personal information. This is a common practice for European resumes or curriculum vitaes, requiring disclosure of age, marital status, and social security number. In the Unites States, you risk leaving yourself open for discrimination and identify fraud.
by: ann baehr
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