Resumes and Cover Letters

The Shocking Truth Behind Résumés

resumelies_Jan2013_webMost people would agree that it’s still a tough job market out there. According to an article from CNN Money, for every one job opening there are three unemployed Americans, and that doesn’t even include upcoming graduates, the under-employed, and the currently employed individuals who may also be vying for the open positions. With all that competition there can be a lot of stress to impress employers.

That stress seems to be driving some job seekers to misrepresent themselves and their experience. The Economic Times recently published an infographic that highlights the results of a study about lying on resumes. And the findings paint a rather ugly picture. With over 80% of organizations reporting that they’ve caught candidates misrepresenting themselves, this should serve as a wake-up call for every job seeker to take another look at their resume and make sure they are portraying themselves accurately and honestly. You may be tempted to try and hide a work gap or a lack of education, but hiding or exaggerating facts on your resume, application, or during the interview can cost you the job. Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, it’s never a good idea.

Have you ever felt the need to misrepresent yourself on your resume or in an interview? Tell us what you did and how it worked out for you in the comments section below.

5 Ways to Get Ahead of the Competition

Getting ahead of CompetitionWriting your resume for the first time – or for the first time in a long time – can be a daunting task for anyone. How you write up your credentials can make or break your chance to get your foot in the door for an interview, so it’s important to have your resume nearly perfect every time you apply for a job. Here are five big things to do every time you sit down to update your resume.

Tailor it.
The best way to write a perfect resume is tailoring it to a specific job description. Clearly list each skill you possess that the position requires. If you’re a perfect match for the job, a tailored resume will help potential employers see at a glance how your skills and talents match the position perfectly.

List unique skills.
After you review a job description, you may notice that a skill you possess wasn’t included in the posting. If that skill relates to the job and would benefit your employer, include this skill on your resume. Employers will take notice when you list unique skills, which can put you ahead of your competition, especially if no one else possesses those skills. If you have a skill that doesn’t relate to the job, don’t include it on your resume. For example, if you’re applying for a data processing job, don’t list your cooking skills.

Practice.
Writing a perfect resume doesn’t happen in an instance, and if you’re learning new skills and gaining new experiences, what you can put on your resume will constantly grow. The more practice you have writing your resume, the better you’ll be at tailoring it to each job description and including just what employers are looking for. Try drafting your resume in different formats, such as chronological and functional formats. This will help you figure out which style works best for each of the positions you’re applying for.

Proofread.
When you make careless mistakes and they end up in a potential employer’s hands, your chances of landing an interview may disappear. So, carefully read and reread your resume, checking for misspelled words, incorrect grammar, and misuse of similar sounding words that have a different meaning. Ask a friend or family member to proofread your resume, too. They’re more likely to catch a mistake that you’ve overlooked. Taking the time to make sure your resume is error-free keeps you from missing out on an opportunity because of an easily avoidable mistake.

Keep it short.
Most hiring managers receive many resumes and cover letters for every job opening they post and don’t have time to read every resume word for word. So, limit your resume to two pages or less. This provides enough space to detail your education, skills, and talents to employers without overwhelming them with too much information. And because they’re often in a hurry when looking through a stack of resumes, use bulleted lists to facilitate quick and easy reading instead of writing in long paragraphs. It’s great to highlight your achievements and include your work history, but only describe your more current employment.

Resumes play a big role in whether or not you’ll land an interview, so take your time putting yours together before you apply for each job. You can write a stand-out resume by practicing, proofreading, and tailoring it to each position. A near-perfect resume will help your accomplishments stand out and sell you as a great candidate for the job.

Infographic: How Does an Applicant Tracking System Read Your Resume?

Last month, the PDF vs Word Resume whitepaper gave you the ins and outs of how different electronic resume formats affect applicant tracking systems (ATS) and your job search. But, how exactly does an ATS read your resume?

Check out this infographic from the resume building software site Résunate that takes you through the process of how an ATS takes a resume, breaks it down, and files the information into a relevancy score.

What do you think about these programs and how applications are being handled? Sound off in the comments section below.
Applicat Tracking System

Maximize Your Freelance Experience on a Resume

Freelance on a ResumeThe Great Recession and its aftermath has made it difficult for many people who have been trying to start a career in the past few years. Because of that, eager job seekers, like me, turned to freelancing to hone their skills and gain experience while looking for more stable work.

One challenge I always struggled with is making it work on a resume. How do I explain consulting for two companies, doing contract work for a major retail chain, and event coordinating for several nonprofits without looking like a job hopper?

Here are some simple ways you can use your freelance experience to your advantage on your resume and carry it over into an interview.

Condense or Attach
The easiest way to include your freelance work on your resume is to file it under its own section labeled “Freelance Work” or “Freelance Experience.” If you’re freelancing full time, consider putting it at the top of your experience list since it should have some of the most relevant and current experience in your career. If freelancing is a side project or a part-time endeavor, consider placing it under any current part-time jobs you have. This way, employers know you’re still working somewhere while you’re furthering your career. If you have more relevant information on your freelancing experience than the part-time job, you may consider putting it at the top of your list.

If you’re a young worker, still have a few years of solid work with an employer, but your freelance work doesn’t apply to the jobs you’re looking for, consider putting the experience on a resume addendum – a separate piece of paper with additional information about your experience. This will put the focus on your professional work instead of the freelancing. Once you have an interview, you can bring the addendum to show your commitment to self-improvement.

Results Over Variety
Your resume shouldn’t be the same for every potential employer or job opening. It should be tailored to best match the requirements needed for the job. That’s why including all the details of your freelancing experience might be a bad idea. Choose projects that have results that best reflect the job you’re applying for. You might even showcase specific clients who best represent the industry you’re interviewing in. Showing measurable achievements with a few projects is better than displaying generic job duties from a laundry list of big name clients.

If you want to use the names of your clients to your advantage, consider including them as references. Having an employer hear from someone else about the quality of your work is far better than the text included on a resume.

Consider Your Cover Letter
There’s a chance employers could see your freelance history in different contexts. Some may interpret it as your way of being an ambitious go-getter who made work for yourself between jobs. Others may be concerned that your entrepreneurial spirit means you will jump at the chance to own your own business or a job opportunity with more variety and flexibility. Depending on how much freelancing you do, they might wonder if it will conflict with your full-time responsibilities for them.

Consider including the reasons why you freelance in your cover letter so you can help clarify your goals and objectives. Understanding what you plan to do with your freelancing can help ease any potential worries an employer may have with your history.

How have you used your freelancing experience during your job search? Let us know in the comments section below.

Whitepaper: This is Your Resume Format Fight Night

PDF vs Word ResumesLadies and gentlemen, welcome to the main event! Since the dawn of electronic resumes, two formats have stood the test of time – Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF. These two file types have been debated among job seekers for several years, and each side won’t back down. This hot debate is a passionate royal rumble.

Almost all job seekers email their resumes instead of printing them. With so many filling up hiring managers’ inboxes, employers are developing ways to filter these resumes. Which format do you use to get through the noise and grab an employer’s attention?

Check out this informational whitepaper about two popular resume formats to find out which one will get caught in the clutter and which one can help you get hired.

Download “The Heavyweight Debate: PDF vs. Word Resumes”

Spring Clean Your Job Search

Spring Clean Job SearchSpring is here! The longer nights and frosty weather are making way for blooming flowers and sunshine. Many people take advantage of the beautiful weather to clean their house from top to bottom. Spring cleaning has been a staple in regions that have very strong winters and has become synonymous with general heavy cleaning or organizing.

Just like the weather, maybe your job search had been put on ice or frozen during the winter months. Now is as good a time as ever to warm up and revitalize your efforts. As the spring flowers blossom to begin anew, you can take advantage of this time to put some new life back into your job search.

While the spring weather might be a bit colder than the famous groundhog predicted, here are some ways you can spring clean your job search to help keep you focused and improve your chances of getting hired.

Brush Up on Your Reading
There is a wealth of information out there. Not just in the job market, but in your industry as well. To be a desirable candidate, job seekers must be on top of the latest issues and trends in their market. That’s why it’s important to take time out of your day for reading and learning.

Trade journals, blogs, and industry news sites are excellent and often-overlooked resources that can help you stay informed and can differentiate you from the herd of job seekers.

Dust Off Old Contacts
We’ve all been there before. The weather is getting warmer, so you start reaching back for your summer clothes, but find outfits you forgot you even had. It’s easy to be like that in the professional realm when eager job seekers network with as many people as possible. Some people probably have more business cards than pennies, which means it’s time to reorganize your network.

Go through your contacts and decide if you should catch up or discard them. It’s a great opportunity to focus your message and communication skills by catching up with a few selected connections you haven’t seen in a while. The job market changes quickly and you never know what new opportunities these contacts have learned about since the last time you talked.

Out With The Old, In With The New
Make a list of the skills or experiences that you feel are weakest, have the most desire to strengthen, or would like to learn. Research what programs your community centers, tech schools, and colleges offer that can help you learn something new and break out of your shell. Doing this will demonstrate to potential employers that you’re being proactive instead of sending out resumes from a computer all day. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet others who you can add to your job search network.

Get Insight From The Maids
Sometimes, cleaning up your job search can’t be done on your own. Having outside help can give you a new way of looking at something or some helpful knowledge to break away from your normal routine.

A mentor can be very beneficial by giving you critiques and access to job openings. Their insight can help you make needed improvements to get a job quicker and meet leaders in your industry.  Don’t be afraid to reach out to people you’re not familiar with. Connect with others outside of your network at networking events, industry related organizations, and online forums to gain more referrals and leads.

Another great resource to spring clean your job search would be a staffing company. Most offer free job search resources and can help you with practicing interview skills and resume building.

Scrub Down Your Resume
When was the last time you updated your resume? We all get busy and now might be a good time to add any extra experience, certifications, or skills that you’ve gained in the past year.

It can also be a good time to trim up and cut out unnecessary information on your resume so employers will see the most relevant material first, which will make them more likely to pass on your resume.

Sweep Your Social Networks
More and more employers are being influenced by content on job seekers’ social media profiles when it comes to hiring decisions. In fact, employers are also taking a more active recruiting roll on social networks as well. That’s all the more reason to connect with employers through their Facebook or Twitter profile. Build relationships now to find out about potential job postings and stay fresh on recruiting managers’ minds.

It’s also important to update your LinkedIn profile. You never know when a recruiter will see it, and you want the best professional profile possible. You can also stay on top of online job postings by setting up Google Alerts on job boards and employers’ career pages that will email new openings to your inbox.

Spring is a time of change, and if you do some simple cleaning to your job search, you can make some big changes with a new career. What are some ways you’ve spring cleaned your job search? Let us know in the comments section below.

Cutting Out and Trimming Up Your Resume

Trim Your ResumeIs your resume weighed down with countless pages of everything from your previous work experience? Is it weighed down with awards and community service activities that have no relevance to the job openings? Does your resume have more pages than “War and Peace?”

OK job seekers! Let’s get that computer warming, ink flowing, and that vocabulary loosening because we are going to show you how to shape up your resume. Whether you need to put your experience on an elliptical or lift up your language, we can show you what to trim and tuck so you can have a ripped resume that will grab employers’ attention!

Aerobic Audience
You need to be aware of who will be receiving your application. Resumes are not universal and you will need to customize it to each job opening in which you apply. That means you should carefully decide which skills, experience, hobbies or community service, and objective statement to include, and which to remove.

Only the relevant information should be in your resume. Hiring managers’ time is limited and you need to get your most important information to them in the quickest way possible. So, consider leaving out a summer lifeguard job while going to college for a more meaningful internship or mentorship.

Minimize Responsibilities, MAXIMZE Results
Most employers aren’t that interested in what your normal daily activities were in your job as much as they are in what kind of results you achieved. When going over your resume, find ways of cutting back any unnecessary job duties and replace them with your accomplishments.

Employers also like to see tangible, quantifiable achievements.  When listing your results, consider things like the time or money saved, the number of customers you served or increased, or any new procedures or processes you introduced that increased efficiency.

Stop Hiking the Paper Trail
While you may feel like you need to include references or transcripts to cover all of your bases, it could be cumbersome and make it more likely for employers to pass on your resume.  If the job application or employer doesn’t request those items, don’t include them. It might be useful to have a few copies ready if you are called for an interview, but keep it reserved for when they are specifically needed.

Cut the Computer Skills
Typing emails and using standard computer programs can be used by the most average person these days. Most employers will automatically assume you know how to type, fax, email, and use Microsoft Office®, so including your proficiency in computer programs in a resume might not improve your chances of getting noticed unless you are looking for work in IT or as a programmer.

An important factor to remember when slimming down your resume is that, just like physical fitness, you have to keep working at it. Slimming down in real life takes a continual life change. So, keeping your resume fit will also require you to stay informed on current trends on resume writing and where your target job market is going.

Keep it up, and you can hit your career and job searching goals! What are some exercises you’ve done to your resume to make it more effective? Let us know in the comments below.