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E-mail me!. Unfortunately, I can’t answer every question, but I do try to do as many as I can. To increase your chances of getting your question answered, please limit yourself to two-three reasonably sized paragraphs and try to figure out what your real problem is. Punctuation and capitalization are pluses.
All HR people are evil, it’s in our job description. Or at least, that seems to be the prevailing theory. In reality, there’s just more going on behind the scenes than most people know. I’m here to demystify your Human Resources department and tell you just why you worked your tail end off all year and still got a 1.7 percent bonus.
I wish employers would just explicitly state their preferred format for resumes. I am happy to send in any format they want – but it is very difficult to make a document look good in all formats, even with very bland formatting.
I’m also sad that you didn’t even mention PDFs – they always show up exactly as they did on your computer when you sent them. I don’t understand why they aren’t considered the resume standard.
The reason I didn’t mention PDFs is that some resume tracking systems have trouble scanning the PDFs.
Otherwise, it’s the best solution.
I use PDFs. I hate sending my resume in Word; people can mess with it, and it’s irritating to both the recipient and me to have it password-protected. Otherwise I have just been filling out applications online and copying and pasting stuff from it into the proper fields.
Following aspects also need to be checked before sending your resume:-
1) Your correct Experience: Dates and year should be clearly mentioned
2) Your resume should talk your progress. Static pattern with little evidence of advancement in resume may not be shortlisted.
3) Job-hopping – What is your story.
Agreed with all points! As someone who looks at resumes most of the day (in house recruiter here), you hit all of the points. There are only three times I can say I find objectives helpful:
1. The candidate is relocating “To find a job in Los Angeles…etc”.
2. The candidate is switching fields.
3. The candidate is a recent grad whose job search doesn’t match his/her major.
Oh, and if you’re applying for a marketing job, please make sure your cover letter and objective don’t tell me that you’re really looking for a job in finance.
Wow… I didn’t know that people were so picky about resumes!
Thanks to the Evil Lady for raising this issue!
Very insightful CV writing tips. They are very concise too. Keep up the great work.
As a provider of http://staffing-solutions.biz/ and staffing services, it is important to review every section of your resume to ensure you are placing your best foot forward. Every now and then review your resume and keep it up to date ensuring you have highlighted your core strengths in each of your job positions.
Suzanne, thanks for the points you have made in this article. I agree with many of them, especially when it relates to the “one page myth” and the “unneeded objective statement”. I have preached for years that an objective is the death of a resume.
I also agree the candidate’s resume should be about the accomplishments, not just a bland list of roles and tasks. When I am reading a candidate’s resume, I need to see how effective they were in past positions, not just what duties they were assigned.
However, to cchardwick’s point, the candidate needs to be able to articulate HOW they planned, executed and measured those accomplishments.
Angela Roberts
PS – we have written an article on “How to Write an Effective Resume” – I would love your feedback! http://www.clinical-cra.com/recruiting-tips-write-effective-resume
Thanks for the post. As a recruiter, I see these mistakes all day long in candidate CV’s. The most common and most important mistake (other than silly typo’s etc.) I see is that people list ‘responsibilities’ (I’ve grown to hate that word), rather than meaningful successes that are quantified with facts and figures. It makes all the difference.
Best regards
Mark Ridgwell
Thanks for the helpful information. I took a course in college that taught us how to write resumes and cover letters, how to interview, etc. and it definitely added to my knowledge so far.
Do you advise sending both word AND pdf formats when sending resumes? Or is one choice better than the other?