Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

Top 5 Resume Do's and Don'ts

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There is a lot to consider when writing your resume. You don’t want to miss an opportunity for an interview by offering a less than stellar result.  In her blog, Hire Someone to Write Your Resume, career advice blogger and author Penelope Trunk refers to a resume as a “complicated sales document and also a piece of direct mail.” That said, here are my top 5 Resume Do’s and Don’ts…

DO

Remember that your resume is a marketing piece, not a laundry list. Sell yourself; don’t just list what you’ve done.

Focus on transferable skills and quantifiable accomplishments. Determine the employer’s key words and incorporate them. Include soft skills, otherwise known as emotional intelligence. Use strong, active language that helps the reader picture you working for them.

Design your resume to be easy to read and scan – both with software and the eye. Remember that the typical first read allows a 10-second glance. (Some say 7 seconds is all you get!) Make it count by using white space, bullet points and bold, appealing design elements. Ensure that your resume is error free.

Target your resume to the employer. Do NOT zap your generic resume to 100 different online job postings. If you do not personalize your resume to include key words, you may be wasting your time sending it at all.

Be precise. Although the “one-page” rule no longer applies for all employers, it is important to narrow your information to include the most important material. (Typically, two pages are plenty.) Employers do not want to wade through a lot of extraneous information.

DON’T

Use “I, me or my” in your resume. The first-person is implied. Don’t use the phrase “responsibilities included” or “responsible for.” These are passive ways to structure your information.

Don’t use an objective. Your objective is to get the job, so you are wasting space in the very important real estate of your resume – the top! Attract readers with a targeted “Accomplishments,” “Highlights,” or similarly named section. Don’t list “References upon request.” This is assumed.

Don’t include ANY personal information such as age, gender, religion, marital status, social security number, weight, etc. In the U.S., do not include a picture on your resume.  All of this information is inappropriate and will make you seem dated and unaware of correct resume etiquette.

Don’t rely on standard resume templates, especially from your word processing program. Don’t copy text from sample resumes posted on the web. You are unique; your resume should be distinctive.

Don’t ever lie on a resume. Present the best possible image consistent with the truth.

I will design and write a resume that captures your skills and accomplishments and sells your skills!

Get Paid To Interview?

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And you thought that e-mail inviting you to be paid to interview for jobs was spam, didn’t you? 

In what could be the ultimate acknowledgement that it is easier to find a job when you have a job, a startup called notchup.com arranges for “passive” job seekers (employed workers who are not seeking opportunities) to be paid for interviews.  Job seekers (who aren’t really passive if they sign up, are they?) register, set a price for an interview (the site calculates a suggested fee) and wait for an invitation.  Payment relies upon the employer agreeing that the interviewee was active and engaged in the process.

If you are happy at your current job, good at what you do and NOT looking for a new job, you are notchup.com’s target audience.

How can companies afford to pay for interviews?  Founders Jim Ambras and Rob Ellis explain on their site that a candidate who would earn $100,000 annually could cost $20,000 to hire using a recruiter.  If that same organization selected a hire from a pool of 10 people paid $500 each to interview, the company can save $15,000.

The AP reports that founder Ambras, former vice president of engineering at the search engine AltaVista said,

”In every job I’ve had, I’ve had to, under time pressure, build a team of engineers. I learned years ago that the best people you want to hire are the people who aren’t in the job market.”

The over 10,000 registrants and potential notchup.com candidates may be interested in reading about potential privacy issues they may encounter using the site.  Others may prefer to dive in with wild abandon!

Keppie Careers helps active and passive job seekers!  Your resume should always be up-to-date and ready to use at a moment’s notice.  We also offer mock intervews.  Prepare for the job  hunt:  www.keppiecareers.com