Are you including a header & footer in your resume? Well, don’t. I don’t know how or why this became a thing, but it’s not only pointless, but dangerous. I’m not aware of any ATS software that can read headers and footers, but since that’s where you’re putting your name and contact information, you’re basically…
You have to stop sending out meaningless resumes. Hard stop. What makes a resume meaningless? Listing responsibilities without context. A section devoted to keywords (I see you, ATS slaves) without context. Details so outdated that they do you more harm than good. Let me explain, one point at a time. Listing responsibilities without context. Perform…
Your resume isn’t an autobiography of your career. Resumes are marketing tools intended to take job candidates to the next step in the hiring process, which is to get interviewed by the hiring manager. To market yourself strategically requires presenting potential employers with a value proposition that aligns with the position they need to fill.…
If you are a government employee about to retire and enter the private sector, be prepared for radical changes to your resume. The biggest – and potentially upsetting – change will be that most of what’s on your resume is irrelevant to companies that you’re interested in. Resumes for government employees entering the private sector…
Stop thinking of your resume as a history of everything you’ve done in the workforce and turn your resume into a marketing tool by using the strategies that successful marketers employ to sell their products. Get your head around the concept that you are the product and potential employers are the buyers. Marketers understand that…
Have you seen resumes with the candidate’s academic or professional credentials as part of the person’s name? We don’t think twice about referring to medical doctors as Latisha Jones, MD, but what if Latisha earned a Master’s in neuroscience? Should she refer to herself as Latisha Jones, M.S.? This is a squirrelly issue, as people…
Would that I had a nickel for every client who asked me to include in the resume that they are a “fast learner,” or a “diligent worker,” or my all time fave, a “proven leader.” But I don’t, or I wouldn’t be writing a blog post about it. Here’s the thing: everyone says stuff…
I used to be on the fence about including hobbies and volunteer work on a resume, but now I’m not. I had been ambivalent because while hobbies or volunteerism arguably have little or no bearing on a candidate’s qualifications, they sometimes catch the hiring manager’s eye and forge enough of a bond that it leads…