As a resume writer, my strategy is to differentiate my clients from everyone else who shares the same job title or experience. I do this by working with clients to develop a short list of specific accomplishments that provide employers evidence that the candidate is someone they want to interview. That’s a great way to…
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 want feedback on your new resume before starting your job search. But who gives the best resume advice? Who among your family, friends or colleagues should you turn to to get constructive feedback? Probably none of them. Occasionally when I’m working with a client, they report feedback from “my brother-in-law,” “my manager,” or “the…
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 Details so outdated that they do you more harm than good.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.…
Don’t get me wrong; college degrees are wonderful for a variety of reasons, but college degrees aren’t good predictors of employee success. Your college degree tells employers absolutely nothing about how well you’ll do on the job. When I was running human resources in financial services, telecommunications and a SaaS company, I routinely skirted hiring…
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…