Resume Help

Write Cover Letters that Get Responses

 

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Are you guilty of committing one or more of these common resume blunders?

1.  Too much personal information.

While you may have been blessed with penetrating eyes and silky tresses that rival any beauty queen, a recruiter or potential employer is interested in your skills and experience, not your height, weight and other personal stats.  Likewise, your obsession with bungee jumping off of tall buildings might make an impression during casual conversation, but listing personal interests on your resume won't land you an interview. Skip the personal stuff.

2.  Show me the money.

Whoops.  Salary expectations should be discussed after the initial interview, not laid out in black and white on your resume.

3.  Don't let 'em read typos!

Are you seeking a job as a project manager or a protect manger?  Spell check, spell check, spell check.

4.  Show, don't tell.

Reading line after descriptive line of specific job duties relating to your previous employment is a real turn off.  Take it for granted that job titles do the work of illustrating what your position entailed and focus instead on highlighting how you faced challenges, achieved goals, and implemented new strategies to benefit your employer's business.

5.  Avoid personal pronouns & write tight.

Words like "I" and "me" don't belong on your resume.  In other words:

I was responsible for implementing new designs that made our widgets fly off the assembly line.

should read:

Implemented new designs resulting in a 23% increase in market segment production volume.

One final word...

The Long and Short of it.

Resume length is something many people grapple with.  Should you chop off the fat and keep everything on one page, or go for the gusto and wow 'em in three?  At one time, the popular school of thought was that a resume should be kept to a single page.  But, the truth is, there really isn't any steadfast rule.  The key is to make every word count and to eliminate excess.