Confessions of a Recruiter - Resume Reality

I have over a decade of consistent experience in reading and reviewing resumes. The job market is a fluid one and is always changing. Today when I look at resumes that look like they were done in 1999, I immediately want to get out my red pen. =)

According to Webster, the definition of a Resume' is: A brief account of one's professional or work experience and qualifications, often submitted with an employment application.

A Resume' is one of the most important documents you own. It should be very high on your priority list to keep it updated and always on point.

I list here the top 5 most common errors that I see on Resume's consistently.

1) Objectives: Many moons ago when learning how to create a resume, the first task was coming up with an objective. "This what I am looking for with a career in....."

The problem is that a Resume' is left up to interpretation. You have absolutely no way of knowing what the person is thinking when they review your resume.

Let's say you apply to an ad for an Engineer. Your resume' says "Looking for a company to grow with and be the best Electrical Engineer they've ever seen" Right there, you may have screened yourself out prior to the hiring manager getting to the meat of your experience. The ad never specified what type of Engineer they were looking for.

I have seen it happen many times.

Job Title: Accounting Clerk

Applicant Resume: Career in Accounting

Hiring Manager: These people are all looking for careers in Accounting and my department is looking for Financial Analysts.

Instead use this space to brag about yourself. Come up with a summary that gives a snapshot of who you are, what you provide and what you bring to the table.

2) Dates of education: The first human reaction when seeing a graduation date is assuming how old a person is. Obviously, this is an incredibly inaccurate way of figuring that out and also illegal. Don't leave anything to interpretation.

3) Too broad: Under your job responsibilities you should be as descriptive as you can be without running on and on. For example: Answered phones.

My immediate thought would be, what kind of phones? How many lines? Average amount of calls per hour? This could help determine what the hiring manager is looking for and you will stand out amongst the rest.

4) Spelling: Spell Check. Spell Check. Spell Check.

5) Alignment: Please align your resume so it is esthetically pleasing. You want to catch attention. Keep different fonts to a minimum however I recommend staying far away from Times Roman.

Be different. Stand out. Make sure it is legible. You must be sisynced while also being descriptive.

A hiring manager looks at a resume for a lengthy 30sec. Does your resume go the distance?

Of course for some humor I found this Infograhic of funny resume mistakes. Enjoy!!

Most Funny Mistakes Made in Resume or CV infographic

Computer Love - Do you need a strategy with modern technology?

OK please forgive my tongue and cheek title. However, if you think about it we really do need a strategy.

HubSpot posted an interesting article and infographic (shown below) What was promised of social media was engagement and to build relationships. 

They pose the question that "having 1 Social Media relationship is easy but how do you scale this love story to delight every contact?" 

I have a few thoughts to add to the dialogue around this topic.

1) Relationships don't just happen. You must put in the work. 

Kim Garst - Co-Founder and CEO of Boom! Social, recently posted a tweet that I thought summed it up brilliantly:

Kim Garst ツ ‏@kimgarst

1 Jun

#SocialMedia needs time and strategy in order to reap the reward! #YouCanDoSocial

2) I list out in detail my specialties on each  social media profile of mine. These include the skill sets that I recruit for but mostly the ones that I have the best success at.  I am consistently inundated with emails from people all over the nation, asking what in my opinion, is the most annoying question; Are you a good fit for this job? 

Clearly, all of these people did not care enough to read my profile and instead, ran a search and hit SPAM... I mean send. This is what people deal with on a daily basis. No wonder recruiters have earned a bad name. 

I am a relationship type of person. Do I have individual relationships with every connection I have, on every social media site that I am on? No. However, my goal is to build, network, give, offer, learn and connect with as many people as I can. Which brings me to my next point.

3) Social Media sites have become overly cautious and restricting people that are very active. Let me explain. 

Social-Hire posted a blog the other day: Social Media Scare - A Cautionary Tale Of Our Twitter Account. Social-Hire's account had been suspended due to sending too many thank you tweets to people who'd shared their content. Seriously?! 

LinkedIn will restrict you FOREVER from sending any further connection requests without the persons email that they specifically use for LinkedIn. This is due to sending to many requests to people you "don't know" Again, Seriously?! Last time I checked each user has the ability to adjust his/her privacy settings, and lock it down like Fort Knox!! But they'd rather put an active user on permanent restriction for doing what the site was intended to do. 

As I stated earlier, a lot of people spam, don't care and don't put in effort. I do, however, know that  most people do care, do put in effort and are looking for a Computer Love of their own. 

As the infographic illustrates below, like any relationship, you need strategy and must be genuine. 

Engage. Be genuine. Be kind. Be yourself. Be a giver. Be a learner. Follow-through.





   From: HubSpot Marketing Software

Image Credit: heatherbleier.com