Why Your Resume Gets Trashed

Yahoo lists the following reasons your resume may get trashed by potential employers:

• Numbers Don't Add Up -- If accomplishments can be quantified, do it -- but use discretion. Brandishing borderline performance numbers signals a lack of experience and bad judgment.
• Formality Takes a Vacation -- Don't succumb to the informality of email.
• Keywords Are Overused -- Resumes appear contrived when candidates consciously try to include [key words].
• Things Get Too Personal -- "If you mention your age, we have to trash your resume."
• It Looks Too Fancy -- A recruiter who receives resumes in pretty plastic folders will likely toss them. Also, don't try to differentiate your resume with boxes or ornate lettering. When recruiters see a resume that's designed differently, they think the person's trying to hide something. Instead, focus on content. Your resume will rise to the top of the pile.

Here's my take on these:

1. You HAVE TO have tons of results/accomplishments on your resume. Otherwise, how is a potential employer going to know that you can do the job he wants you to do (in the case of hiring, most people assume past performance is an indicator of future success.) But, of course, you have to write the accomplishments in the right way. What's the right way? They need to jive with the other information on your resume (conflicting info is a big no-no) and they need to be impressive (saving your company 1% on a $2,000 project is probably not impressive.) And if you have a hard time finding accomplishments, here's my advice on what to do.

2. Treat everyone you meet in the entire employment process like you would a distinguished work colleague. Use "Mr.", "sir", and so on. Be respectful. Be courteous. Be polite. Do not be informal, casual, or flippant -- unless you're POSITIVELY sure that's what the employer wants (which will happen very rarely -- even in a "loose" working culture.) BTW, this doesn't mean you should be stuffy. Just be on your best behavior.

3. I try not to use the same word twice. Use synonyms to convey the same meaning without sounding like your vocabulary is limited to 250 words.

4. Do NOT include personal information on a resume. Age, marital status, hobbies, the church you attend, clubs you belong to and so forth look like amateur hour IMO and they don't serve any useful purpose (unless the hobby pertains EXACTLY to the position you're applying for.) And, in fact, these hold the potential of hurting you -- think listing that you belong to the local chapter of some militant group will benefit your chances? Probably not.

5. I dislike creative resumes for just the reasons stated above. You'll be best-served by just sticking with the basics.

Comments

[guinness416]

Hobbies have a place sometimes, but there's an art in how to present them - brief but not a bland "I enjoy cooking, travel, socializing". My bosses certainly love to chat away with any candidate who shares their love of football, rugby, formula one. I distinctly remember interviewing someone who had mentioned a recent round-the-world trip too, and we had a great conversation about that. These are nice icebreakers.

Having said that, I got a resume recently that had a couple of paragraphs at the end that described in flowery language how much the person loved sitting down with a glass of white wine, enjoying french cinema, watching the wildlife in the garden blah blah. I mean, I like most of things too but I couldn't believe anyone would think this belonged on a resume. He was highly qualified and experienced too.

[FMF]

guinness416 --

But what if I mention I'm a Man United supporter and your bosses love Liverpool? Yikes!!!!! ;-)

[Delphine]

I have to disagree on the creative resume part. I had a standard, chronological resume a few years back. After tossing out 50 resumes, I got no calls for interview. None. I eventually figured out my chronological resume was no good, and went to the library researching successful resume examples.

All the books I found recommended against standard resumes. They did not recommend fancy paper (one book recommended thicker resume paper), graphics, or creative fonts. They did recommend different formats that extinguish your resume from other applicants' resumes. The books recommended not copying their formats but to come up with your own. The formats people come up with represented their personality, and a format often used can easily be identified, thus losing its ability to distinguish you from other applicants.

Ever since I changed my resume, every resume I sent out got me an interview.

Other than format, my resume isn't very out of the ordinary. The differences are: my name and headlines are placed prominantly in extremely large arial fonts; lines separate different sections; a section is dedicated to high lights that explain how I fit the minimum requirement; company titles and position titles are bolded so they can be easily identified; one or two quotes from my recommendation letters (which are attached to the back of the resume) are placed in various places in the resume.

I never did print my resumes on better paper. Whatever I have in the printer is what I use.

I've always gotten complimented on my resume and so far it's served me well.

[Terry]

FMF said:

"But what if I mention I'm a Man United supporter and your bosses love Liverpool? Yikes!!!!! ;-)"

Then kindly disregard my comment (in a different thread) regarding your great Arsenal...

[guinness416]

You're saying they took pity on me for being a Spurs supporter FMF, aren't you?

[FMF]

guinness416 --

:-)

Terry --

Cute.

Not sure if you're an Arsenal fan or not, but they're a great team -- should be in it all the way this year.