Tag Archives: resume

3 examples of thrift that ought to go on a resume

Posted on April 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here are 3 examples of thrift that should be on resumes.  They are examples of being thrifty that can get you interviewed and hired.

One change that Laura suggested allowed her company to lay off 3 data entry clerks.  That paid for her salary for the rest of her time at the company.  But, she never put it on her resume.  She never mentioned it in future job interviews.

Bob renegotiated several software maintenance agreements.  He called up some other companies with the same software and asked for information.  Then he called up the salesmen and asked why they were paying an extra $300,000 per year for licenses. Those savings never made it onto his resume.  He did write, “renegotiated software licenses”.  If he had written, “saved $300,000 each year by renegotiating software licenses”, it would have had a lot more impact.

One mechanic I know saved his company $1,200,000 each year by suggesting they use different light bulbs in their plants.  He got an award for the suggestion.  Would you rather hire him or a mechanic who just tightened bolts on machines?

Make sure ways you saved money and time show up on your resume.  Mention them in every interview.  A thrifty reputation can be very enticing.  Every dollar saved goes right to the manager’s bonus pool.  That should help in your next job search.

Something to do today

Go back through your job history.  In your job journal write down everything you have done that saved money.  Getting a project done ahead of schedule or under budget counts.  Make guesses at how much money you saved.  Figure out how many people were shifted to other areas because of your improvements.

Now put those numbers in your resume.

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Later: Interview like an Eagle -11

Start a salary bidding war

Top secret job hunting

Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting

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How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow

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What can get you a job, that you learn from spammers?

Posted on March 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

For your job search you have to learn a very important lesson from spammers.

How do they get people to pay attention?

Here is how they get ME to pay attention.  Learn from my weakness.

I never get less than 60 spam emails in a day.  Over a weekend it is always several hundred.  Every once in a while I see a word and phrase in the subject line that I have to investigate.  As a recruiter, one irresistible word is “resume”.  Others are CPA, VB.Net, Senior, relocating, or proven.

Think about people you send your resume to.

Every time a job ad is placed online, someone gets spammed.  They may get 50 to 1000 emails from people wanting a job.  At least half will be totally unqualified.  So the hirer or their receptionist has to skim through them and delete all but the top 10 or 20. While doing it they will delete the resumes of highly qualified people who weren’t careful.

A little carefulness will at least get your resume glanced at.

Take the job ad you are replying to. What are they key words for the ad?  Are there one or two things that appear to be the biggest and most important skills?  You need to figure out the keywords that will force them to open your resume and read it.

Let’s go one step further.  Make sure your resume fits the job ad.  Put those keywords in bold typeface in your resume.  Have 3 or 4 different resumes available to send for slightly different jobs.

Spammers are experts of single words and simple phrases.  They suck their target into their ad.  They know who they want to impress and what they want their victim to do.

Be careful. Figure out who you want to impress.  What keywords can you highlight that will make your ad, your resume, irresistible?

Something to do today

Today take every job ad that interests you and WRITE DOWN the keywords in the ad before you send your resume.  Then highlight the keywords in your resume and in your cover letter.

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Later: The rubber band solution for nervousness

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Make an incredible standout resume adding a new reference format

Posted on February 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

We got a resume that was 30 pages long.  It included a CD with all the documents and even more information.  Karen and I laughed about the ego of the guy who did it.  We looked through it to see why he thought he needed so much information.  We called and talked to him and told him it was too much. In short, it was the perfect resume.

The perfect resume gets read, discussed, carefully checked and finally gets a call to the person who sent it.  It wasn’t until a year later that I realized just how effective that huge resume had been. I had called and discussed a lot of details with the owner. Perfect.

Enterprising job searchers have come up with a lot of ways to set their resumes apart.  Different kinds of paper, a CD, a business card sized CD, audio, video, youtube, a 5 word cover letter, photos, a sculpture included in a box, candy, and a singing delivery person have all been used. The idea is to do something that sets you apart in a positive manner.  It also has to be something that does not diminish your printed out email resume.

Adding audio or video is relatively simple.  My next two letters will detail different ways to add references you can see or hear.  One is using a telephone.  It is extremely easy.  The other requires a recorder, software and a website.  If you want to make a real audio or video production, it is the way to go.

Is audio for you?  Do you want your references to be instantly available to anyone who gets your resume.  Will your own voice get you calls for interviews?  You’ll have to decide.  I’ll show you how to do it.

Something to do today

Are your references willing to be recorded?  Find out.

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Later:             The easy way to add audio to your resume

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Posted in References, Resumes

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Show you are the “big bear” on your resume

Posted on February 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

I have been around a lot of big bears in Pennsylvania. It is exciting.  Still, I have only seen one bear in Pennsylvania.  Bears leave behind footprints, scratched trees and scat (the polite way of referring to bear excrement).  As a matter of fact, some bears try to impress other bears by showing how high on a tree they can scratch the bark away.  They may never see each other, but bears know who is the “big bear”.

In  job hunting you need to let people know you are the “big bear”.  Don’t tell them everything you did at your last job..  Show them signs of your size and impact.  In your resume do not give every detail of your jobs.  Show the things that prove you are the “big bear” now.

Are you a Controller or CFO?  How much money did you save your company?  How much new revenue did you personally drive to the bottom line?

If your title is manager, assume that people know you hire, make budgets, and write reports.  Increased revenue, how much money you saved, and faster execution are things that show how high you reached.

As a programmer you need to have a list of languages you know somewhere on the resume.  That’s necessary but it doesn’t make you stand out.  The fact that your last five projects came in on time and under budget will show you are a big bear.

Don’t hide what you accomplished in a forest of petty details.  Make the things that prove you are a big bear unmissable.  If you have ten bullet points about one job, get rid of half of them.  A five line paragraph will hide a lot of accomplishments.  Make three short bullets instead or put a couple of keywords in bold font.

Show you are the big bear.   Stretch up high and scratch that tree where the other bears can’t miss it.

Something to do today

Hand you resume to some friends.  Give them 45 seconds to read it, then ask them what your biggest accomplishments are.  45 seconds is a very thorough read for resumes, most only get 10 seconds.  If you can’t get your point across in 45 seconds, getting hired will be pure luck.

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Later:             Get references on the company

Get references on yourself

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Posted in Accomplishments, Finding jobs, Resumes

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How to make your resume last more than 5.7 seconds

Posted on December 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

I heard the Wall Street Journal did a study and found that the average resume is reviewed in 5.7 seconds.   Years ago it was 10 to 12 seconds.  People must be reading faster.

The reason for the increase in speed is probably that so many unqualified people send in resumes these days.  At one point at AGI we stopped all advertising and stopped putting our jobs out on the major internet job boards because of the unqualified responses.  It took too long to slog through them.

That glut of useless resumes makes it is easy for your resume to stand out. Here’s how you make it happen.

Take the job lead you are submitting your resume for.  Make sure that anyone glancing at your resume can see that you have the major skills.  For programmers that means putting the languages and skills you used where they can’t be missed in 5.7 seconds.  For accountants, your expertise that applies to this particular job must jump out.  Salespeople need to show how good they are at a glance.  Whatever makes you the best bet for the job you are applying for must stand out.

This means you may need 2 or 30 slightly different resumes.  Maybe you just need to rearrange the bullet points.  Try bolding the words that describe skills asked for in the ad.  Put white space around the critical skill sets.  Do something to get your resume past that initial 5.7 to 15 second review.

In a sea of useless resumes, you can make yours stand out and get read if you are willing to put in the effort.

Something to do today

For the next 5 times you send off your resume, give it an examination first.  Take the job order and see if YOU can find the most important skills and qualifications on your resume in 5.7 seconds.  If you can’t, no one can.

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Later:              That famous resume test — plus

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Are you a 5 pound call girl?

Posted on December 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

Sir Winston Churchill was at a high class social gathering.  One elegantly dressed woman was getting on his nerves.  He finally asked her, “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”

She laughed and gave him a sly grin.  “I would sleep with even you, for five million pounds.”

Churchill opened his wallet and asked, “Would you sleep with me for 5 pounds?”

“Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?” she huffed.

Churchill removed the cigar from his mouth and fixed her with a gimlet eye, “Madam, we have already established what kind of woman you are, now we are haggling about the price.”

 

Is there a lie on your resume?  Did you move a date?  Did you fudge a salary or hourly rate of pay?  Have you claimed an accomplishment you didn’t help with?

Establish what kind of person you are: honest.  Don’t haggle over price.

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return.  It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.  (Arthur C. Clarke)

Something to do today

Have you established a price or a character? If you lied, clean it up.  Start your new character today.  Everyone makes mistakes.  The good people change for the better.

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Later:              Where to fish

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The main way your resume stops you from being hired

Posted on November 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

Some people wisely ask, how can I hide my flaws?  Others seem to ask, how can I hide my greatest strengths?

Every resume I read is a mystery novel.  For instance, an accountant dismissed in March is a lot different than one dismissed in May.  March is the busy part of tax season, so, why would a competent accountant be sacked?  May is a time that accountants cut back on staff.  Is the firing a red flag or a red herring?

Is an 8 or 10 line “objective” on a resume a red herring?  Do any of those 200 words really mean anything?  A 300 word paragraph describing the last job is incredible camouflage for good and bad.

A bullet cuts through all the fluff, just like in a murder mystery.  Find the bullet, find the gun, find the murderer.  I always read the first 3 bullets under a job in a resume.  If those first 3 bullets are really 3 red herring, then I may skip the rest.  By skipping the rest, I may miss the one important bullet.

O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man’s face, or a weathercock on a steeple.  (William Shakespeare)

My problem is that I am human.  I am easily distracted.  I have hours of work to plow through before I leave.  If I see too many red herring in your resume, I’ll push the delete key.

How many pounds of red herring are in your resume?

Something to do today

Hand your resume and the job ad you are applying for to a friend.  Ask them if they match.  It it takes more than 15 seconds to say, “Yes!”, then you lose.

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Later:              Interview red herring

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10 ways to prove you are a fast learner

Posted on August 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

“I know I haven’t done that job before, but I’m a really fast learner”, so the applicant says.  Then I read the resume and can see nothing to back up their claim.  They have a “C” average in school, worked at a manual labor job and their hobby is woodworking.

I tell them, “Prove to me that you are a fast learner.”

Few have thought of how to prove it.  I ask more questions and try to find out if the person is a fast learner. I ask questions like:

   What do you learn quickly?

   Do others come to you for help with a particular kind of problem?

   What do you excel at?

   What projects did you lead?

   Are you particularly good or renowned at your hobby?

   Which were your best school classes or subjects?

   Who were you favorite teachers or supervisors and why?

   What have you written about?

   When have you won a contest?

   What do you do that causes you to lose all track of time?

Those questions can lead to a list of proofs of fast learning, or not.  If you are a fast learner, prove it on your resume with your accomplishments.

To be honest, being a FAST learner is less important than being a steady learner.  If you pick up new skills and apply them regularly, you can get farther than someone who is occasionally brilliant but lazy.  Employers respect someone who is a consistent learner and worker.

Show consistent learning and how you picked up new skills every year and that is enough. Prove it with new accomplishments on your resume, and I’ll think you are a fast learner.

Something To Do Today

For some reason many people don’t think what they learned is important.  Keep track of new skills you learn so you can brag about them. Prove how fast you can learn.

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Monday:           Re-entering the workforce

Later:                 I don’t want to spend my money on training

Make a game out of it

Before you know it

Who is driving?

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Interviews, Promotions, talent, Time management, Training

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How to show excellent customer service on your resume

Posted on July 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

“You will be successful if you don’t screw up.” That was hard to swallow, but proved to be critically important.  I started watching how often we failed our customers.  Then I started tracking the failures and had coworkers help fix the problems.  My supervisors loved it and rewarded me for merely cutting down the screw ups.

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in.  It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for.  A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe.  This is incompetence.  Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value.  Nothing else constitutes quality. (Peter Drucker)

Meeting expectations is often excellent customer service compared to your competitors. If you go out of your way to just meet expectations, you should write it down and report it. Note how much total revenue the customer is worth.  If you teach others to meet expectations the same way, take credit for the customers they help.  Creating a system to get rid of errors is a powerful accomplishment for your resume.

Giving customers better service than they expected should be tracked too.  Did you figure out how to give better service without spending money?  Did the service improvements save money because there was less rework or returned merchandise? Have you actually been able to charge for better service?  Are you getting more customers because of the better service? Did you cut down the amount of time a customer waits for something?

Remember to take credit for everyone in your company who starts doing something you started. It may seem small to you but multiplied by every customer your company has, it could be gigantic.

Managers look for ways to improve customer service.  If you track problems and then report on how you made things better, you will stand out.  Even if you just do what others suggest, take credit for it.  Track it.  Put it in your resume and job journal.  It may just get you an interview and a job.

 Something To Do Today

In your job journal track screw ups and how you help improve service. Report it.

Have you been giving reports to your boss?  Go back over last week and write a report of how well you did and turn it in.  Now do that every week.  Your boss will appreciate getting information he can use to show how well his team is doing.

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Tomorrow:     The Heisenberg uncertainty principle

Later:              Post-it notes

How they determine your pay rate

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Resumes, talent

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How to show you increased company revenue on your resume

Posted on July 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

There are always opportunities through which businessmen can profit handsomely if they will only recognize and seize them.  (J. Paul Getty)

The CEO of an internet marketing company told me that he can give detailed reports of how successful his campaigns are.  He offers the reports to all the marketing managers who hire him.  Often they say, “We don’t want your reports. Measurable results don’t matter.  We are going to spend the money and get long term results you can’t measure.”  I think, in reality, those marketing managers are saying, “I’m afraid to report how much I increase revenue because I’ll be fired if it is too low.”

Salespeople and people who work for customers at an hourly rate can all figure out exactly how much money they bring in to their company.  Most do not track the figure over time.  They worry about getting paid and then throw away the information.   Every dollar they generate should be tracked, recorded, reported and bragged about in the long term.

Even if you are not in sales or directly billable, go about your day thinking about how your actions generate money.  An accountant who suggests expanding a line of business has generated revenue and should take credit for it. A clerk who gets slow customers to pay up has generated revenue.  Have you given leads to salespeople?  Did you assist in sales presentations?  How many people did you sign up for the new marketing program?  Many people bring in revenue and never think about it.  I would hire the guy who says, “I HELPED bring in $180,000 last year”, over the one who says, “I worked really hard”.

Make sure and write down what you did to bring in new revenue.  Every month, quarter and year you should report it and put it in your job journal. Estimates are fine. And put it on your resume.  It will set your resume apart. It may just be the thing that gets you an interview.

Something To Do Today

Spend a full day noting down the ways you help bring in money.  The projects you work on and the individual things you do all count.  Take credit for your team’s accomplishments too.

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Tomorrow:     Show better customer service

Later:              The Heisenberg uncertainty principle

Post-it notes

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