Tag Archives: resume

That pesky resume. Is it working?

Posted on January 27, 2010 | Leave a comment

If it moves and it shouldn’t, use duct tape.  If it should move and doesn’t, use WD-40.     You can fix anything if you can figure out why it isn’t working.

In college there was a 1930’s Rolls Royce in our apartment’s garage.  It was gorgeous.  It didn’t run.  It was useless for transportation.  Is your resume like that Rolls Royce?  Is it beautiful, but not doing what you need it to do?

Resumes are only supposed to do one thing….get you an interview.  No matter how pretty it is, how hard you worked on it or how much you paid to get it written, it is not working unless it gets you an interview.

 6.3 reasons why resumes don’t get interviews

  1. You are not qualified.
  2. The resume doesn’t address the job requirements
  3. Your qualifications are hidden or camouflaged
  4. Only responsibilities are mentioned, not accomplishments
  5. There is nothing memorable

6.3            You don’t send it out

If you are not qualified, don’t cry because no one calls you back.  You are relying on luck and luck is fickle.

If you don’t send out any resumes, no one will answer you either. (Duhhh!)

The other four points will take longer to go over.  We’ll do that in the next few days.

That Rolls Royce was a collector’s item.  It was for looking at.  Your resume is not a collector’s item.  It is not a job application.  It is not a due diligence audit.  It is not your life history.  It has one job to get you an interview.  If you are not getting interviews, let’s fix the resume.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Resumes

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Can I make my job skills more attractive?

Posted on January 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Perception is everything when you have 30 seconds to make a sale.   Most resumes are deleted in 12 seconds.  You don’t even have 30 seconds to sell yourself.

If you were going to hire an audit manager which of these two skill sets sounds better:

  1. Managed large audit department for 3 years.
  2. Managed 18 person audit department.  As many as 7 audits occurred simultaneously in 9 locations in 3 countries. $18M recovered over a period of 3 years.

Not a hard choice is it? 

Grab your 30 second commercial you wrote last week and your resume.  Look at the first skill set you describe.  How deep is the description?  Can the hiring manager tell the depth of your experience.  Do you give any numbers, sizes, concrete examples or project sizes?  Do you mention the number of people involved in a project.

Can you go any deeper?  For example both of the following are better than average skill accomplishment descriptions, but one is superior:

  1. Top two salesperson for the last 3 years.
  2. Top two salesperson out of 30 for the last 3 years for both highest total sales volume and largest average profit margin.

If you are keeping a job journal, you are tracking detailed information about your accomplishments.  For now, look back at what you’ve done and make some best guesses at numbers.  The more detailed you are, the more you stand out.

Read those examples above again.  Who would you bring in for an interview if you were short of time?  Do you need to change your resume and 30 second commercial?

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Something To Do Today

Copy your 30 second commercial and resume to new files.  Go over every skill set description and accomplishment and expand it.  Add all the details you can. Make every description too long.  Save it.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Resumes

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I Am Overqualified

Posted on November 30, 2009 | Leave a comment

I Am Overqualified

Did you climb the corporate ladder and find it was leaning against the wrong wall?  Tired of 80 hour weeks or being in airports constantly?   Did you get a degree that makes it harder to get a job?  Do you want to go hunting more?  I know a lot of people who managed to get a huge responsibility (and pay) cut. 

One essential thought: Your resume has one job….to get you an interview.  It is not a confessional booth.    

If you are overqualified but want the job anyway, make a new resume.  Put in what you did that directly relates to the job.  Leave the rest out.  Get over your job wounds.  Your future boss doesn’t need to know your deepest sorrows.  You don’t have to say that you led a team of 40 people in your last job. You need to say what you did that applies.

What you think of as a job title is used by screeners and managers as a job summary.  In one or two words they see what you did.  Since that is how screeners and managers use it, so should you!  If your job title hurts you, then make an accurate title that helps. Describe what you do with your job summary (title).  When you fill out the job application right before an interview you can put your official title.  Never lie.  Don’t deceive.   Be accurate.  Use the job title as a summary. The manager reading it does.

Over-educated?  Choose from these resume options: a) no education section, b) an “Applicable Education” section, and c) put your advanced degrees under “Hobbies.”  

You can get a job you are overqualified for.   Make sure you are honest in everything you say and present to an employer.  Then blow your new boss away with how well you do your new job. 

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Something To Do Today

Look at all the job titles on your resume.  Are they effective summaries of what you really did?  If not, change them.

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Posted in Resumes

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What To Do Before You Quit

Posted on November 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

Should you quit your job to look for a new job?  NO!

Hiring someone who has a job is always easier for managers than hiring someone who is unemployed.  The reason is that they figure 90% of the people who are unemployed have one of 3 problems: they are incompetent, they are troublemakers or they are never satisfied.  Last week I talked to a manager about a very competent programmer.  She asked, “If he is so good, why is he unemployed?”  Because she feels uncomfortable with that question, it looks like she won’t hire him.   

Since you shouldn’t quit your current job, what should you do?  Become a model employee.  Treat your current job like you expect a big raise in a couple of weeks.  Document how well you are doing and let the people you interview with know how well you are doing.   

Here are 8 things you should do at your current job:

  1. Arrive a little early and stay a little late.  Just a few minutes makes a big difference.  It is job insurance.  Track it.
  2. Do your job interviews before work, at lunch or after work.  Future employers like to hire people who are still looking out for their current boss.
  3. Use a personal email account for job hunting.  Go to Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail for a free account if you have to.  Your next boss may be turned off if you are using company assets (email) in your job search.
  4. Figure out ways you can make more money or save more money for your current employer.  Document it.  Then use it in job interviews.  How will an interviewer react if you say, “In the last 2 months I’ve saved my company $3452.”
  5. Track how fast you do everything, and do it faster.  Compare yourself to others.  Use your improvements in interviews.
  6. Go out of your way to help people beyond your job description.  Write down what you do and who you help.
  7. Absolutely stop bad mouthing your current employer. Stay away from people who gossip.  Get out of the beef and whine lunch group.  Why?  You will do better in interviews.  Your attitude towards work will be better.  A person with a good attitude always gets the job over someone who hates their job.
  8. Look for ways to get training on the job or in classes.  Prepare yourself for the next job you want.  Volunteer for assignments that will make you stretch.

WARNING:  If you do all of the above, you will probably be offered a raise or a promotion to stay when you quit.  Turn it down and go to the new job.  Trust me, it never works out unless they offer you the raise and promotion BEFORE you quit.  Much better to come back in a year or two than expect your boss to forgive your accepting another job offer.

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Something To Do Today

Improve your performance at your current job.  Track the improvements and use them in your interviews and on your resume.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Quitting or Fired

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I Dare You To Use This Test

Posted on November 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

This test applies to resumes and often to job reviews.  The principles are the same.

Right now about 5 resumes out of every 100 make it to the hiring manager.  The average resume screener is NOT an expert in what you do.  If you are lucky he will know half of the technical terms on your resume.  The screener will decide in 10 seconds whether or not your resume comes close to being acceptable.  After this speed test, the screener will give your resume a 45 second read through.  If you pass that test you will finally get in the pile that the hiring manager gets to see.    Your resume has to get past the screener or you will not get hired.

How do you test your resume?   Find a screener of your own.

Ask a friend to look over your resume for 10 seconds.  Time them.   Snatch your resume out of their hands.  Take it away and ask them what they read.  What they tell you determines whether or not you would make the first screen test.  If you pass that test, give it back to them for 45 seconds.  Again, snatch it away and grill them about what they read.

If your resume passes this test with three different people, you have a resume that may work.  If your screener can say what you accomplished, that’s outstanding.  If he says what your duties were, that’s good.  If you are going for a programming job and he says you worked with VB.Net and ADO.Net, and by the way, what are they?  You did well.

Every time you submit a resume, look at the ad you are responding to.  Will your screener pick out the key phrases in the ad…..from your resume?  Test it.  Find out. 

That’s how you get more interviews.

And think about those long, boring job reviews.  Don’t you think the same test, altered depending on your circumstances, could be of help?  Test what your manager’s boss will really read.

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Something To Do Today

Find 3 friends, acquaintances or enemies and test your resume.  If you are having trouble, go to www.agicc.com/resumeideas.htm again.  See what you can change.

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Posted in Resumes

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The words RECRUITERS search for the most

Posted on November 11, 2009 | Leave a comment

Do you want to know what the hottest jobs are right now? 

TheLadders is a set of job boards for high paying jobs.  They just published a list of the most common words that recruiters use to search for resumes on their job board.    Check it out here.

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Posted in Job Boards, Resumes

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Get experience before you get experience

Posted on November 11, 2009 | Leave a comment

I talk to a LOT of people who want better jobs.  A lot of them never consider finding ways to start doing the job they want before they get it.

An article on how to prepare now to get a job when you graduate got me thinking.  You need to do the same thing to progress in your career anywhere.   The best way to get a promotion is to start picking up parts of the job you want to do.  Help the current job holder when you can.  Train people to do YOUR job.  Volunteer somewhere to do the job you want. 

The real trick is to get experience before you get the job.  Then you are the natural person to hire.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Promotions

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The Rush Limbaugh job interview

Posted on November 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

I have half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair.  (Rush Limbaugh)

The Rush Limbaugh job interview   

My apologies in advance.  I like Rush Limbaugh.  He is a great entertainer.

Can you imagine interviewing someone with Rush Limbaugh’s on-air attitude?  It might go something like this:

Q. What are your most current skills?

A. I not only have skills, I have abilities, insight and a keen intellect that will be focused with laser-like intensity on your problems.  You no longer need to think.  You only need to hire me and stand back.  I have come to save you with Talent on loan from God. (Translation: I will come to work.)

Q. What can you do for our company?

A. Do?  With the blazing brainpower you are blessed to see before you, I will revolutionize your company.  The darkest cranny and the most exposed pinnacle will be dazzlingly transformed and transmuted into veritable gold.  I have come to solve every intractable problem that has heretofore escaped resolution. (Translation: I will think while working.)

Do you say as little with so many impressive words?

In an interview or on your resume do you embroider your answer with colors that confuse? Do you try to show your enthusiasm with concrete accomplishments, or do you camouflage with flowery verbiage?

I do interviews and read resumes every day.  I prefer facts simply spoken.  I enjoy examples plainly displayed. I delight in crisp clean thought.

Give an interviewer what he craves, and he will give you a job.  Simplify, simplify, simplify. Tell what you actually have done and can do.  You’ll stand out and be noticed.  Your accomplishments will be remembered.  You’ll be asked to accept a job..

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Something To Do Today

Focus on what you do best and what makes you different.  Take everything else out of your resume.  Why tell a hiring manager that water is wet?  Tell him what sets you apart.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Interviews, Resumes

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