Job-hunting is no picnic but when you get a job interview, it's a big occasion. That's because the hardest part of a job search is to get the interview. Once you go to a job interview, there might be six or seven people competing for the job.
Before you get the interview invitation, there might be 60 or 100 people in the mix.
You have to get the interview to get the job. That's why I'm always surprised to see how many basic mistakes people make in their resumes. Why would anybody send out a resume with mistakes in it? I don't get it. I've asked job-seekers why their resumes are so shoddily put together.
They say, "The recruiter is only going to glance at my resume for ten seconds anyway, so what difference does it make?"
They don't understand human nature as it applies to eyeballs. If you hand someone a resume with errors in it, those errors are the first things they're going to see!
At the first-cut stage, recruiters and HR people are looking for ways to make a pile of resumes smaller.
They can't interview 60 or 100 people, so they have to narrow the field. They have to send a bunch of people "no thanks" letters. You don't want to get one of those letters!
Here are ten good reasons to say "no thanks" to a job-seeker at the resume-screening stage.
Ten Good Reasons Not To Interview Someone
1. Typos, misspellings and/or usage errors in the resume.
2. Little to no intersection between the job you're trying to fill and the jobs the applicant has already performed.
3. Lists of "tasks and duties" with no sense of what the resume's owner has actually accomplished.
4. Missing or inappropriate contact details.
5. A resume that was clearly written for a different opportunity.
6. Endless detail on a resume that's way too long.
7. Long, unexplained gaps in the resume's chronology or many short-term jobs in a row.
8. The resume is incomprehensible, as it's written in Corporate Zombie Speak language.
9. Dates that don't make sense or other logical problems in the resume.
10. Generally bad writing, words missing, etc.
Let's walk through these resume problems one by one and see how to correct them!
Anyone can make one small written English error, but a resume full of them is a huge red flag. If you're not a natural writer and/or editor, that's okay. Enlist a friend to help you compose your resume.
A great way to edit your writing is to read it carefully, word by word, starting from the end of the document and working toward the front. You'll catch errors that way that would slip right by you if you read it from start to finish, in the usual way.
The Definitive Careers Guide From Forbes encompasses every aspect of the job hunt, from interview to promotion. Discover how to get ahead today.
You have to make it clear in your resume that you know what job you're applying for. You have to customize your resume every time you use it. (See here how to do that.)
I recommend that you send a Pain Letter that will make the connection between your background and the employer's problem (Business Pain) crystal clear. When you send a Pain Letter, you'll staple the Pain Letter to the front of your Human-Voiced Resume.
Both your Pain Letter (which was written specifically for this hiring manager, a person whose name you know, at this moment in time) and your Human-Voiced Resume will speak specifically to your manager's most likely problem.
What if your past jobs don't line up perfectly with the job title your hiring manager may have in mind, or the title in a published job ad? You can still get the job!
You have to "pitch" your past experiences toward the same kind of Business Pain you're looking to relieve for your hiring manager now.
If you think your hiring manager has pain around getting IT projects completed, you're going to showcase your project management experience in every past job where you managed projects, even if you've never held a Project Manager job title before.
Your Human-Voiced Resume is going to include a small number of Dragon-Slaying Stories that tell us what you got done, made happen and made better at every job you've held. Nobody cares about your tasks and duties.
Anybody in the job would have performed the same tasks. We want to know what you left in your wake!
You wouldn't think contact details could trip a job-seeker up, but they do. A lot of people forget to include their email address on their resume, or they use their work telephone number. (Don't do that!) Other folks use wildly inappropriate email addresses on their resume.
You can get a gmail account that includes just your first name, middle initial and last name with dots to separate them (or whatever variation you need in case somebody has already snagged your name for their gmail address).
Be sure your LinkedIn profile URL appears at the top of your resume along with your other contact details. Here's what your LinkedIn profile URL will look like:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lizryan
Whether we like it or hate it, there is a clerical aspect to every job search. You have to get the basics right in order to move on to the next step.
If you are thinking "Why is the typical recruiting process so bureaucratic and awful, such that getting a job becomes a clerical chore?" I have total sympathy for you.
Liz Ryan
The Black Hole automated recruiting process is broken. That's why I invented the Pain Letter and the Human-Voiced Resume, combined with the practice of writing to your hiring manager directly and skipping the online application altogether. Still, you have to take care of the clerical details.
You have to make sure that your resume and Pain Letter look perfect before you slide them in the envelope and put a stamp on it. Don't send a resume that you customized for a completely different job. Take a moment and re-customize your resume for this, specific hiring manager.
A good resume is one or two pages long. We don't need to read about every job you've ever held, especially if you've had lots of jobs. Start with your most recent job and work backwards until you run out of space -- and don't forget your educational background!
You're certainly allowed to get off the conveyor belt and stop working for a while when you want to, and get back on whenever it works for you -- but you have to explain resume gaps or they will become the focal point of your resume! Don't leave us wondering about resume gaps and job changes -- tell us your story, instead.
Write your resume in a human voice, the same way you'd write an email message. Boilerplate language like "Results-oriented professional with a bottom-line orientation" is a waste of space and doesn't tell us anything useful about you.
Double-check the dates in your resume to make sure they're in reverse chronological order and that the starting date for any job on your resume comes before your ending date!
No one expects you to be a professional writer, but if the writing is really bad, it will be a huge distraction and another reason to put your resume into the "No Thanks" pile.
Bad writing in your resume will give your hiring manager reason to wonder about your ability to communicate in English. If there were ever a document to take special care in composing, your resume is the one!
Here are more articles about Human-Voiced Resumes, Pain Letters and reaching your hiring manager directly.
How to Write Your Human-Voiced Resume
How to Customize Your Resume for a Specific Opportunity
Cover Letters Are Dead - Send a Pain Letter, Instead!
