CM Access

I hear this question from friends, family, friends-of-friends, and a lot from candidates seeking career transitions or new professional opportunities. So I wanted to include some thoughts for those who already know the “make sure there aren’t typos” rules.

A lot of professionals with more than 10 years of experience struggle with keeping a resume fresh, relevant and concise. “Should I keep it to one page in total length?”

I say no. The resume needs to tell a story. If you need more than one page to do it (and a smaller-than-legible font doesn’t help either!) then so be it. Each position you’ve had should be tailored to add to the ultimate goal you’re trying to reach. Bullets are helpful for an outline, but make it easy to fall into the trap of using phrases and fragments, which lead to talking about daily tasks instead of your actual contribution to the company or position. Each piece of your work history should include a problem you were faced with, your solution, and the results based on your efforts. However, the information included needs to be relevant to your objective and to the field within which you’re hoping to be hired.

The truth is, each person you ask for advice about your resume is going to give you a different opinion. How does one deal with such wide-reaching variations of the same end-goal (i.e. creating the resume that will get you noticed)? RESEARCH. Books, blogs, magazines, experts, the information is out there!

This short post from the Wall Street Journal had some good suggestions:

Talk to professionals in your field. Look for successful people in your chosen career field and human resources managers in that area. They’ll be able to tell you what employers want to see. … Search for résumés in your field. Teachers’, tech workers’, journalists’ and stockbrokers’ résumés will vary widely — what’s included and in what order, how many pages, references included or not, and so on. Look for a “best résumés” book for your field. You might check out “2500 Keywords to Get You Hired,” by Jay A. Block and Michael Betrus. It offers keywords to bolster your résumé, no matter what field you’d like to enter.

To be a successful job seeker, you have to know your competition, and your target. What is the hiring manager going to be looking for? Your resume has to mirror that of the person currently in the role you seek, and you have to far exceed them! The best way to get this information is by being involved with leaders in your field, through associations or volunteer organizations, and by asking for help from people who know: recruiters, mentors, authors.

I found a great book about improving a resume. It offers tons of before and after versions of resumes for a variety of industries, and explains how to integrate more information into the standard format most employers expect to see. The World’s Greatest Resumes by Robert Wm. Meier might seem like some to be a very presumptuous title from a relatively unknown guy. But he’s been in career consulting for a long time, presents the information very objectively, and makes it accessible to all levels of experience. The more knowledge you accumulate, the more opportunity to form your own, informed, opinion.

I’m definitely a grey-area person and don’t believe there are hard and fast rules about a stellar resume. But simple guidelines are always helpful and appropriate and can be found in so many places now-a-days. You just have to do the work.

Technorati Tags: Resumes, How to improve a resume, research, resume advice, resume answers

An article was passed to me, and if I could find its original iteration, I’d include it. But I found the information to be helpful and thought it clearly articulated many of the points I’ve already made here. So I must be somewhat on track if other sources have the same info, right?

Are you falling into any of the following job search mistake categories?

1. Be sure to tailor your search to jobs you are qualified for and that interest you.
2. Video resumes are not prudent unless you’re looking for an acting (or broadcast media) job.
3. Always start out using “mr.” and “ms.” in an interview and in email communications, until you’re corrected otherwise.
4. Keep your social networking sites private–pictures can be found and be detrimental to your consideration for professional opportunities.
5. Make sure you research the company and the position to the best of your ability before an interview!
6. Dress professionally and appropriately when interviewing; it’s better to show up overdressed than be dismissed from consideration because you “weren’t quite sure what to wear.”
7. Don’t be a “Yes Man”. This means, don’t talk too much during your job interview, be concise with your answers, and always back up responses with concrete and relevant examples. And if you have an answer you don’t think they want to hear (a “no” instead of a “yes”) be sure to back it up with a well-crafted response. Take time to think about what you want to say, they’ll wait, and it will make it worth the wait!
8. Have a professional email address!
9. Keep your resume short and to the point: relevant experience only! It’s hard to keep work experience like “supported myself through college while working at Hooters” but the truth is, unless you just graduated, your professional experience is going to override this piece of information, and it will actually hurt you.
10. Get to know a lot of people: your success will come from who you know!
11. Ask for help during your job search. From friends, mentors, relatives.
12. ALWAYS follow up with an email or a hand written note after an interview!! Even phone interviews!
13. NEVER talk negatively about a past employer, no matter how comfortable the interviewer makes you feel.
14. Ask good questions to show you’re interested in learning about the company.

and of course : Don’t talk about money in the first interview or conversation. Even if this is a make or break criteria for you, you are hurting yourself if you don’t at least talk with someone about their opportunity or their company because you don’t think they’ll match your salary. The first step is to make them like you, and want you on their team, THEN you can figure out if you want them. This very minor (and easy to fall into) breach of etiquette can ruin any chance you might have for a really valuable network contact!

FYI: CM Access can help answer any questions these mistakes might bring up! If you’re wondering how to avoid these problems, or how to recover if you’ve already fallen into one, just get in touch with your friendly Career Advocate today!

Technorati Tags: job search mistakes, interview etiquette, professional dress, do’s and don’ts of job search, networking