The Interview Edge

Resume Strategies: The Missing MBA

It’s not unusual for hiring companies to have certain “minimum requirements.” For example, an MBA may be a prerequisite for candidates wishing to pursue employment.

One of my clients, a major employer within its industry, fit this description. This company would not consider candidates without MBAs. Not only would they not hire you, they wouldn’t even talk to you. No exceptions. No degree, no interview – period.
 
(Obviously there are very good candidates who don’t have advanced degrees. The hiring company sometimes shoots itself in the foot with this type of arbitrary requirement. When they draw a line in the sand, though, it’s very difficult to get around it. They get to make the rules. This is one very effective means of narrowing the pool.)

Pick Me, Pick Me! What Your Resume and Dodge Ball Have in Common

Tap your memory banks and think back to elementary school phys ed.

Before you could play a rousing game of dodge ball, of course, teams would have to be established. Two captains would be named, and they’d take turns picking kids for their respective sides.

Typically, everybody would wave their hands in the air, jump up and down, and yell “pick me” in an attempt to be chosen early. (Naturally, everyone would eventually end up on a team. But in the kid kingdom, being highly sought-after was important.)

Resume White Lies…What’s the Big Deal?

They may seem harmless. After all, your resume is a marketing tool, not a legal document.

Say you stretch the truth about your educational credentials…or inflate a job title or two… or shift a few dates on job tenures. So what? 

You’re just trying to put the product in the best possible light. No different than any marketing brochure, right?

Wrong. There’s a big difference between smart positioning and outright misrepresentation.

I’ll bet you expect that glossy marketing piece describing the car you’re thinking about buying to be truthful. If it says you’re paying for a V-6 engine and leather seats but in reality it’s a V-4 and upholstery...

The problem with white lies on your resume is that they can turn into big black marks. In permanent ink.

Are You a “Powerful” and “Compelling” Candidate?

Google “movie review” + powerful + compelling and you’ll end up with quite a list.

Check this out:

Those are the two faces of the movie's powerful and compelling drama, and both are handled expertly…

Powerful war film should contend for Oscar…

A powerful, compelling true story of a woman of courage…

An incredibly gripping, compelling, heartrending story…

Powerful, compelling true story…

Out With the Old: Does Your Resume Suffer From “Stale Phrase Syndrome?”

Various tongue-in-cheek articles in the past few weeks have called out 2009’s most overused words and phrases and suggested they be banished from our collective vocabulary in 2010.

In no particular order, some of the winners:

• Transparent
• Shovel-ready
• Czar
• Teachable moment
• Too big to fail
• App
• Staycation
• Fierce
• Tweeps
• Unprecedented

What do you think? Are you sick of any of these?

The Reason So Many Resumes Fail to Generate Interest

I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase the proof is in the pudding. That shorthand has evolved over time: the original phrase is the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Meaning results are what matters.

Quantifiable results really do count; that’s never more true than when it comes to your resume. It's those measurable performance indicators that prove the point you're trying to impress upon the reader - you're a solid candidate worthy of consideration. 

Yet so many resumes read like nothing more than (yawn) HR-generated job descriptions.

The fact that you were responsible for this or that task or managed a team of x number of people isn’t very interesting and doesn’t tell the reader anything about what you’ve accomplished. If you stop there, all you've done is written a job description - you could be talking about anyone. You left out the rest of the story! The good part. The persuasive information about you that creates value...and gets you an invitation to interview.

Reciting your job description: not exactly an effective method to get the hiring manager excited about your candidacy. 

The Power of the Magic Resume

Do you have a magic resume?

A lot of job seekers apparently believe they do.

These are the people who routinely send their resumes into nameless black holes (Dear Sir, To Whom It May Concern) and then sit back and expect the phone to ring with invitations to interview.

Wow! Blind submission, no follow up – close the deal. Who knew sales could be so easy? What’s in those resumes??? Must be magic.

But wait. Sales isn’t effortless, and there’s no such thing as a product brochure with magical powers. A piece of paper, no matter how slick, can’t possibly do that kind of heavy lifting. We know that, yet we might think the job search is somehow different. It’s not.

7 Common Resume Mistakes: If They're So Obvious, Why Do Job Seekers Keep Making Them?

Obvious things often....aren't.

Take resume mistakes. Some are painfully apparent to the hiring manager who sees them all day long, yet job seekers make the same errors over and over again.

Sometimes it's a matter of overlooking the very things that are right under your nose.

Or maybe you get a little bit complacent.

Or because you're under pressure, you're rushed - and the quality of your work suffers.

Whatever the reason, nuts and bolts resume mistakes are remarkably widespread - and almost always lethal. They can stop your candidacy dead in its tracks.

To Dumb Down or Not…What to Do About Your Resume?

The longer the recession continues, the more this question comes up: “Should I play down my background and qualifications on my resume?” I was asked about it again last week.

The concept has gotten a good bit of ink lately. Some people swear by it. While I think it’s worthy of consideration, it’s not necessarily the best - or the only - option.

So…should you try it? It depends.

It depends what you have in mind when you say “dumb down.” It depends on the job in question. It depends on your ultimate goal.

Does Your Resume Have What it Takes to Get a Serious Read?

Resume writing probably isn’t up there on your top ten list of favorite things to do. Even if you’re a good writer it’s a difficult task.

That said, it’s a document you’ve got to have, so you invest the time and effort to create one you hope will work some magic and get you an invitation to interview.

After all that sweat equity, it’s probably a little deflating to realize that all you’re going to get from the hiring manager is a quick scan when he first picks it up to have a look. That hardly seems right – or logical.

Isn’t he trying to fill this position? How can he possibly know what you have to offer if all he’s giving you is a 10 second glance?

He does want to hire someone, yes. Here’s what you have to understand, though: the hiring manager is looking for reasons to exclude resumes from the pile. That’s how he goes about whittling the stack down to a reasonable size.

It’s simply a numbers game. At this early stage of the process, you could be going up against literally hundreds of candidates. The hiring manager could carefully read every one of those submissions – but it’s not an efficient use of his time. And it’s unnecessary. Because so many candidates make mistakes, he can quickly separate the chaff from the wheat.

Don’t take this personally. If you’re a solid candidate and your resume showcases you in such a way that you stand out from the crowd, believe me – the hiring manager will read your resume carefully. Eventually.

You’ve got to get through the first scan, though. You have to convince him your resume is worth that closer look. You have just one chance – a fleeting one at that – to make that positive first impression.

Is yours going to make it through the initial filter?

Why Do So Many Resumes Fail?

Your resume’s function is to sell your value to a hiring official. Especially as the job market continues to tighten, it’s important that it performs well and delivers the result you’re looking for – an invitation to interview.

Are you confident yours is effective? Is it the dynamic document it needs to be?

Don’t forget…you could be playing to a tough audience. The reader is often a stranger with little or no prior knowledge of who you are and what you’re all about. He or she is going to make a professional assessment based on what you’ve written, and you’re not going to be given a lot of time to make your case.

With so much at stake, why do so many candidates continue to submit resumes that don’t get more than a passing glance? Why do so many resumes fail?

They don’t make a good first impression. 

5 Common Resume Mistakes: Are You Making Them?

I don’t have to tell you how tough the employment situation is. Hanging on to a job in this economy is hard enough…finding a new one is exponentially more difficult.

And here’s the kicker: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The unemployment rate isn’t through climbing.

(Those Fantasyland models of an unemployment rate in decline by summer 2009 look even more ridiculous now than when they were first pronounced.)
 
Bottom line…now more than ever, your resume needs to work hard for you. If you’re going to have any shot at an interview, you cannot afford to make any mistakes with it. There are no second chances.

If Your Resume is Everywhere, Why Isn’t the Phone Ringing?

Trying to find a job – especially in this economy – is hard work.

You may be investing countless hours scouring electronic job boards, company websites and recruiter sites looking for available positions. You may have submitted your materials literally hundreds of times. And why not? It’s a numbers game, right? Press “click” often enough and eventually something’s going to fall into place.

Generally, though, that’s not what happens.

Hundreds of resumes go out and all that comes back in return is…silence.

If this is the method you’ve been trying, you’re probably ready for another tactic.

Where’s Your Resume?

That’s right. Where is it? Where do you keep it?

Please don't say it’s at work.

I had a conversation recently with a woman who was laid off after many years on the job. Her predicament was all the more painful due to a really serious, self-inflicted blunder.

Though the company had been in financial straits for some time, she’d chosen to ignore the increasingly onerous signs that all was not well and therefore hadn’t seen this downsizing coming. She described herself as having been “totally blindsided.” (That’s a story in and of itself, but we’ll set that aside for now.)

5 Things That Can Sink a Resume

Is your resume delivering results, or has there been a deafening silence in response to your submissions? If you’re not getting the outcome you want, it might be time for a review to see if you’re making any of the following mistakes:

1. Looks Matter
The size and style of font you select along with the layout you choose are important. If your resume isn’t easy to read, the hiring manager will move on to one that is.

2. Errors
Proof your resume. Please. Not with the machine, but with a pair of human eyes. Spelling and/or grammatical errors make it easy for the hiring manager to edit a stack of submissions down to a more manageable size. If you can’t submit an error-free document, don’t expect anyone to take your candidacy seriously.

Your Should Resume Say, “Read Me, Read Me!” Does It?

Imagine walking into a huge bookstore to browse. You’re in the mood for something new to read, but don’t have a particular title in mind. Even after narrowing your search to a specific category, there are still scores of books to choose from.

Which is more likely to catch your eye?

The Blue History Book or The Secret Plot to Overthrow Joe Schmoe?

(So there’s no famous historical figure named Joe Schmoe. And maybe you detest history books. Work with me here.)

Over 50 and Out of Work (Psst...Over-40s Should Read This, Too)

Is there such a thing as age bias?

Yeah, there’s age bias. Just like there’s bias against kids just getting out of college who have thin to nonexistent resumes. And there’s bias against people who have gaps of a few years here and there on their resumes.

So if you’re over 50 (that’s arbitrary…over-40s can have trouble, too) and you lose your job, it’s probably going to be harder for you to find a new opportunity than it will be for somebody who’s younger. It’ll probably take longer, too.

Hiring companies might assume you’re too expensive. They might worry you’ll lack energy and stamina. They might guess you’ve got your sights set on retirement so won’t be interested in sticking around. They might be afraid you’ll be set in your ways…or bristle at the idea of working for someone younger than you.

How to Send Your Resume Straight to the Reject Pile

You can't beat real life examples. Today's resume blunder is a great sample of weak writing. Copy it if you want to quickly eliminate yours from contention.

This resume opens with a qualifications summary, for which there’s a header: Technical Sales, Service and Training Professional. The first line of the summary itself begins like this: “Experienced technical sales, service and training professional….”

Ouch.

Is this candidate afraid the reader might miss “technical sales, service and training professional” the first time around? Or does she believe this attention-grabbing, compelling label (ahem) will convey some gravitas if it’s repeated immediately?

And how about that “experienced” – the very first word (and first adjective) she’s chosen to describe herself in that summary. A+ for wasting space! Experienced? I hope so! What exactly does this word tell the hiring manager about her? Nothing.

So, let’s tally up the problems with this resume so far: it’s boring, the writer is wasting valuable space, she’s not telling the reader anything about herself, and she’s not giving the reader a reason to keep reading. All that and we haven’t gotten beyond the header and first full line of text.

Already the hiring manager is thinking she’s probably seen enough...

See how quickly your resume can end up being rejected?

Choose every word with care. Then have someone who’s a skilled editor critique what you’ve written.

Most people don’t do either. And then they wonder why they aren’t invited to interview.

Your Resume - Who's Handling Quality Control?

Got a "QC Manager" to review your resume? You should think about enlisting someone to perform this function if you haven't already. This someone should not be you.

It’s very difficult to be completely objective when it comes to your resume. After all, you put a lot of work into it, and the subject matter is something you’re intimately familiar with!

That’s why I strongly suggest you find a reliable second pair of eyes to critique your work. (Underscore reliable.) Make sure it’s someone well qualified to give you a constructive, honest assessment. Mom or your best buddy may not be the most prudcent choice. When the reader is a close personal friend or family member, his or her objectivity may be clouded. Then too, your buddy may not have a very compelling resume himself…if that's the case, he's not going to be in the best position to evaluate yours.

This is serious stuff. You won’t make it out of the gate if you don’t execute well. It’s not easy to write a great resume, but fortunately it's a skill - not a talent. You can learn.

For starters, keep these points in mind:

• Do not bore
• Avoid ambiguity
• Don’t waste space
• Stay on message
• Choose every word carefully
• Be sensitive to the fact that yours may be one of hundreds of resumes on the reader’s desk – write for both the quick scan and the careful read

Got a question or topic you'd like to see addressed? Send it to me at RMetschke@TheInterviewEdge.com

Cutting a Stack of Resumes Down to Size – Will Yours Be In…or Out?

How do hundreds of resumes representing applicants for a single position get whittled down to a handful of viable prospects?

Recruiters occasionally run ads, so I’ll use myself as an example to give you an “insider’s look” at the process.

Say I’ve got a pile of resumes to review; it’s maybe two or three inches thick. How long do you think it’s going to take me to accomplish this task?

The truth of the matter is…not long. Certainly no more than 30 minutes – probably less.

The first pass is a scan. Here’s what happens:

• Spelling or grammatical errors get an automatic routing to the reject pile.

• Small font which makes for difficult reading – out.

• Resumes that open with weak objective statements – out. (By the way, by their very nature, most objective statements are weak.)

• Functional format – set to the side…probably out. Only if I can’t come up with a handful of possibilities from the rest of the stack will these get another look.

Resume Challenge: Your Contributions are Difficult to Measure

From the mailbag: “I’m a contractor. Because I’m not ‘on the inside,’ it can be difficult to measure the results of my work. It’s a challenge to convey contributions on my resume because I have no direct management responsibility and therefore little to no quantifiable numerical data I can use. How do I manage that?”

Great question.

This is especially relevant for contractors and consultants, though depending on the job function, inside employees may struggle with the quantifiable results issue, too. For this exercise, I'll focus on outside employees though the tips apply in either scenario.

Packing a Punch With Your Resume

Today I challenge you to a little exercise.

Print a copy of your current resume. Now set page 2 (and page 3, if there is one) aside. Take page one and fold it in half horizontally.

Orient it so that the top half of the page (which includes your name) is visible.

What do you see? (Be honest.)

• Is it visually appealing?
• Does it sum up who you are, and what’s unique about you?
• Is it so compelling that it makes it almost impossible to resist the urge to flip the paper over and read on?
• Is it easy to grasp the most pertinent information with just a glance?

Say No to the Objective Statement

Change can be good. Sometimes there’s merit in shaking things up just a bit, especially if you’ve gotten into a rut.

When you wrote your first professional resume, you may have opened with an objective statement. Many updates (and years) later, you’re still using the same basic design – and still leading with an objective.

It’s time to kiss it goodbye.

Three good reasons to get rid of it:

1) It’s too broad

2) It’s too narrow

3) It screams out, “Me, me, me!”

What Will it Take…Is Someone Going to Read Your Resume?

That’s the $64,000 question (though in current context, we should probably up the ante to $64 billion).

The answer?

While you can never be sure of the outcome, you can improve your odds.

Let’s start with electronic posting. If you’re submitting your materials to a corporation’s site or to a major job board, it’s safe to assume it may never be read by a human being. A machine will scan it – along with the thousands of others that might arrive on a given day – and it’ll be saved to a vast database. That could be the end of that.

Especially if you’re submitting your resume cold (i.e. you’re not responding to a specific position), consider it a miracle if it ends up in the hands of a hiring manager.

Evaluating Your Resume Through Unbiased Eyes

Can you do it?

Can you step back, assume the role of a neutral and impartial observer, and accurately assess the fruits of your labor?

Unless you're a practiced editor, it can be a challenge.

To begin with, this is an important document; you’ve probably put a lot of time and effort into revising it. The resulting sense of ownership can be hard to disassociate from.

More importantly, when you review your resume you inevitably see a complete picture of the person described…because it’s you. Missing pieces of data, any lack of clarity, points that aren’t as strong as they could be – these are harder for you to discern because you have an exhaustive knowledge of the subject matter. Your brain has the information it needs to fill in the blanks automatically, so they may not register as such.

10 Things You Can Do to Make Sure Your Resume is a Bust

Want to make sure your resume gets passed over? Keep in mind the pointers below as you’re reviewing it. Unless the hiring manager is exceptionally bored and has nothing better to do when she gets to yours, you’ll have a good chance of succeeding!

1. Lead with an objective statement. Make sure it’s generic and bland. Better yet, make it an objective statement that doesn’t really match the job in question.

2. Use a functional format. While it’s commonly assumed that most hiring managers are frustrated detectives who enjoy nothing more than having to dig deep to make sense out of your work history, this is actually a myth.

Resume Fraud in a Tough Job Market - Is Everybody Doing It?

Numerous surveys conducted in the last few years indicate that roughly 40% of all resumes contain intentional inaccuracies or fabrications of some sort (pre-recession data).

As the economy continues to deteriorate and competition for jobs becomes even more fierce, it’s logical to expect this number to increase.

We’re talking about everything from embellishment to outright falsehood – and it happens at all levels, all the way up to and including the executive suite.

While it’s not uncommon for candidates to get away with some story telling (and even outright lying) and still get the job, it’s also not unusual for them to be found out – sometimes many years later. I’m sure you’ve seen at least some of the stories of high profile senior executives who’ve run into trouble recently after resume inconsistencies came to light.

Your Resume: Transforming Lifeless Paper into a Dynamic Candidate

Have you ever wondered what hiring managers see when they look at your resume?

Is it just another sheet or two of paper (out of thousands)?

Or do the words come alive and draw the reader in? Does she conjure up a picture of a candidate she’d like to meet? Someone who could be a serious contender for the job?

Whether you’re nothing but a slip of paper – or a three dimensional human being with a compelling story – is up to you.

If your resume reads like a litany of HR-generated job descriptions, you’re not going to get very far. It needs to market your abilities and it must do so in a way that makes you stand out from the competition. You may have impeccable credentials and solid experience, but if you can’t present your background in a persuasive way, you’re going to severely limit your chances of being invited to interview.

Especially in a tight job market, you must create a winning resume.

Your Resume – Stunning Portrait or Grainy Snapshot?

You’re having your head shot taken for the corporate press kit or your company’s sales materials. The photographer finishes up, and you sit down with her to review the proofs and select the shot you’d like to use.

Some of the poses are easy to throw out upon first glance. Your eyes are shut, or it’s not a good angle, or you don’t like your smile. You narrow it down to just a handful of finalists, and from there you make your pick. Obviously, you’re going to choose the image that is the most flattering.

This photograph is important. It’s going to end up on the corporate website, or in the annual report, or maybe in the informational folder you send to prospective clients or partners.

That’s why you sit for the photograph. You don’t say, “Hey, let’s just skip this. I’ve got a snapshot of me that my kid took recently; I’ll send that over for you to use.” It’s also why you review the proofs…you don’t relegate the task of selecting the shot to somebody in the creative department. 

Your Resume – What Kind of First Impression Does it Make?

Within the first few seconds of meeting someone, that person has formed an impression of you. Fair or not, accurate or not, they’ve made a judgment…and once they’ve done so, it’s very difficult to change their view of who you are.

What kind of “first impression” does your resume make?

What does it say about you?

How will the hiring manager evaluate you based on those first few seconds she spends scanning the document? Will she look at anything other than the first few lines? Will she be interested enough to read it in more detail? Will she throw it in the trash?

Resume Blunders - Tell the Truth About Your Degrees

You’re a few credits shy of your MBA, and you’re tempted to go ahead and list the degree on your resume as having been conferred. After all, the company you’re interested in says they won’t interview anyone without an MBA; if you don’t tell this white lie, it’ll take a miracle just to get your foot in the door.

Don’t do it. Degrees are easy to verify, and most companies (and certainly most recruiters) will take the time to validate your educational credentials.

Say the company does have a strict MBA requirement. What’s the point of getting past the initial barrier, making it through a round or two of interviews, and then being found out during a credential check? Not only will you not get the offer, the deception could harm you down the road. Things like that have a way of sticking with a candidate.

My advice – tell the truth.

Have You Reviewed Your Resume Objectively?

Sometimes one of the most difficult things to do is to step back and objectively look at your work. Ask any artist.

Once a person has become very close to a subject, it can be a challenge to view it with a fresh, dispassionate eye. This is a crucially important skill, however.

Your resume, arguably one of the most important documents you’ll ever write, requires this type of analysis. For the best results, you need to be able to impartially critique what you’ve crafted. Sometimes that can be difficult. This is you and your career that you’re writing about, after all! Still, it’s essential.

Have you done it?

CAN you do it?

Electronic Etiquette and Your Job Search

Want to know how to foil your chances of being considered for a job before the train even leaves the station? Here’s one excellent way:

Send your resume as an attachment.

Unless the hiring manager knows you, there's a chance he may never click to open it. Delete. That’s the end of that.

Perhaps you’re wondering why on earth he’d do something like that. After all, he has a position to fill! Why wouldn’t he at least open the file and glance at your information?

Simple. Computer security.

Will Your Resume Get You the Interview, or Eliminate You From Contention?

The purpose of your resume is to land you an invitation to interview. Is yours going to deliver?

Chances are, the hiring manager has a stack of resumes on her desk, all representing people who are vying for the same position. On her first pass, she’s going to whittle that down to a manageable number. She’ll quickly scan each document, looking for reasons to exclude the vast majority of them. (Trust me when I say that’s not difficult.)

If she’s lucky, she’ll find a handful of candidates who look – on paper – as though they may warrant further consideration. If you make that first cut, she’ll probably spend a little bit more time with your paperwork, and if you’ve written a good enough document, you may get the chance to interview.

What Does Your Resume Say About You?

Do you shop online? Most of you probably do. So do I – almost to the exclusion of going to brick and mortar stores at all!

It’s pretty straightforward when you’re purchasing a commodity like office supplies or software, but not as easy to make a good choice if you’re buying something like clothing. Until you’ve got some kind of knowledge about a manufacturer and know how their products tend to fit you, and have a feel for their quality, it can be something of a hit or miss proposition.

At the brick and mortar retail store, you can examine quality by looking carefully at a garment. You can find out pretty quickly how it fits. Online? Hard to tell. The better the website is at providing the information you need to make an informed decision, the better the odds that you’ll make the purchase. But it’s always a little harder to sell an item online than it is in person.

You may be wondering what this has to do with your resume.

In a word? Everything.

Your Resume - Is Anyone Going to Read It?

We’ve all read funny stories about resume blunders – sometimes the mistakes are so ridiculous it might make you wonder if they’re real or fictional.

As a recruiter who’s reviewed thousands of them, I can assure you that poorly written resumes are not at all uncommon. In fact, some are terrible. There’s no other way to put it. Further, the quality of resumes is trending down. On the whole, they’re worse now than they were even 10 years ago.

This doesn’t mean the labor pool is unqualified – but it does mean that people don’t necessary know how to write a good sales document....because that’s what your resume is. It’s a product brochure, and you’re the product on display.

Your Resume and Cover Letter - How to Beat the Odds and Get Noticed

Internet marketers face immense challenges when it comes to vying for your attention. The hard truth is that roughly half of visitors to landing pages will leave them within less than 10 seconds.

Why should that matter to you? Because you’re facing similar tough odds when competing for the hiring manager's attention.

You have about the same amount of time – 10 seconds – to make an impression with your cover letter and resume. If you don’t give the hiring manager an immediate reason to read on, she won’t.

Good Reasons to Keep Your Resume Updated

I’m hoping you’re the person who is diligent about keeping your resume current. Unfortunately, though, the opposite is usually the norm. Time and time again, candidates end up needing this vital document quickly and find themselves scrambling to get it into usable shape.

Following are four great reasons to get into the habit of reviewing your resume every six months:

1. Things can change on a dime. The job you thought was secure can be gone tomorrow. You don’t want to add to the stress of a layoff by realizing that you haven’t glanced at your resume since you started your latest job. This is a crucial marketing document; you’re more likely to make mistakes or leave out important information if you’ve forced yourself into a situation where you’re making updates at the last minute. You will almost certainly forget about accomplishments that should be included if you wait until you’re in the middle of a crisis to dust off your resume. And it’s pretty much a guarantee that you won’t do your best writing.