Palladian Career Resources

Example of a Terrible Resume

Example of a Terrible Resume

I received a resume that does a terrible of job of selling the job seeker.  The candidate is an experienced sales manager, with over 20 years in his field.  Despite a long career in sales, this individual didn't sell their potential.

The first problem with the resume was the length.  It is one page and 190 words.  In 20 years, this job seeker should have more to write about than this.  A good rule of thumb for an experienced professional is two pages and 400 words – double the length of this resume.

The length of the resume is made even worse when the content is considered.  Of the 190 words, 77 are devoted to the candidate's hobbies.  Details such as an interest in "travel and camping" and the fact that the candidate is a "healthy eater and non-smoker" don't need to be on the resume.  The hobbies section is full of information that has nothing to do with the candidate's career. 

The presentation gets even worse in the work experience section.  The listing of experience is very short and gives little detail of what the individual did.  There is one bullet on the resume that indicates a pattern of success.  The individual lists that he was salesman of the year for his company eight separate times.  This is a great detail to list but the information isn't sufficient.  There's nothing that indicates how large the organization was or how many other sales people worked in sales at the company. 

Another problem with the resume is the listing of the employer's information.  The job seeker provides the phone number for the company and then in bold writes "please do not contact at this time."  I don't understand why they job seeker decided to put the phone number if he didn't want a hiring manager to call it. 

Overall, this resume fails to sell the potential of the candidate.  It has little substance about the career of the job seeker and provides a lot of detail on hobbies unrelated to the job.  

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