gcapone, Author at Palladian Career Resources

Resume Tip #8

Resume Tip: Don’t over exaggerate your experiences or accomplishments.

Resume Tip: Don’t over exaggerate your experiences or accomplishments.

Your resume is a sales pitch for why you should be hired. You are expected to present your background positively, but this does not mean that you should characterize your experience as something that it isn’t. Your resume must be an honest depiction of what you have done. Some job seekers think exaggeration and lies will get them a job. In reality, one over exaggeration can cause a hiring manager to doubt everything in a resume and reject the candidate.

Some job seekers with great accomplishments struggle with presenting them so they will be both impressive and believable. If you are uncertain of the impression you are making with your resume, get a second opinion.

My Interview Prep Book Is Now Available

My new book, Power Up Your Job Search: A Modern Approach to Interview Preparation, provides a step-by-step system to prepare you for an interview, and will help you outpace the competition.

My new book, Power Up Your Job Search: A Modern Approach to Interview Preparation, provides a step-by-step system to prepare you for an interview, and will help you outpace the competition. I co-wrote the book with my business partner at Palladian, Mark Henderson.

We started writing this book more than three years ago in an effort to develop a simple guide to help candidates in our executive recruiting business. We were shocked by the poor interview performance of many exceptional job seekers. Some of the most successful candidates in a field could not present their capabilities and potential effectively. Over the years, we developed a powerful system to prepare individuals to interview quickly. This book teaches our system in a clear straight-forward manner.

We wrote the book with three audiences in mind – experienced professionals and executives, transitioning military personal, and individuals entering the workforce. Each audience possesses a different background, but similar needs. To address all three groups, the book starts with several chapters that provide a foundation. It then moves on to advanced interviewing techniques. By following this approach and considering the needs of all three groups, the book will benefit the most experienced job seekers in a straight-forward style that even the least experienced job seekers will find easy to follow.

Almost everyone will benefit from this book, but some people need it more than others. If a person has gone on an interview, felt they did great but never heard from the company again, they need this book. Too many job seekers make fundamental mistakes in interviews but have no idea they are sabotaging their search. These individuals need to learn the techniques in the book.

For regular readers of my blog, some of the techniques in the book will be familar, but a lot of the content is new and never published before.

To learn more about the book, go to Power Up Your Job Search.

The 2,600 Word Resume

A resume should be a concise summary of a job seeker’s background and potential. Resumes are not designed to provide every detail about the job seeker. The resume I read today was far from being concise.

I recommend a resume should be 400 to 900 words and no more than two pages. There are rare exceptions to this guideline, but most resumes are too long. The resume I looked at was seven pages, with a small font. I ran a word count and it totaled 2,606 – more than six times the length I recommend.

This wasn’t the first problem with the resume. The cover letter got things starter, beginning with:

Hello Gentlemen/Ladies,

I am a software engineer with a very strong backgroud in UNIX/LINUX, C, C++, parallel and distributed computing applications. I think my resume speaks for itself.

If misspelling “backgroud” wasn’t enough, a statement that the “resume speaks for itself” is a major detractor. It creates an impression of an extremely arrogant job seeker. The resume confirmed this. The vast majority of the resume dealt with various IT systems and programming languages. The level of detail was so overwhelming, it is very difficult to know what the candidate’s greatest strengths are.

The talent, education and experience of a person with a PhD in computer engineering and 16 years of design experience at top firms is impressive, but the candidate isn’t going to be assessed in isolation. A company that is considering a PhD with this much experience will be looking at other candidates with similar experience and educational backgrounds.

The resume was composed of lengthy paragraphs that only detailed the technologies used on the project. The technical skills are important, but listing the names of the technologies does nothing to show the skill level of the job seeker. It read like an IT version of boastful name-dropping. The project descriptions provided little information as to the scope of the project, the obstacles that were overcome and the results of the project. It only explained what technologies were used.

Without detailed information on the project scope, there is no way to assess the work of the job seeker. Listing a lot of in demand technologies does not make a person qualified to do a job. A much shorter resume, with far less detail could convey a lot more information.

Another problem is a direct result of the length. A seven page list of projects detailing every technology ever encountered resulted in a list of skills that covers most of the IT field. No one can be an expert in hundreds of different technologies, and companies don’t hire people because they have a very limited familiarity with a skill that is critical to the job. By presenting so many technologies, the job seeker dilutes the skills he really is a top expert in using.

This resume will show up in a huge number of IT searches if it is posted on a job board, but it is unlikely that the job seeker will get many calls. There just isn’t anything to generate a positive impression except for the education of the job seeker and a seven page list of buzzwords.

When writing your resume, look for ways to cut words out. You should assess every word and every sentence for whether they provide significant value or not. Shorter and simpler will be much more effective.

How to Select a New Career

Recessions are a time of change for a lot of people. A downturn forces people to leave jobs at unsuccessful companies and seek work at more successful firms. In this process, many people will change careers, leaving industries that are overstaffed for industries that are understaffed. As painful as recessions are, they are a fundamental part of our economic system. Periodically, industries, companies and people reinvent themselves.

The uncertainty of changing careers is difficult and scary. I’ve changed careers several times. In school, I completed and engineering degree and an accounting degree at the same time. This gave me an incredibly wide variety of options. I started in public accounting with Price Waterhouse and then made a change to process engineering with Newell-Rubbermaid. Since then, I have worked in a few other careers and several different industries. Some of the changes I made were in careers that were very well suited for my interests and abilities. Others, it turned out, weren’t as good a fit.

If you are facing a major career change, knowing the best direction can be difficult to determine. The uncertainty of the industry, job and company can be daunting. Despite this, you may be forced to make a major change. If you are in Michigan and from the auto industry, finding a job similar to what you have done may be impossible. How do you decide what career and industry to pursue?

There are resources to help. Research industries and careers, start online and then speak with individuals in those careers. This will give some background on the careers you are considering. If you are making a small change, this research may be all you need. A more significant change may require more help.

Consider talking with a career counselor to learn more about how your skills and interests match different careers. A good career counselor knows how to interpret the interests of a job seeker to identify jobs that will satisfy these interests. A counselor will also help develop the roadmap for moving into the new career.

There are a number of reasons people use career counselors. Markell Steele, from Futures In Motion, outlines a few of the most common:

“People who seek out my career advice are motivated by a number of factors. They may:

Be fearful of a pending layoff or reorganization,

Feel that they have few opportunities for advancement,

Be looking for new challenges,

Think their career is off track,

Be uncertain about their future career path, and

Recognize that the job market has changed and they don’t know what to do.

They are feeling overwhelmed, under challenged, unmotivated, stressed out, bored and burned out. Working with a career counselor can help you alleviate the anxiety of changing your career situation.”

If you have an interest in learning more about career counseling, take a look at Markell’s “SPECIAL REPORT: 6 Tips For Discovering The Work You Love By Working With A Career Counselor.”

How to Fail at a Job Fair

A month ago, I attended a job fair. As an executive recruiter, my primary goal at job fairs is to build my database. I can never be sure what my clients are going to want in the future, so I need to cover all the bases.

My database is electronic. I doubt I have more than half a dozen resumes printed at any point in time. There are just too many candidates to try to keep track of everything with hard copies. This makes it critical for me to get an electronic version of each resume to upload into my database. I don’t have the time to type a resume into the system.

I am explaining my motivation and process so you can understand the mistake a lot of job seekers made at the job fair. When I talked with a candidate that impressed me, I would give them my business card and ask them to email me their resume. I did this with at least thirty or forty different people. After the job fair I received emails following up on the conversations from two people. Two candidates out of thirty or forty took the time to email their resume after a recruiter requested it.

There are a variety of reasons why the candidates didn’t follow up. I expect the most common was they forgot who I was. After meeting with a hundred companies, the job seekers couldn’t remember most of the conversations. All they had was a pocket full of business cards.

I was disappointed so few candidates followed up, but I wasn’t too upset. If a person can’t follow a simple instruction like “email me your resume,” then how successful do you think they are in their career?

I did have a number of job seekers give me paper copies of their resume. A paper copy doesn’t do much for me though. I can’t load the resume into my system without retyping it, and that is too time consuming. When I got home I reviewed the resumes. If someone fit a job we were working right now, they got a call. All the other resumes ended up in a stack and will ultimately be shredded. I could take a job order tomorrow that is ideal for one of the people in the stack, but I have no way of finding the resume.

Bottom line: If you want to maximize your success at a job fair, take notes when speaking with each company and follow up after the job fair.

Living in the Past

I assessed a resume today of a job seeker focused on the past and not the present. The candidate came from a very good school and had an excellent track record. Below is an outline the information in the resume, with identifying information omitted:

Professional Profile

10+ years of leadership experience

Graduate of <a really good school> and 4 year NCAA Div. 1 varsity football athlete

Proven track record of delivering successful results

Broad experience conducting presentations to individuals at all levels of organizations

Extensive knowledge of <list of industries>

Practical experience with <list of skills>

Work Experience

2001-Present
Sales Representative
<Company Name>
<details of position omitted>

1997 to 2001
Progression of positions with increasing leadership responsibility
<Company Name>
<details of position omitted>

Education

University
City, State
Degree
1996

Activities

<list of hobbies and volunteer work>

The problem with this resume is in the Professional Profile. After twelve years in his career, playing football in college is the second most important element of the resume. I'm a big football fan and have incredible respect for the athleticism and work ethic required to balance the workload a Division 1 football team and the academics of a top tier school. This is impressive, but presenting it at the top of the resume may do more harm than good.

By listing the football career at the top, the job seeker raises the question of whether he has been successful in his career. If he was successful over the last twelve years, why isn't his success in his career at the top of the resume? Hiring managers look for a track record of success building throughout the career.

After reading the the Professional Profile section, the job seeker appears to have some good experience, graduated from a good school but emphasizes football over his career. This isn't enough to reject the candidate at this point, but does raise some doubts.

The work experience section is good. The experiences and skills of the candidate make a good impression, but there is nothing overwhelming. The candidate lists a few accomplishments and awards, but fails to qualify these. It is difficult to assess how impressive the accomplishments are. This leaves the interpretation of the resume to the feeling of the reader.

After the work experience, the candidate presents his education. As I mentioned above, the candidate graduated from a top tier school with an impressive degree.

The resume concludes with an Activities section. In this section, the job seeker lists some volunteer work and several positions coaching football. Ending with football reinforces the emphasis on football at the top of the resume and detracts from presentation of the candidate's career. No matter what the job seeker did in his career, by bracketing his resume with his participation in football at the top and bottom, the candidate leads the reader to focus their attention on football and not the professional qualifications.

To improve the resume, I would change three things. First, I would move the information on playing division 1 football to the education section. Playing Division 1 football demonstrates several good qualities. Including this on the resume is beneficial, but is much better placed at the bottom and not the top. Second, I would drop the listing of the activities. The volunteer work and football coaching do little to reinforce the capability of the job seeker. Third, I would provide more detail to a few of the accomplishments within the work experience section. An accomplishment is most impressive when the role of the job seeker, the scope of the situation, the actions taken and the results achieved are clearly presented. The examples given in the resume only show vague results, with nothing about how they were achieved.

Making these three changes will provide a much more compelling presentation. On your resume, make sure you are emphasizing the information that will be most impressive to a hiring manager. Many job seekers emphasize the details they are most proud of. Unfortunately, these details may not provide the best sales pitch for the candidate. Focus on the elements of your background that are most closely related to the requirements of the job you are seeking.

Hiring Managers Want to Succeed

One of the most significant priorities of hiring managers is selecting a person that will make them successful. Every position within a company has goals and expectations. If it didn’t, the position would be eliminated. Managers need to deliver results, and this requires each member of their their delivering results that contribute to the team’s goals. To standout in the interview process, you need to show how you will contribute to the company’s and team’s success.

This is just the starting point though. There are other factors beyond individual contribution that a hiring manager will consider. A big issue is how easy a person will be to manage. Managers may overseas a few people or dozens. The larger the team, the less time the manager can devote to each individual.

I’m sure you have worked with someone that was very needy. The type of person that requires constant direction and management. This could be caused by insecurity, a lack of initiative or a low skill level. Regardless of the cause, an employee requiring significant time and effort to manage can make the manager less effective. It is rare that a manager today is only responsible for managing their team. Most are tasked with a variety of other responsibilities.

Some people won’t care about the problems and tasks of a potential boss. They are focused on showing they can do the job they are seeking. The downfall of this is hiring managers will hire the person who will make their team successful. This may not be the person with the most experience or talent.

Professional sports routinely show talented athletes that hurt their team’s performance. Terrell Owens has been regarded by many as the most talented receiver in the NFL for a number of years. His ability is exceptional and he can dominate a game. Despite this, he was cut from the Philadelphia Eagles mid-season a few years ago and has now been released from the Dallas Cowboys. There are a number of teams that need a good receiver that have passed over T.O. several times. Recently, the Bills signed him and it will be interesting to see if he helps or hurts the team.

In your job search, it is important to show how you will help the company, your team and your boss. If you only focus on your personal achievement or contributions to the company, without any concern for the success of your team, you can hurt your chances.

In preparing to interview, look at what you did to make the jobs of your past bosses easier. How did you communicate with them? When and how would you ask for help? Are you able to work autonomously or do you need a lot of attention? How did you get along with your team?

Consider these questions before your next interview. Even if you are not asked any of them, you can be certain you will be assessed on how you will contribute to the success of your prospective boss.

Interview Tip #7

Interview Tip: Demonstrate your willingness to do whatever the job requires.

Interview Tip: Demonstrate your willingness to do whatever the job requires.

In every job, there is a reason they pay you – activities and responsibilities that a person otherwise would not want to do. These undesirable parts of the job are often the most critical to the role’s success. You want to demonstrate in an interview that you willing to do every aspect of the job. Show your work ethic and examples of when you went above and beyond the expectations placed upon you.

Behavioral interview questions are often used to assess how a person acts instead of focusing just on responsibilities and results.

Example of a Customized Resume

I ran into a great article this morning showing how to customize a resume for a specific job. Louise Fletcher at Blue Sky Resumes shows a resume before and after customization.

I ran into a great article this morning showing how to customize a resume for a specific job. Louise Fletcher at Blue Sky Resumes shows a resume before and after customization. The changes between the original and customized resume are subtle but very effective. Changing a few terms and emphasizing a specific accomplishment can make a resume really standout.

Many job seekers write the most general resume they can. They attempt to make their resume applicable to as wide a range of positions as possible. The goal is to maximize the number of opportunities the job seeker will be considered for. This doesn’t work. Instead of increasing the number of opportunities, the job seeker ensures that they will not stand out and will be overlooked for most positions.

Check out the article from Louise Fletcher… How to Customize Your Resume.

Resume Tip #7

Resume Tip: Include awards and other recognition of your accomplishments on your resume.

Resume Tip: Include awards and other recognition of your accomplishments on your resume.

With your accomplishments, include recognition of these accomplishments. This could entail a major corporate award, but often the recognition is less formal. Some companies provide bonuses for successful projects, recognition lunches or dinners after a significant contribution or a public congratulatory statement. Consider including these in your resume as they can help validate the significance of an accomplishment.