Category: Resume Examples

I do not like to see personal information on a resume. I always wonder whether the job seeker ran out of professional information to put on their resume. Space is limited and anything you put on your resume is prioritized over everything else. So, family information, hobbies and volunteer work should not displace details that are directly related to the position you are seeking.

Now, having said that, here’s the last line of a resume I received:

Hobbies: Drag Racing, Camping, Dirt Bike Riding and Woodworking

If you’re thinking that I probably hate this – you’re wrong. This is one of the few situations where this is actually a positive on the resume – and it not because I like any of these hobbies.

The reason these hobbies are a good thing on the resume is because they relate very directly to the experience and goals of the job seeker. This individual has more than 20 years of experience with auto parts, auto repair and auto racing. Moreover, there objective is to work in an automotive repair service department.

With this background and objective, the Drag Racing and Dirt Bike experience become significant. The woodworking doesn’t hurt, but isn’t as significant.

Now, including Camping is a waste of space, but given that it’s only one word, I can live with it.

I received a resume today that was so bad, I need write about it.  The resume is from a federal employee with more than 30 years in various supervisory and management positions within government.  The resume is almost a guide for what not to do.  Here are the basics:

• 6 Pages – the resume is six pages long, written in paragraph form.  There’s no way I’m going to read all of this. 
• 808 words – the first job listed has a description that covers one and half pages – a full 808 words.  This is longer than most resumes – I had to check this and pulled 10 other resumes at random and found they had an average of 668 words, with only four of them having more than 808 words. 
• No accomplishments – I read the first page of the resume doesn’t have a single accomplishment on it (I stopped reading there). 
• Acronyms – There are so many government acronyms in the resume, I honestly have no idea what this person did.
• Hours per week – The job seeker listed for each job that it was a 40 hr/wk job and that the role was as a permanent employee.  This isn’t important information. 
• Nine Digit Zip – The job seeker provided the full address for each position they held, along the nine digit zip code.  This is overkill.
• Continuing Education – The job seeker lists EVERY class, seminar and lecture they have been to in their 30+ year career. Continuing education should be included on your resume.   But listing everything is overkill.  I really don’t need to know that this job seeker received one hour of EEO training in 1985, or two hours of safety training in 1976. 

Although I could continue giving examples of problems with this resume, the bottom line is that it fails.  Despite the overwhelming amount of detail, I don’t understand what this individual has done or what they are qualified for.  There is also nothing that indicates to me what this job seeker is seeking.  Without the answer to these questions, it’s impossible to make a connection to an opportunity.  I’m left with two options:  click delete or take a lot of time interviewing the job seeker to answer these questions.

One of the resumes I read today listed the full address of each employer. This isn’t common, but I have seen it a number of times. Job seekers going overboard in the level of detail they are providing. Here’s the format the job seeker used:

Company Name: 123 Main Street, City, ST 12345-6789 Telephone: (123) 456-7890
Start Date to End Date Job Title

Not only did the job seeker provide the address and phone, they listed the full nine digit zip code. I couldn’t tell you my four digit zip code extension and am not interested in knowing yours from every job you have held.

It is important to include the location of each position you have held. This helps tell the story of your career. The detail, though, can be limited to the city and state (or just the country for some overseas positions).

There are two main problems from providing too much detail. First, it takes up space that you could use for more important information. Second, it obscures what’s important. The job title is the last thing listed. This made it more difficult to find. Now, it wasn’t a terrible chore to find – it may have taken an extra second or two on each position. Unfortunately, your resume might only get a 15-30 second look from a hiring manager before they decide to keep it or toss it. With five positions, do you want to waste 5-10 seconds of that time having the reader look for you job titles? That could be as much as a third of the time your resume gets.

Bottom line: Make sure you provide the important information and leave out unimportant details, and make sure the important stuff is easy to find.

I recently assessed a job seeker that had provided a resume that told very little. Fortunately, we had been referred to this individual and knew they were talented. Otherwise, their resume would probably have been discarded. The reason: there’s nothing in the resume that sells the job seekers.

Here’s the background of the candidate: 10 years experience in a field with very good job stability and a good progression of promotions. Bachelor’s degree and MBA. The candidate is in a competitive field and has a great track record of success.

That’s what we know from the interview and references we did. The resume tells a different story – or rather, it doesn’t tell the story at all.

The resume is one page. The top quarter of the page has the job seekers name, contact information and the objective statement. The objective statement doesn’t give an objective. Here’s how it reads:

Objective: A position that will utilize the accumulated skills and business expertise that has been gained from my experience as a <job title>.

Now, I have to assume the candidate would be interested in the same job they have been doing, at a similar company, in a similar industry. If they want anything different from what they are doing know, there’s nothing to tell me this.

Next is the Work Experience section. The job seeker has less than 10 bullets covering all the jobs they have held. Of these, all but the last is a basic responsibility. In fact, the first bullet under their current job says essentially:

Responsible for day-to-day operations of my department.

Now the actual bullet is more detailed regarding the actual responsibilities, but this is an accurate rewording of the meaning.

Now, how excited would you be to hire someone that describe their work history as “I was responsible for doing my job?” Although including responsibilities is important, there has to be more in a resume.

The job seeker had their only accomplishment as the last bullet of the work experience section, and this bullet was very weak, saying only that they have met their goals in one position. The natural question a hiring manager would ask is:

Have you done anything successfully in the last 10 years.

If you knew the candidate, you would answer with a resounding yes. If you only saw the resume, you would answer absolutely not.

Bottom Line: This job seeker failed to present their pattern of success or their potential for growth. Their resume will slow or stop their job search before they get an chance to interview. The first steps to fixing this are to add specific accomplishments and improve their objective statement (or remove it).