Resume Writing Archives - Page 11 of 13 - Palladian Career Resources

Highlighting Poor Computer Skills on a Resume

On a resume of a financial services professional, I saw something that surprised me. It shouted “poor computer skills” because of a single omission.

The resume was for a sales rep in a financial services firm – someone that sells investment and insurance products to individuals and businesses. This is a field requiring excellent sales skills along with good quantitative and technical skills.

The resume had all the stuff you would expect… state and NASD licenses, sales numbers, client numbers and other details relevant to the industry. At the bottom, the resume had a Technical Skills section. This is what caught my eye. Here’s what the section contained:

Microsoft Windows XP and Word
Act! Contact Management
Proprietary in-house systems

The reason this caught my eye is that it doesn’t list Excel. I find it hard to believe someone could work in the industry without some Excel experience – it’s a basic tool that is almost fundamental to financial analysis.

Now if the resume didn’t have a technical skills section, I wouldn’t have noticed. It was the overt statement that the job seeker knows Windows and Word, without mentioning Excel that made this odd.

There’s a chance that this individual knows Excel and just forgot to list it. I’d probably give them a call to check, given that the rest of the resume is pretty strong. This wouldn’t kill the job seeker’s chances but it would cause me to question their technical skills more than I ordinarily might, since I would assume the skill level is low.

There are situations where this could be a deal killer. If the hiring manager considers Excel expertise a key priority, the resume has a fair chance of being discarded.

Remember that if you are highlighting your skills, create a complete picture of the skills relevant to a position. Listing Excel experience isn’t what’s important, it’s listing software that is a primary tool within the industry.

How to Update Your Resume

It’s been a few years and you’ve decided to brush off your resume and start looking… what now?
Many job seekers will simply tack on their current job and send it out. The problem with this is that your old resume might not be the best sales pitch for your current situation.

When you update your resume, you should reassess every bit of it. Start by looking at the structure.

Review the Structure – Did you have a functional or chronological structure last time? Is this still the best choice? The reasons you chose the structure may not be relevant today. For example, if you used a functional structure, there’s a good chance you chose this structure because you were changing career fields and wanted to highlight your skills over your progression. Hopefully, you’ve gained some valuable experience making your progression more impressive. Switching to a chronological format would make sense in this situation.
Add New Info – Write a description of your current job, along with accomplishments you want to highlight. At this stage, don’t worry about where you put the information you write. You may put skills or accomplishments in an executive summary, a skills section, an accomplishments section or somewhere else. For now, just add it all to the work experience section.
Prioritize Information – Identify the most important information that you want to highlight. This is the content that best sells you. The priorities will change over time. Two factors will affect this – time and relevance. As time passes, a very significant aspect of your background may lose importance. For example, for a recent college graduate, their education is probably the most significant thing on their resume. Ten or twenty years later, it’s still important, but not the top priority. The relevance of something may also change. As your career progresses, your responsibilities will change and the skills and accomplishments that demonstrate your potential to succeed in new roles will change.
Review the Structure Again – In step 1, you assessed the overall structure. Now that we have the prioritization of information, it’s time to review the order of information. Should your work experience go at the top, or your education? Do you want to add/remove an executive summary? How are you going to present your accomplishments?
Add/Delete Information – Over time, you will want to trim down descriptions to make room for newer content. Review everything on your resume and ask the question, is this important enough to keep? This will help you avoid preserving information that has no importance to your current career. For example, one job seeker I assessed was a senior executive with 30 years of experience. At the bottom of his resume he listed several accomplishments from the start of his career, including being an Eagle Scout. 30 years ago, this was fine to include. Today, it is almost comical… in 30 years, I would hope you have accomplishments significant enough to displace this.
Customize your resume – It’s unlikely you are pursuing the same job today that you were seeking the last time you sent out your resume. Make sure you are highlighting the skills and experiences that are most relevant to your current search. Are the skills you deemphasized before, skills that you now want to bring to the forefront? For example, if you were in a technical role and have since moved into a leadership position, you may want to deemphasize your technical skills in favor of highlighting your leadership.

Follow these six steps, and you will be well ahead of the majority of job seekers that only do Step 2 – pasting their newest info to the top of the work experience section.

LinkedIn and Your Resume

I read an interesting question on LinkedIn today…

“Would you put a link to your LinkedIn profile on your resume?”

There have been a lot of good answers posted by LinkedIn users – some advocating and some discouraging this. I think it really depends on your resume and your LinkedIn Profile.

Your Profile

LinkedIn is essentially a social network – except that it focuses on careers. A profile on LinkedIn is similar to a resume, but the content is slightly different. You can be much freer about what information you include and how you describe it.

You can expect that a hiring manager will Google your name while you are being consider, so there’s a good chance they will see your profile anyway. Just realize that this will be well into the hiring process. Many hiring managers will only put forth this type of effort once they are seriously considering making an offer. If you want your profile to be read early in the process, before interviews start, then you need to link to it.

What Value Does the Profile Offer to Your Resume

LinkedIn profiles have several pieces of information that may compliment your resume. The most obvious are the recommendations. Users can write recommendations for co-workers. This allows a hiring manager to read what is essentially a reference check long before they normally would conduct references.

Another benefit is seeing the connections you have. This can be particularly helpful for business development professionals where the largest rolodex wins.

The LinkedIn Answers is a place where you can answer questions asked by others. Having a strong track record of answering questions in a field may demonstrate expertise. I wouldn’t set out to answer questions just to highlight on your resume, but if you have a passion for participating in the discussion, it may help.

Finally, your profile personalizes your resume. Profiles usually focus much more on an individual’s interests and motivations than a resume does.

Why Shouldn’t I Add My Profile

First, if you have an incomplete or poorly written profile, don’t highlight it.

Second, are you going to leave something off your resume that is more valuable to make room for the link? If so, skip it.

Third, what message are sending with your profile? Is it creating a complimentary message to your resume and cover letter? Make sure it’s helping you in your search.

Bottom Line: Don’t add your profile unless it’s a really big selling point for the position you are pursuing. If you’re not sure, leave it off.

How Should I List It?

I see several ways of putting a Linked In profile on your resume. You can place the link in your contact information at the top of your resume.

Your could place it at the end of the resume under a heading indicating what you want to highlight. For example, after the last section of your resume, add a section titled “Recommendations” and place the link under it.

You could put the link in your cover letter, highlighting the information on your profile that you want the hiring manager to read. For example, you could call attention to the recommendations and provide the link.

Finally, you could imbed the link within another section in your resume. For example, if you had a great recommendation from a former boss on your profile, you might attach the link under that job.

Conclusion

For some job seekers, adding a link to their resume could be beneficial. For most, I wouldn’t do it. Make sure your profile is really good before doing this and have a clear plan for why you want to include it.

Check out the discussion on Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/299873-11341068

I have close to 2000 direct connections on LinkedIn. Feel free to send an invitation to me ([email protected]) if you want to link.

Falsifying Education

A resume of very strong manufacturing job seeker came to my attention recently. The candidate looked great, but I didn’t recognize the school they attended. I’m not an expert on every school out there, so I use several research tools. In a few minutes, it was clear this school was not reputable. First, it’s not accredited, and second it awards degrees without requiring any course work. Just write a check and they mail a transcript and degree.

With an explosion of educational opportunities, it’s no surprise that a number of diploma mills have cropped up. If you’re not familiar with diploma mills, they are companies that issue degrees without requiring a single class. Some go so far as to offer overnight delivery of a degree – someone that didn’t graduate from high school can obtain degrees all the way through to a PhD in a matter of days.

Many of these programs market themselves as life experience degrees – degrees awarded solely based on the life experience of the individual. The requirements are less than stringent. Colby Nolan is a cat that received a Bachelor’s degree and an MBA from a diploma mill. Unfortunately, Colby is not alone – there a number of cats, dogs and other animals with degrees.

The job seeker I was assessing had a resume that looked great. With the complete fabrication of their education, there is no way to trust the job seeker. Unfortunately, if they are lying about their education, I have to assume they could be lying about everything in their background.

Now it may sound tempting to go from a high school grad to an MBA overnight, but it’s a fraud. States are cracking down on this, with a number having already passed legislation criminalizing the use of an unaccredited degree to obtain employment (or even a promotion in some cases). Additionally, the tools to check the validity of a degree are getting better and faster – it’s only takes a minute or two to check.

If you are looking to enhance your education, check the reputation and accreditation of the program. This isn’t difficult to do, but you do need to know where to look. The diploma mills often claim accreditation, but from accrediting bodies that either don’t exist or have standards as low as the diploma mills.

There are a lot of resources you can check. Two that I like are:

Council for Higher Education Accreditation: www.chea.org
State of Michigan: list of schools the state will not recognize – http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Non-accreditedSchools_78090_7.pdf

I’ve run into a number of job seekers that made the mistake of getting a fake degree. A few were able to use the degree to get a better job (although the odds of this go down as background checks get easier). This didn’t help in the long run though. With the lie, they end up stuck, unable to leave because the lie continues to be uncovered – and very bitter every time they are discovered.

3 Reasons to Have a Specific Objective

I received a resume recently from a pharmaceutic sales rep. What I liked about the resume was the objective. It was very clear and concise. I knew exactly what the job seeker was looking for. Here’s the entire four word objective statement:

GOAL: Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

There’s no ambiguity here. If I was looking for a Pharmaceutic Sales Rep, I’d know this candidate is interested and I could focus on assessing them. I like specific objectives – either in the cover letter or on the resume for three reasons:

First, a specific objective statement ensures that you are considered for the position you want. A general objective forces the reader to decide what job is best for you. Usually, they will assume you want a position similar or identical to your current role. If you want a position that is different, you may not be considered for that role if you aren’t specific. This is especially important if you are changing careers.

Second, a specific objective shows decisiveness. Hiring managers don’t want someone wishy-washy that can’t make a decision. Failing to be specific creates an impression that you can’t be decisive.

Third, many hiring managers screen resumes with a specific position in mind. Stating your objective may help you get a more thorough look. If your objective is specific and matches the company’s needs, the hiring manager should look closely at your background to see if it supports your goal. With a general objective, your resume will probably only get a quick scan. You are relying on the hiring manager to see something in that scan that catches their attention and causes them to want to read more closely.

Now some job seekers try to write their resume and cover letter to be very general. The idea is to make their background applicable to as many jobs as possible. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. Hiring managers don’t read your resume with the goal of finding a job for you. They are focused on their needs and that means finding the best candidate for a specific position.

Seven Things You Need to do Before Submitting Your Resume

Before you send out your next resume, there are seven things you need to do:

1. Check the content

Do you have all the information on your resume that you need? Is the important information easy to find? Need more information: Read my post on resume content

2. Customize your resume to the job

Make sure you customize your resume to the job requirements. The first screening step companies go through is to reject job seekers that don’t have all the skills they consider critical. If you fail to list a skill or experience that is critically important, the odds are that the hiring manager will assume you don’t have what they are looking for. The next step for your resume is the trash bin. Make sure your resume clearly shows your experience with each job requirement. Need more information: Check out my post on how to customize a resume

3. Spell check

Too many job seekers shortcut this step. Make sure you spell check your resume before sending it. Often, job seekers spell check a resume after the write their first version, but fail to do this after every revision.

4. Have your resume assess by a professional

Do you know how your resume is perceived by hiring managers? Hire an expert to review your resume. Many job seekers spend so much time on their resume that they can’t step back and assess it objectively. An impartial expert can help you fine tune your resume and give you a competitive advantage over other job seekers. There are a variety of services that provide resume assessments – some are free, while others require are fee based.

Palladian offers a thorough resume assessment service, where we examine 61 resume attributes and provide specific written feedback that will help you improve your resume.

5. Write a quality cover letter

A strong cover letter will help make a good impression. Spend the time to develop a good cover letter, or if you aren’t a great writer, hire someone to write a cover letter for you. There are a number of services that do this. Check out my research report on cover letter best practices to learn now to write a cover letter that is better than the ones your competition uses. Email us to get the report: palladian at palladianinternational dot com

6. Check your voice mail message

Make sure you have a professional sounding voice mail message. If you’re successful and the company calls you, you do not want to have an unprofessional or offensive message that you recorded for your friends.

7. Check your Facebook page

Do you have a public social networking profile? If so, review the content. It’s common for hiring managers to google the name of a candidate. If you publish information about yourself in a social networking site, make sure the information won’t hurt your career. You can either edit the site, or restrict access to only your accepted friends.

Resume Length

Usually, when I talk about resume length, I focus on the number of pages. Keeping a resume under two pages is a good rule of thumb, but this is only part of the story. The other thing to consider is the number of words in a resume.

Reading Rate

The average adult reads approximately 250 words per minute. This estimate is based on easy to comprehend material. More difficult, technical material requires a slower rate, with some estimates as low as 50 words per minute for extremely technical material when the reader wants 100% comprehension.

How your resume is written will affect how a person reads it. If it is very technical in nature, with very long complex sentences, the reader will have to read slower. If your resume is very long, you put the reader in a bind. Slow down to comprehend everything, or save time by reading fast and only skim the material.

Let’s say your resume is written so that it can be read fairly easily – say at 200 words per minute. This means that a 400 word resume (a fairly typical length) will require two minutes of concentration to read thoroughly.

The problem with many resumes is that they are not easy, light reading. Additionally, most hiring managers can only afford 15, 30 or maybe 60 seconds per resume. In that time, they may only comprehend a few sentences before determining if they are going to discard the resume or continue reading.

Long Resumes

I’ve seen very long resumes. We looked at one recently that was five pages and 1,600 words. It was full of technical terms and acronyms. It was work to comprehend and understand each detail. If I wanted to truly understand this job seeker’s resume, it might take ten or fifteen minutes (possibly longer, I can’t be sure since I quit reading early on).

Recommendations

Keep your resume short and concise.
Write in easy to read sentences and paragraphs.
Target a length of 400-900 words.
Use bullets, indents, bold, italics and other formatting cues to direct the reader to the most important information.

Top 6 Situations to Use a Functional Resume

A functional resume is a great format to use for some job seekers. Unfortunately, many people use it in the wrong situation, and others fail to use it when they should. If you are in one of these six situations, you should consider a functional resume:

Recent Graduates: If you are just graduating from school, you don’t have work experience to put in a chronological format. This makes a functional format a great choice.
Individuals Changing Careers: Moving into a new field presents several challenges. One of the most significant is showing that your prior experience is transferable to the new career. A functional resume can help demonstrate this.
Senior Executives: Many senior executives have extensive careers that can be difficult to summarize in two pages. Organizing information in a functional format can help in prioritizing the most important information without letting the resume get too long.
Project Specialists: Some careers, such as construction and consulting, are focused on completing projects. It can be difficult to write about each project in sufficient detail to highlight important accomplishments without having the resume get too long. A functional resume can make this much easier to do.
Stay at Home Mom’s Returning to the Workforce: Returning to the workforce after taking significant time off can be very challenging. A chronological resume focuses the readers attention on your career progression. With a large gap in your employment you want to focus on your skills and abilities, and a functional resume can help do this.
Transitioning Military Officers: Moving from a military to a civilian career is a very big change. Civilian employers rarely understand all the details of a military career. This makes highlighting your skills and abilities very important.

The important thing to remember when you select the format for your resume is to highlight why you will be successful. For some, this is their career progression and a chronological resume will work well. For others, their skills and accomplishments are a bigger selling point and a functional resume works better.

How to Customize Your Resume For Each Job

It is important to customize your resume for each position you pursue. Every application should be tailored to best present your background. Although most job seekers know this, few understand how to go about it. Fortunately, it’s not that tough once you know what to do.

Cover Letter

Write a new cover letter for each application. The basic form will be the same. The main thing that will change is your explanation why you are interested in the position. So few job seekers customize their cover letters, and almost none include information that clearly shows they did some research. Doing this will make you stand out.

Objective Statement

If you have an objective statement, make sure it matches the opportunity. If it doesn’t match, the odds are that you will be rejected based on this. A hiring manager doesn’t want to waste time on a job seeker that isn’t interested in the job.

Accomplishments

If you have a job description, pull out the three or four most important requirements. Then, make sure you have an accomplishment demonstrating each requirement somewhere in the last two or three jobs you have held.

Skills

Look at the key technical skills for the position and detail your experience with each. You don’t need a lot of information on each skill, a few words may be sufficient. The key is showing you possess the skills and creating the interest with the hiring manager to want to learn more in an interview.

Military to Civilian Transition: 50 Objective Statements

Yesterday, I listed 50 objectives from resumes of managers and executives. Today, I have 50 more objectives, but all of these are from military officers transitioning into the civilian workforce.

For transitioning military officers, it’s improtant to have an objective statement. Transitioning from the military is a significant career change. Defining what type of position they are seeking is important.

OBJECTIVE: Logistician / Analyst
Objective: To be an asset to the company with my experience in the U.S. Army
Objective: To obtain a position that will allow me to display my rapid adaptation and troubleshooting skills. My ideal position would allow me to make use of my talent for rapidly learning new systems and technology and integrating new, old, and international equipment to further my education and career. This position would let my ambition lead the way giving me open space to excel and move upwards to the best of my abilities.
Objective: To acquire a professional position of the Customer Service focus to further develop myself as well as enhance an established work force.
OBJECTIVE: TO OBTAIN EMPLOYMENT AS A WASTE/WATER PLANT OPERATOR
Objective: Obtain a position with an established company to utilize my experience, technical knowledge, and skills in administration, logistics, computer systems and software, office equipment, people, and organization that will contribute to efficient business operations.
OBJECTIVE Seeking a position as Generator Technician where experience and motivational skills will enhance the company.
CAREER OBJECTIVE: Recently retired active-duty service member seeking a position in the U.S. Government sector to include the Logistics, Transportation and Security industries that will certainly capitalize on my military training, leadership and management skills. Team oriented, well organized individual, with 20 years experience in the U.S. Army’s Transportation Logistics arena.
OBJECTIVE: To obtain a management position with a progressive organization that will effectively utilize my acquired expertise and experience.
OBJECTIVE: To obtain a position with an organization where I can maximize my multilayer of management skills, quality assurance, program development, training experience and administrative skills.
Objective: A challenging position as an Administrative Office / Human Resources Manager
OBJECTIVE: Corporate position which capitalizes on a 15-year career leading senior level financial operations and managing “turn around” operations supporting an organization’s new direction and strategy. Senior level experience managing financial transformation plans integrating program and project management initiatives, oversight of multi-million dollar budgets, and acquisitions. Extensive experience in multinational markets.
Objective Seek a position in Administration Services or Human Resources.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking an Information Technology position
OBJECTIVE: A position as Logistics Analyst in an organization where an extensive knowledge in Acquisition and Logistics Management is utilized to ensure accurate logistics and customer support for the Warfighter.
Objective: Information Technology Management
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a career utilizing my management, leadership and instructional skills.
OBJECTIVE: To secure a position that will provide a challenging and respectable career as well as room for advancement
Objective: A Production/Distribution Supervisor position
OBJECTIVE: To obtain a challenging position as Program Manager.
Objective: Senior Maintenance Supervisor
OBJECTIVE: Desire a career in Project or Operational Management.
OBJECTIVE: A position as a Network Switching Systems Technician/Installer with full range of responsibilities and possibilities for advancement.
OBJECTIVE: A position as a Safety Manager/Director.
OBJECTIVE: A POSITION IN SENIOR MANAGEMENT where I can leverage my experience in operations, Human Resources, security and intelligence.
Objective: Seeking a position as a logistician
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a challenging opportunity in Project/Facility Management, that will utilize my skills in overseeing total project development from start to finish, including maintaining quality and cost control.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: A challenging Director of Logistics or Supply Chain Management position utilizing leadership, coordination, operations, logistics and communication skills to improve team building and focus on customer service and profit margins for a company in the Government Infrastructure, Oil and Gas or Industrial supplies/products industry.
Objective: To seek career opportunities and provide my knowledge and expertise in knowledge management and communications planning using my extensive skills to an innovative and adaptive detail and results oriented company.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking an analytical position in management or administration that allows me to use and apply over 34 years of progressively responsible experience in both the Department of the Army and public education. Skills and experience include extensive knowledge of workforce (manpower) management, Army programming and budgeting, human resource management, training and development, and logistics.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: I am seeking to join a team of dedicated and highly skilled professionals as a Senior Logistics Planner/ Manager/ Analyst/ Trainer/ Project Manager or Supply Chain Manager.
OBJECTIVE: Full or part time position within the field of Loss Prevention/Security or investigations
Objective: A Human Resources Opportunity where I can utilize my professional, technical and leadership skills in a company with a long-standing reputation for a great customer service and strong business partnerships.
OBJECTIVE: To secure a position as a Manger with an established organization utilizing my technical knowledge in Human Resources and experience gained from 25 years as a Leader, Trainer and Manager with the army.
OBJECTIVE: Work in a leadership position committed to customer service, developing employees, and achieving organization goals.
Objective: To secure a Manufacturing Production Superintendent position where my past experience and educational experiences would be fully utilized in a career opportunity.
Objective: Seeking a position within a company where I can contribute my efforts and use my acquired skills to complete a mission.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: A senior position involved in all aspects of managing and reporting in financial terms the results of an enterprise’s operations to its internal and external stakeholders or a senior position involved in all aspects of logistics/production.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a challenging management position with a dynamic company that will utilize my solid logistics, operations and program management background to the fullest capacity.
OBJECTIVE: I would like a responsible management position in a challenging environment, which will utilize my expertise in aviation logistics in marketing and foreign military sales.
Objective: To obtain a professional position where my experience, initiative, leadership and management Skills will be strongly utilized.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a challenging and rewarding position in Human Resource Management/Strategic Planning where my skills and experience will be utilized to enhance organizational goals.
JOB OBJECTIVE: Seeking a challenging IT software development position to leverage and expand my full-life cycle technical leadership, team building and software development skills
OBJECTIVE: To obtain an Administrative Services Manager or Security Management position in the Colorado Springs Area.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a challenging management position with a dynamic company that will utilize my solid logistics, operations and program management background to the fullest capacity.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a challenging and rewarding position in Human Resource Management/Strategic Planning where my skills and experience will be utilized to enhance organizational goals.
Objective: A senior program management, operations or consultant position in a firm supporting homeland security or defense related enterprises.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking Distribution/Operations/Logistics Manager’s position.
OBJECTIVE: Senior management position using proven leadership, planning, and problem solving skills that will result in superior accomplishments and achieve organizational goals.
Objective: Executive Management- seeking a senior position to draw on proven results-driven abilities in strategic planning, team building, or organizational needs assessment.

I’m intersted to hear your impression of the objective statements – do you plan on making any changes to the objective on your resume? How would you assess the average objective – good/bad, effective/ineffective?