Tag: resume

Consultant Objective Statement

I reviewed a resume that had an objective statement that illustrates several mistakes. The job seeker was an experienced consultant. I can't tell you the exact experience level because their resume didn't have employment dates (a major problem). I would guess the person had close to 10 years of experience.

Below is the objective statement:

<University Name> MBA seeks Contract Possitions anywhere in the US or Internationally will travel anywhere as long as per diem is provided. Will consider permanent/direct hire possitions in the <Metro Area> area only.

The first problem is the spelling of “Possitions.” This doesn't bother me much. The job seeker is from a non-english speaking country and spent a portion of their career in that country. Additionally, the job seeker is a technical consultant, making communications skills less important than in other roles.

Another problem is way the candidate states the value they offer. The job seeker makes their MBA the only feature important enough to highlight in their objective. For a recent graduate, this would be ok, but this candidate has significant experience. They should emphasize their experience, skills or accomplishments instead of their education.

The biggest problem with the objective is that it doesn't say what the job seeker wants to do. There is a goal regarding geography – they won't relocate permanently, but they will travel anywhere for a contract position. This doesn't narrow the possibilities that much. The objective doesn't say what type of job the person wants. From their resume, I can make an educated guess based on their experience, but you don't want to make a hiring manager have to work to figure out what you want.

Finally, your objective statement should not specify your compensation or benefits requirements. The statement that per diem is required doesn't help the impression. Although this is a very reasonable expectation, stating it this prominently in the resume objective gives me the impression that this person is going to be very demanding and difficult to manage.

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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. 
  4. 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?
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

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. 

CEO Resume Evaluation

I received a resume recently of an individual that founded and managed a business for the last seven years. The resume illustrated several problems.

First, the job seeker listed their title as "Chairman, CEO, President and COO." Listing four concurrent titles that say the same thing is redundant. That they are all top level title raises ego questions. Didn’t CEO or President sound impressive enough by themselves?

This is actually fairly common with self employed and small businesses. Some individuals give themselves inflated titles. One of my favorite examples of this was an individual that had started a consulting firm. The firm had two principles – the individual and his wife. His wife didn’t have active involvement but was the majority owner and had the title President (to qualify as a woman owned business). The consultant was essentially the only active participant in the business. He gave himself the title "Senior Executive Vice President." If you have the authority to give yourself a title in your company, don’t make up something ridiculous.

Second, the job seeker listed the ticker symbol of their company on their resume. This can be valuable if looking up the ticker provides useful information. When I looked up the ticker, it showed a stock that never traded at more than a penny per share in the last several years and had been delisted. No other information was available.

Third, the job seeker gave no reason why the business they owned and managed for seven years failed. Highlighting the failure with the ticker symbol makes it very important to explain why the business didn’t succeed.

Fourth, the resume contained no accomplishments. If you start and manage a business over a period of seven years, I would hope that you would have at least one minor success over that time. Sharing no successes, even if the venture ultimately failed is a bad idea.

Fifth, the resume doesn’t give any indication what career path this individual is seeking. The job seeker had held two positions prior to the business they owned. These positions were in completely different career fields. I can’t share the exact titles – they’re weird enough it may comprise the confidentiality of the candidate. Suffice it to say, I have never met a candidate that had worked in two of the three industries listed. Plus, the industries have absolutely nothing in common. I can’t determine from the resume (there was no cover letter) what this person would want to do – not even a remote guess.

Now, this individual may be extremely capable and talented. Unfortunately, there are so many questions about this person and no reason to move forward. The result: with this resume, they are going to be rejected from almost every opportunity.

By the way, as one of the owners of Palladian, I’m thinking I need to jazz up my title.  I’ve narrowed my choices to "Executive Senior Executive Vice President" or "Senior Executive Senior Vice President"  Which do you think sounds more impressive?  Maybe I should just use both!