Tag: resume review

Supply Chain Resume Review

The resume and cover letter I read this morning contained a number of mistakes I routinely see. The candidate is a supply chain professional from one of the biggest and best known manufacturing companies.

The resume and cover letter I read this morning contained a number of mistakes I routinely see.  The candidate is a supply chain professional from one of the biggest and best known manufacturing companies.

The cover letter was long, a full page, but it had very little substance.  The bulk of the cover letter was content straight from the resume.  In fact, there is nothing in the cover letter that isn’t also in the resume.  In addition to the substance of the cover, there was a lot of hype.  For example, the sentence below is taken from the middle of the cover letter:

I am an interpersonally-skilled team leader with a rapid advancement history and a unique blend of analytical and communication skills.

This sentence will do little to impress a hiring manager.  The rapid advancement history is a plus, but the rest of the sentence is just hype.  Even worse, the value of the characteristics isn’t clear.  I doubt a hiring manager has ever said they need a person that is an “interpersonally-skill team leader” and has “unique blend of analytical and communication skills.” The hiring manager is focused on finding someone that can achieve specific results.  Nothing in the cover letter references specific results and accomplishments.

This omission is emphasized in the resume.  The resume starts with a Professional Summary.  The first line is “Results-driven Logistics & Planning Manager with global supply chain management…”  How can a person be results-driven, but fail to list a single accomplishment?  It doesn’t make a good impression.

Another problem with resume and cover letter relates to the career progression of the job seeker.  This individual spent more than ten years with his last employer.  Then, more than six months ago, he stopped working there.  There is no explanation why.  There are many candidates who have been laid off due to a downsizing or facility closure.  Despite this, a hiring manager is unlikely to assume the candidate way laid off.  It is more likely the hiring manager will assume the candidate was fired.

If the job seeker was fired, this isn’t a deal breaker.  He was with the same company for more than ten years and received a couple of promotions in the process.  Most companies will look past a termination, if the candidate can explain why the problems leading to the termination won’t occur in the future.

Recommendations:

  • A Short and Concise Cover Letter:  The cover letter needs to be cut down to under 100 words.  At more than 300 words, it isn’t going to get read.
  • Include Accomplishments in the Cover Letter:  The cover letter needs to have some substance.  Adding a couple of  accomplishments demonstrating past successes can make a very good impression.
  • Add Accomplishments to the Resume:  In a 10+ year career, with a couple of promotions, the job seeker must have done something right.  Include a few accomplishments on the resume.
  • Explain the Gap in Employment:  The job seeker has been out of work for six months with no explanation why they left their last position.  Including a statement in the cover letter why the job seeker is unemployed can answer what is likely to be the top question by a hiring manager.

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Should You List Every Job on Your Resume?

One of the questions I’m asked frequently is whether a job seeker should include every job on their resume. You should provide a complete and honest picture of your background. For most job seekers, this means listing everything. There are a few exceptions. One significant exception is when a person makes a major shift in their career.

One of the questions I’m asked frequently is whether a job seeker should include every job on their resume. You should provide a complete and honest picture of your background. For most job seekers, this means listing everything. There are a few exceptions.  One significant exception is when a person makes a major shift in their career.

This week, I read the resume of a job seeker that had held an entry level admin position at the start of his career. He then joined the military. The candidate’s work experience prior to the military totaled less than a year. The candidate served in the military for twenty years and is now transitioning.

The admin experience prior to the military has no relationship to the progression within the military or the career objective the candidate is currently pursuing. It is also more than twenty years old. There is no reason to include the work experience prior to the military service on the resume. Omitting this information will not mislead an employer and will not change the impression the resume makes. It will make room for more relevant and important information.

Where do you draw the line?

An entry level admin position held for less than a year more than 20 years ago isn’t significant to a person’s career progression. Making this position more recent, a longer duration or related to the job seeker’s career field could make it important to include on the resume. The challenge is knowing when the position becomes significant and when it isn’t.

Generally, you should list any positions you have held in the last ten to twenty years. If you had a full-time position and a part-time position at the same time, you may omit the part-time role, especially if it is unrelated to your primary career.

An entry level position early in your career may be important to list even if it is twenty or more years ago if the position establishes the start to a career progression. Individuals that stay in the same career field, progressing upward to increasing levels of responsibility can show a consistent pattern of success through the promotions they have received. To do this, you need to show the starting point – an entry level position where you got your start.

In the case of the resume I read, the initial admin position had nothing to do with the military career. Omitting it wouldn’t detract from the career progression. The job seeker should show all of his military positions. This establishes the start of the career progression.

If you need help determining what to include in your resume, get help from a resume writer.

Spelling Errors on a Resume

Writing an effective resume requires a greater attention to detail than almost any other writing you will do. Most hiring managers assume the resume you submit is an example of the highest quality work you can produce. A mistake that would be overlooked in a typical daily email becomes a major detractor on your resume. This makes proofreading your resume a critical step.

Writing an effective resume requires a greater attention to detail than almost any other writing you will do. Most hiring managers assume the resume you submit is an example of the highest quality work you can produce. A mistake that would be overlooked in a typical daily email becomes a major detractor on your resume. This makes proofreading your resume a critical step.

Eliminating spelling and grammar mistakes sounds easy, but can be very difficult. Most people find proofreading their own work extremely challenging. They know what they meant to write. A missing word, use of the wrong word or a misspelling can be overlooked with even repeated proofreads.

Spell Check

There are steps you can take to avoid making mistakes. The first is using spell check. When I get a resume and open it in Word, any misspelled word is underlined in red. The mistakes are essentially highlighted and jump off the screen. Errors like this will make the worst impression. It is so easy to identify and fix an error that is underlined in red on your screen that few hiring managers will be forgiving.

You may not have Microsoft Word. If you don’t, other word processors have spell check. OpenOffice is a free office suite anyone can download. It is very similar to Microsoft Office and can save files in a Word format. If you don’t have a good work processor get OpenOffice or Microsoft Word.

If you are submitting your resume online, you may have to copy it into a form. Few forms come with spell check. There is a solution. Install the google toolbar and add the spell check button. This will spell check any form fields in your browser.

Limitations of Spell Check

Even if you use spell check, it is still easy to make a mistake. There are four common mistakes:

  1. Typos Resulting in the Wrong Word: If you type the wrong key and spell a different word correctly, spell check will not catch the mistake. For example, typing “k” instead of “d” in “word” will result in “work.”

  2. All Caps: Some programs do not spell check words in all caps, since a word in all caps is often an acronym. On a resume, many job seekers use all caps to emphasize important elements.

  3. Common Mistakes: There are some words that are commonly misused. For example, “affect” and “effect” are very similar, but have different usage.

  4. Omitted Words: When typing quickly, you may skip a word. For example, pronouns, articles and prepositions are short and can be missed when editing a sentence. When proofreading, it is easy to not look at these words and assume they are there. For a reader unfamiliar with the text, omitting one of these words is a mistake that is easy to see.

Solutions

  • Read Out Loud: A good way to proofread your resume is to print it and read it out load. Go slow and read each word individually. This is tough. You have to concentrate on each word.

  • Read Backwards: To make it easier to concentrate on each word, read your resume from the bottom up. Read the last sent first. Then move up to the second to last sentence. Keep reading each sentence individually, from the end to the beginning.  Reading each sentence by itself, you are more likely to concentrate on each word and not get into a flow that will cause you to overlook mistakes.

  • Change Your Surroundings:  If you always work on your resume in one location, go somewhere else to proofread.  The change of scenery can make it easier to focus on text as it is written on the page.

  • Get a Proofreader: Get someone to proofread your resume. Ideally, you will know a good writer that is an expert with resumes review your resume. If you don’t know some like this, you can hire someone to do a resume review.

To ensure your resume is error free takes work and multiple reviews.  Some job seekers don’t have the patience for this or don’t realize the importance.

Too Many Resume Sections

Your resume should be structured in a series of sections, with the most important at the top and the least important at the bottom. Selecting the most important sections is an important decision. Many job seekers prioritize information based on the significance to them. Unfortunately, what is important to a job seeker is often less important to a hiring manager. This makes it essential to prioritize based on the reader’s interests.

Your resume should be structured in a series of sections, with the most important at the top and the least important at the bottom. Selecting the most important sections is an important decision. Many job seekers prioritize information based on the significance to them. Unfortunately, what is important to a job seeker is often less important to a hiring manager. This makes it essential to prioritize based on the reader’s interests.

For most job seekers, work experience is the first thing a hiring manager will want to read. There are exceptions… new college grads should put their education first and technical experts should lead with their technical skills. Individuals with significant experience should lead with their experience.

A common structure for a resume of an experienced individual will look like this:

  • Professional Summary or Objective Statement

  • Work Experience

  • Education

  • Skills

  • Other Sections

The resume I read today deviated from this structure substantially. The individual had 20 years of experience in the real estate field. With 20 years of experience, I would want to read the work experience to get a feel for what the candidate has done. Despite this, the work experience was buried at the bottom of the resume. Below is the structure the candidate used:

  • Objective Statement

  • Professional Profile

  • Education (lengthy section with training classes and certifications)

  • Affiliations (professional organizations in real estate)

  • Relevant Experience (details of non-work activities, including part-time jobs and a home-based business)

  • Volunteer Work

  • Skills (list of computer programs)

  • Professional Experience (the work experience section!!!)

  • References

This structure is very disjointed and does not sell the candidate. Much of the information in the education, relevant experience, volunteer work and skills sections is either routine for every candidate or completely unrelated to the jobs the candidate is pursuing. For example, experience with Windows XP may be a requirement for a position, but is far less important than the 20 years of work experience.

You need prioritize the elements of your background that are most directly related to the position you are pursuing. If I was rewriting this resume, I would delete a lot of information and completely reorder the information I kept.

You can expect the job seeker would resist this. Some of the information I would delete is information that has a high personal significance to the job seeker. The home-based business is a good example of this. I’m certain that this effort was something that the job seeker took a tremendous amount of pride in and worked hard to make successful. Despite this, the presentation on the resume shows little significance the candidate’s career. It just isn’t going to help land a job.

Make sure you prioritize based on the hiring manager’s priorities. If you are uncertain of your resume, get a second opinion.