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5 Minor Problems That Sabotage Your Resume

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If you have been following my blog posts, then you should be up to speed on the major content, formatting, grammar, spelling, and style problems that could cause problems with your resume. But maybe you have overlooked these 5 minor problems that can sabotage your resume:

  1. You omitted page numbers or “continued” or any other method of alerting the reader to a second or third page. Even worse, you have omitted your name and contact information from the second or third page. The resume pages become separated, and if they ever bother searching for the missing pages, they are never sure they belong to your resume.
  2. You overused capital letters. For some reason, many grammar checkers believe that if you use the word “company,” than any word ahead of it is the company name. The grammar checkers capitalize “Insurance Company” in a phrase like “worked for the region’s leading insurance company.” When your resume is spotted with unnecessary capitals, it becomes difficult to read.
  3. You headed your resume “Resume of….” Resumes are clearly resumes. The heading on page 1 should consist of your name, perhaps followed by an honorific if that is important (for example, M.D. or CPA) and then your contact information. Recipients will know it is a resume.
  4. You eliminated all white space. White space on a page consists of those areas without any words or design elements; for example, the space after a period or between lines of text or the width of a margin. If you cram too much onto a page—narrow margins, small type, no space before or after headings—your resume becomes too daunting to read. If you want your resume to be read, white space is important.
  5. You never checked how your resume looks when it is the printed. Never forget that somewhere along the line a real human being will examine your resume. The typeface or colors (even shades of grey) that you chose may look impressive online but make the text unreadable when the resume is printed. Always print out your resume before sending it off to make sure that it holds up in hard copy.

At Robin’s Resumes®, we pay attention to every possible problem that could sabotage your resume—and in our decades of experience, we have seen and addressed them all. Contact us today for a resume you will be proud of online or in print.

Resume Advice Your Mother Would Agree With

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A lot of the advice our mothers share with us throughout our childhood holds true value for resumes. Here are examples of Mother’s Day advice that any job seeker should follow:

If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all. As resume advice, this adage is particularly important when you are writing or speaking about your current or previous employers. Badmouthing your boss, fellow employees, vendors, or customers is a sure way to make future employers nervous. It is fine to explain how you solved problems (“turned around” a company or “developed procedures” or “up-leveled staff”) but not to complain and vilify. The line is clear—if you do not know how to draw it, call on Robin’s Resumes® for help.

Don’t hide your light under a bushel. This mantra encourages you to clearly state on your resume what you offer to a company. Check advertisements and job postings for the education, hard and soft skills, and accomplishments that employers are looking for in the position you want and make sure that you (honestly) include them on your resume. Employers want to know what you have achieved.

Choose your words wisely. Certain business words go through cycles of popularity: core competency, empower, talent, proactive, operationalize. But they quickly become overused and even dated. This resume advice urges you to make sure you know what business jargon means and decide whether it helps you to truly communicate your value or merely show off your vocabulary.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Embarking on a job search is never easy, whether the decision is your own or forced upon you. Updating your resume is an essential first step. You need a current resume to respond to job postings, advertisements, or requests from your network. You also need it to refresh your own memory about how much you value you have to offer to a new company. In the throes of looking for a new job, you can easily forget that your talents, skills, accomplishments, and education have worth.

Contact Robin’s Resumes® on this Mother’s Day, and we will gladly help you take that first step to a resume that is positive, powerful, and clearly written.

Writing a Resume to Get Yourself Rehired

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According to recent surveys by Accountemps, 94 percent of senior managers would be willing to rehire an employee who left a company either voluntarily or on good terms; and 52 percent of those employees would be willing to reapply to their old company.

If you think your old company might be willing to rehire you, keep the following resume tips in mind:

  1. Research the company’s open positions carefully because your former job may have a different title or may not exist. Target your resume for an existing opening that you feel is the best fit for you now.
  2. Make sure your resume to get rehired highlights any additional skills, accomplishments, or education you have acquired while away from your old company. You want your old company to understand that your time away has added to your value—or at least, not diminished it.
  3. Look carefully at the description of your former job on your resume. Can you tweak it now to highlight skills or accomplishments that you might have overlooked when pursuing a different job, but that will bolster your value to your old company?
  4. If you have fallen out of touch with former colleagues, resurrect those relationships and find out about the company’s current goals and priorities. Make sure your resume to get rehired and your interview are relevant to the company’s current goals.
  5. Prepare yourself to address the question of why you left and why you want to return. Hiring managers will want reassurance that you are returning out of sincere interest, not temporary desperation. If your explanation is straightforward, you might consider including it in your resume or cover letter.

Writing a resume to get yourself rehired is not easy, even if the company reached out to you first. For help in preparing your resume and your response to “why did you leave and why do you want to return” questions, contact Robin’s Resumes®.

Resume Advice 101 for College Graduates

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Most college graduates have already begun to send out resumes, and a few may even have job offers pending. If your resume is not drawing in interviews and seems to have vanished into a deep well, here are a few strategies for re-energizing your job search.

  1. Get a second opinion. Do you know anyone in the field you are trying to enter? Ask if they would take a look at your resume. Often, college graduates send out a resume that is suitable for handing to companies who visit the campus but is not suitable for responding to job postings. Or the resume will overlook information vital to the industry and position the college graduate is interested in. If you do not have a knowledgeable source willing to review your resume, consider hiring Robin’s Resumes®. I have resume writing experience in many fields in many industries: I know what hiring managers and recruiters—and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)—are looking for.
  2. Read, read, read. First, read your resume to make sure it is consistent and correct in format, grammar, and spelling. Never rely solely on online spell checkers and grammar checkers. Spell checkers will overlook words that are spelled correctly but are still wrong (for example, manger instead of manager or fiancé instead of finance), and grammar checkers will always lead you astray. Second, read job postings carefully to make sure your resume includes the key (and truthful) skills, experience, and accomplishments that employers are asking for. Again, if you are not confident about your grammar, spelling, formatting, or resume strategy, consider talking to me at Robin’s Resumes®.
  3. Focus your search. Determine what you really want to do. Applying for everything — and taking the first job offered, without consideration may not be the right path for you. If you first determine what you want to do, and then write a resume that highlights those skills for an employer, you are most likely to find the job you want. Even though it may seem that writing a “general” resume would offer the most opportunities to you, I have found the folks who focus land jobs they want faster. Companies and people tend to hire folks they know want the job they are offering. If you need help in determining your career field, consider hiring Robin’s Resumes® for your career coaching needs.
  4. Investigate other ways to apply. If you rely on your resume alone, you are overlooking networking, social media, and personal contacts as sources for information on jobs and ways to promote yourself. Based on numerous studies, you can increase your chances to get a job at least 80% if you network to it first. If you need advice on how to jump-start your search, I can help.
  5. Take a different path. Sometimes you simply do not have the education, skills, and experience that employees want. You can rectify that by taking courses; volunteering for positions at nonprofits that will hone your skills; and accumulating experience that is transferrable to the field or industry that truly interests you. Your rise to the top of the resume pile may be slower, but it will happen.

Robin’s Resumes® is dedicated to helping college graduates survive and thrive in the marketplace. Let me know how I can help you.

Education on Your Resume

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You should include an Education section on your resume but how detailed should it be?

Graduation Years/GPA

If you are a recent college or high school graduate or a rising senior, then you should include your graduation year; if you have recently graduated with a high GPA (say, over 3.5), include the GPA if you want to. For everyone else, the year and GPA are not needed.

If you graduated with a high school degree years ago, your work history is now more important than information about your high school. However, if you did not attend college, you should still list your high school. If you have attended or graduated from college, in most cases, do not list your high school. There are exceptions, and you may want to speak to a resume professional to discuss if you are confused.

If you graduated or attended college years ago, you still should list the name and location of the college(s), the degree(s) (A.A., B.S., MBA), and your specialization (“B.A. in business communications”) but omit any high school information entirely.

Specific Courses

Here, again, the closer you are to graduation and the less work experience you have in your field, the more important it is to mention the courses you have taken that apply to the position you want.

The further from graduation and the more work experience you have, the more you should concentrate on work, as opposed to academic, accomplishments.

There are two exceptions:

  • If you did not achieve a degree but took courses toward a degree, you may want to briefly mention those courses or at least state that you have “30 credits toward an A.A.”
  • If you have taken professional courses (for example, in lean manufacturing) or been selected for training by a company you worked for (for example, management training), that information should be on your resume. The knowledge you bring into a company is invaluable.

Honors

Your college or high school career might have included volunteer, sports, or other activities that you are proud of. Be careful about listing them unless they have some bearing on the work you want to do. For example, if you want to enter the nonprofit world and you raised significant funds at an event at your school, you may want to include that achievement in your resume. Also, if you are a recent graduate, you should include your volunteer work. Many employers look for volunteer experience when they hire students for their first jobs.

If you worked your way through high school or college, received a prestigious scholarship, or were selected out of many students for an opportunity, that information may be relevant in showing your determination and the high regard in which others hold you. Just be careful of holding on to high school or college honors too long: resume space is limited, and you want to leave room for your most current and relevant accomplishments.

Attended College and Did Not Graduate

List any college experience on your resume. Even if you did not complete your degree, the courses you took gained you valuable knowledge and experience which will be useful for employers. Also, there are ways to list this type of college experience on a resume that can help you get through barriers such as initial Applicant Tracking System (ATS) scoring scans. Robin’s Resumes® understands these strategies and can help you with them.

At Robin’s Resumes®, we write Education sections that bolster a candidate’s appeal. Contact us today.

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