Robin's Resumes® | Robin's Resumes (r)

The Most Important Information on Your Resume

Oct 14 2012

A LinkedIn participant asked the group to identify what information was most important on a resume. All of the professional resume writers and hiring managers who responded agreed that contact information topped the list: name, phone number and email address.

The next most important items were to show how your experience matches the job requirements and how your accomplishments make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.

To that all-important list, I would add three more items:

Proofread carefully. If you make a change, check the entire resume again. Your change may contradict a statement earlier or later in the resume. It may force a line over to the next page or make formatting disappear.
Create the resume in two formats. You need a format that is ATS friendly for online submissions and a more styled format for networking.
Remove irrelevant information. Remember, your resume is not your life story.

If you need help deciding what’s important for your resume, contact Robin’s Resumes® today.

Roadblocks to a New Job: Your Age or Your Resume?

Oct 07 2012

While it is true that Baby Boomers have been hard hit in the current job market, age is generally not the biggest factor getting in the way of their job hunt.

The biggest factor is a dated resume that fails to deliver what today’s companies and hiring managers want.

Standards for resumes have changed since many of the Boomers applied for their last job. For one, most resumes are first read by a computerized Applicant Tracking System (ATS). These systems “read” the resume by looking for specific information – such as a summary, education, work experience, certifications, memberships (possibly), and awards. The system looks for keywords based on the job announcement, and scores the resume based on the keywords the program can read. Only the top scoring resumes are forwarded to the hiring manager.

A second change is that resumes are now expected to focus, not on tasks, but on accomplishments. The hiring manager will read the resume to be sure the applicant has accomplishments; the best applicant doesn’t simply perform tasks, but contributes to a company’s success.

If a resume is not picked by the ATS, the hiring manager will never read it. If a resume does not show how the applicant meets the job requirements with accomplishments, the hiring manager will decide against an interview.

A third change centers on resume format and content. Resumes are longer; the rule about sticking to one page no longer applies. Summaries have replaced objectives. Certain phrases have disappeared (notably, “References on request”) and information on marital status and health is actively discouraged.

Is your resume stuck in the standards and style of 5, 10, or 20 years ago? Let me ensure it conforms to current standards. Contact Robin’s Resumes® and smooth your re-entry into the job market.

Why Do You Want This Job?

Sep 22 2012

We need a job to provide ourselves and our family with necessities like food, shelter, and clothing as well as the nonessential pleasures of life, like birthday cake. Our goal is to find a job that achieves all that and, we hope, makes us feel fulfilled as well.

Companies know that. Their main interest is in the company’s goals. What will you contribute to the company’s bottom line and business strategy if you are hired?

Your resume should be written in a way that makes it clear why you are applying for a particular position. You have the skills, educational background and experience the position calls for. You understand the industry or field where you are applying.

Most important, you have achieved valuable results in previous positions, and you are prepared to produce good work in the future.

When a company realizes that your achievements and goals align with the company’s, they are more likely to call you in for an interview. Contact Robin’s Resumes® today and we will write a resume that clearly answers the question, “Why do you want this job?”

Resume Question: Is What You Did Important?

Sep 16 2012

When clients first come to me for help with their resumes, they usually come with lists of skills, education, and day-to-day responsibilities. Those lists overlook the most important part of a resume: the results. You may have completed a lot of tasks in your career, but what a hiring manager or recruiter really wants to know is: Did all your work achieve anything?

To illustrate what I mean, let’s say that I decide to dig a ditch. I find a shovel, survey my yard, choose a location, jab the shovel into the ground, and dig a 3×3 hole. I then admire the hole I successfully dug.

Why is this important?

It isn’t. Just because I succeeded in a task, does not mean it has any importance.

Now let’s say that the hole prevented my house from flooding, by digging it myself I saved several thousand dollars, and my strategy won an award from a local conservation group. The hole made a difference. With the addition of critical information about results, an unimportant task has become important.

Most people need help in selecting the achievements that best highlight their careers and figuring out why those achievements are important. At Robin’s Resumes®, we are experts in showing the true value you bring to your future employer.

Applicant Tracking Systems: What Job Hunters Need to Know Now

Aug 27 2012

When resumes come into many company, whether electronically or on paper, they are entered into an applicant tracking system (ATS), a software program that searches for keywords that apply to the open job position.

You might think in that case that you should simply submit of list of words to beat the ATS at its own game: “You want words, here are words.” That may have worked with the oldest ATS systems; the newer systems look for context. They look for the position of the keyword (in the far past of your career or recently) and may even examine the surrounding words for a hint that you are actually familiar with the subject.

I recently had a conversation with Jon Ciampi, President of Preptel Corporation. His company has a product that uses algorithms and software from ATS systems to parse resumes and then allow people to see how their resumes compare with the competition’s.

He emphasizes that you can put sections of your resume in any order (Summary, Experience, Education or Summary Education, Experience) but the way those sections are formatted can become a huge roadblock. With too much formatting or the wrong formatting, your resume content may be ignored by the ATS. That’s one reason why Robin’s Resumes® pays close attention to formatting.

Jon says, “PDF is error prone as data structure is not standardized. PDF saves data as an image and requires a converter to translate it into text. This process causes many issues and is inaccurate. While ATS systems can accept PDF files, Word or ASCII is still the best document type. Graphics, tables, images, and charts should all be avoided. These items are usually interpreted incorrectly and can cause the process to fail, discarding the entire resume.”

We’ll talk more about ATS systems next week. In the meantime, if you are concerned about your resume, please contact me.