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So, Jason Alba over at JibberJobber is hosting a Resume Massacre…er..Challenge. That is, we employment professional types get ahold of a resume, walk you through our process of evaluating it, and let you know what we’d change.

Hopefully, much of what I write here for this Mystery Candidate will apply to you and your resume, too. And won’t be too painful for anyone.

So, without any further ado, let the resume shredding…er…advice begin! Oh - here is the Mystery Candidate’s resume for your reference.

PHASE I: BE HUMAN RESOURCES

When I first get a resume, I do what I like to call an “HR Glance” at it. That is, I assume that I don’t know much about the position that I’m recruiting for, know some key words, and want to see if this resume mostly fits or mostly does not fit the little I know.

Some of you may think that this observation is unkind. And you may be right. However, having my livlihood dependent on HR people from time to time, I also know that it is accurate.

So, let me tell you what is going through the average, low-end, not very long out of school, corporate HR type when they look at this resume: “Uhhhhhhh…..dunno” followed by the “delete” key and the next resume.

A more astute HR person or recruiter will see a generic resume that says: “I Don’t Know What I Want To Do With My Life. Would You Please Figure It Out For Me?”


PHASE II: THE BIGGEST RESUME SIN COMMITTED BY MYSTERY CANDIDATE

There are a lot of things I’d change about this resume (as you’ll read below), but there is one paramount, supreme, glaring problem with this resume, as there are with 90% of the resumes that I read:

As far as this resume is concerned, there is absolutely nothing special about this candidate, nothing that he excels at, no skill that he is particularly wonderful at, and no single area of experience that he’s been building up for years; any of which would be a reason for me to hire this person.

No, this person oversees, creates, aides, writes, assists, manages, and, seemingly, administrates away his time.

Is he good at any of these things? Don’t know.

Has he accomplished anything? Can’t tell.

Were his previous employers any better for having hired him? No clue.

Above and beyond the many, small, specific suggestions below, this is the biggest failing of this resume. If the experience that he has is actually good, he could write just these words on one piece of paper, call it a resume, and get plenty of calls:

“Drove sales for [specifically named] online retailer from $100,000 a year to $5,000,000 a year within 1.5 years and I’m excited about taking another small, online retailer to the big leagues.”

That alone would get you calls. So, before you do the easy, small stuff (to follow), do this one, big, humongous, stupendously important thing: TELL PEOPLE WHY THEY SHOULD HIRE YOU!


PHASE III: TELL ME THAT YOU WANT TO WORK FOR ME

Here’s something brief that is also hurting you, whether you realize it or not. Your resume tells me that you are working a “main” job, as “Director of Sales and Marketing”, presumably for the money.

However, you also are working a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th job (everything listed under “Work Experience (Other)”). Yes, they are part-time activities, but they are jobs.

How do I know they are jobs and not hobbies? Because they are listed as such on your resume. And, together, they’re going to take up a chunk of your time.

As an employer, if see a candidate who has so many revealed extra-curricular activities as you have listed, it says that I’m never going to have your full attention, focus, and effort directed to the work you’re doing for me.

It’s entirely possible (though not probable) that I’m wrong. But I guarantee that’s what every employer that looks at this resume closely is thinking.


PHASE IV: HOW THE MYSTERY CANDIDATE SHOULD TELL PEOPLE WHAT HE DOES

I have a lot of suggestions here, so just let me make ‘em quick and easy. Or, at least quick:

• Tell People What You Do - Okay, first of all, the easiest thing to do is to actually tell people what you do. That could be in an “Objective” statement or a “Summary” statement or whatever. Tell people something in just a few sentences that will give them a clue what your (demonstrably) strongest skillset is.
• Have Your Jobs Tell People What You Do - My guess is that our Mystery Candidate has held a lot of jobs at smaller companies. That’s because his job titles and his job responsibilities will just cause confusion.

  For instance, how many Directors of Sales and Marketing do websites, help build wikis, and do customer service? The job title and description must match. If you are the Director of Sales and Marketing and want to continue to be a Director of Sales and Marketing, tell specifically about how you directed sales and marketing.

• Have Your Companies Tell What You Do - Many times, the company name will tell people what they need to know about where you have worked. However, with smaller, lesser-known companies, it pays to tell very briefly about the company. For instance:

  TechnoLosers - $4 million, 56-employee technology obfuscation company.

  That will help HR folks get a much better feel for who you are.

• Don’t Tell About What I Don’t Care About - Once, you know what kind of job that you’re looking for, put only relevant information in the job descriptions. I’m sure Mystery Candidate locked and unlocked doors, dialed phones, and shuffled papers.

  However, I (and any HR-type) don’t care about any of that. Tell me about the responsibilities that I’m hiring you for. And nothing else!

PHASE V: GENERAL RESUME TIPS

In addition to the “big picture” stuff above, here are some general resume tips that apply directly to this resume:

• Fix Job Titles - I have worked for and recruited for a lot of companies. And I have never heard of, recruited for, or interviewed a candidate who had the title of “General Administrator”. Even if that was your title, and I doubt it, put something more descriptive of what you actually did.
• Use bullets - Perhaps it’s just habit. Maybe it’s the declining state of education in our schools today. Whatever it is, HR people are unlikely to read a paragraph of information for each employer. Switch to bullets and list your most important accomplishments / responsibilities first.
• Don’t make me figure out your results. - As I hinted at earlier, I have no idea what you actually accomplished in your positions. As a Director of Sales & Marketing, did you actually sell anything? Increase revenue? Anything? Tell me what all that stuff you did every day resulted in that benefited the company.
• Kill The Fluff - Kill “References”: We assume that you have them. Kill “Contact Info”: You listed it at the top of the resume. We’ve got short memories, but not that short. Kill “Skills”: There is virtually nothing here related to your performance of your current job. Anything that really is a skill, list in your bullet points.

JUST DO IT!

Am I mean to everyone that presents me with a resume? No. Just most of ‘em. And if you want to dislike me for it, that’s fine, too.

However, everything that I’m telling you here is valuable in constructing your resume. You will improve your response manyfold if you incorporate this advice in your resume.

So, the moral of this story is to hate me, but take my advice. It pays better than liking me and going on with a disaster of a resume.


Enjoy the Search!

-Dan
—–
Daniel R. Sweet
Owner / Author / Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
Call Me On Jaxter: http://www.jaxtr.com/fracat


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This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Dan Ramblings, Interesting Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.