Writing Resumes - How Do You Do It?
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You are spot on that to many people tout the 'One Page' format, there are a number of people that just can't shoe horn their career and skill set into such a limited amount of space and still have it readable.
From the last few years of working with,... uhm,... persons otherwise employed, this is what I have learned and 'taught'.
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Limit frilly stuff; more and more employers are using a service which scans the resume electronically. Added frills makes it impossible (or nearly so) for the document to be searchable.
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Use a Header; If you fax (gasp) your 2 page resume to a perspective employer and they only receive one page, or worse if the fax machine dumps 30 resumes on the floor, how will your two page resume stay together.
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Fancy Paper; Use with limitation. Don't waste your $1.50 a sheet high cotton fiber paper for mailings and cold call drop offs. Save it for the interview. And have a copy for each person in the interview (Panels are the rages these days).
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S(kills); Many positions have a high number of applications - put your skills on page one, front and center. From my partnering with Manpower Employment services, an perspective employer is only going to give a 30-45 sec read and never get to page two, UNLESS something draws them in. Skills can kill - both ways.
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Terms; MCSA, CCNA, CCIT, NSA, FIPS, HIPPA - Yes, all good 'generally' known terms.. however in a former job interview the terms Net+, A+, MCSA, CCNA, MCSE etc were completely lost on them. Know what the terms are (if you have it, you'd better,..).
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One to Two Pages; If you have a two page resume,... it should be a FULL two pages. Either you don't have enough, or you have two much if you have blank space... Adjust your margins. Former co-worker had so much that she used a .25 margin on all sides, filled up two pages, and could have gone on to a third.
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Readability; Format and font should be standardize; 10point font is the absolute smallest you should use.
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@ajstringham said:
Also, any feedback on the article is welcome!
Don't take this the wrong way, but what makes you qualified to give advice on this subject? Do you do much recruitment?
For me, there are two types of people who will read your CV in the SMB world. A professional recruitment consultant/agent and a company manager. The two types operate in completely different ways. A recruitment consultant spends his whole life reading CVs and will scan them quickly and be pretty bored by them all - there will be nothing written he hasn't read a million times before.
The company manager is usually entirely different. It will be someone like me. I'm a complete amateur when it comes to recruitment. I don't do it very often and I take my time. What I'm looking for is likely to be completely different to what a recruitment consultant is looking for. For example, I like a highly technical CV as I understand technology. Whereas your average recruitment agent is normally fairly clueless on technology. I quite like personal statements, whereas recruitment agencies simply ignore them.
Creating a single CV that will work for two different types of recruiter is tricky.
The best advice I could give is to ask for feedback from as many recruiters as possible.
Also, make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. I can't believe the number of CVs I get that contain basic errors. Some don't appear to have even gone through a Word spell-check which is the very least anyone could do.
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The one page thing is for liberal arts fresh college grads. It has no place in the technical world. It's for people looking to be a museum guide with their only work experience being summer intern at a day camp.
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@scottalanmiller I list my (major) projects/accomplish at each job under them so it is much longer than one page.
Honestly though linked-in is becoming more and more of the "new resume" for the tech world.
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I've yet to see much use of LinkedIn. The format there is so useless. Even LinkedIn internally can't locate my profile there.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I've yet to see much use of LinkedIn. The format there is so useless. Even LinkedIn internally can't locate my profile there.
Your resume is pretty poorly done on there though. I've seen it.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@ajstringham said:
Also, any feedback on the article is welcome!
Don't take this the wrong way, but what makes you qualified to give advice on this subject? Do you do much recruitment?
For me, there are two types of people who will read your CV in the SMB world. A professional recruitment consultant/agent and a company manager. The two types operate in completely different ways. A recruitment consultant spends his whole life reading CVs and will scan them quickly and be pretty bored by them all - there will be nothing written he hasn't read a million times before.
The company manager is usually entirely different. It will be someone like me. I'm a complete amateur when it comes to recruitment. I don't do it very often and I take my time. What I'm looking for is likely to be completely different to what a recruitment consultant is looking for. For example, I like a highly technical CV as I understand technology. Whereas your average recruitment agent is normally fairly clueless on technology. I quite like personal statements, whereas recruitment agencies simply ignore them.
Creating a single CV that will work for two different types of recruiter is tricky.
The best advice I could give is to ask for feedback from as many recruiters as possible.
Also, make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. I can't believe the number of CVs I get that contain basic errors. Some don't appear to have even gone through a Word spell-check which is the very least anyone could do.
I never claimed to be some master. I was just sharing what I've done and what has worked well for me. Notice the opening lines of the article. They are guidelines I've followed that have worked well for me. I don't do a ton of formatting advice, just what to include and how to do it, as a whole.
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With all the résumé (& cover letter) talk, am interested in how the HR applicant tracking systems target auto-filtering and how well HR departments do it.
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@ajstringham said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I've yet to see much use of LinkedIn. The format there is so useless. Even LinkedIn internally can't locate my profile there.
Your resume is pretty poorly done on there though. I've seen it.
As you know, I've never put one there.
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When applying for a job, I think a CV should be targeted to the role being advertised. In the role I recently advertised I wrote that the applicant must have a keen interest in manufacturing. There wasn't a single applicant who mentioned manufacturing in their application.
Now you might argue that saying they were interested in manufacturing is pretty meaningless unless they can prove it. Without proof it's just words. But I used the job requirements as a signal to see if they are able to read my instructions and follow my commands. I effectively asked them to mention manufacturing and they didn't bother. So in a work situation, I can't trust them to follow my e-mail request and perform a job exactly as I requested. They're sloppy. They only do 80% of what I ask. However good they are at IT, I won't be happy with them failing to listen to my request fully.
Old man rant:
When I first graduated it was pre-internet. When applying for a job I would cycle to the public library in order to look up the company I was applying for in various business directories to get as much background as I could. It took ages. Now you can look up our company in 30 seconds, but still it's clear that most applicants can't be bothered. Most people just seem to just upload their CV to Monster.com and sit back and relax.
OK, now it may be that the role I'm offering isn't very attractive. So maybe applicants aren't really bothered about getting an interview. But in that case, why bother applying in the first place? It's just waiting my time and theirs.
True story:
A recent applicant at my place was called for interview and e-mailed the HR Manager and asked her for directions in text speak. Something like "Can u tell my how to get to your office". Failed on two counts:
- Use of text speak to the HR Manager
- Inability to Google directions.
Kids today, huh?
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@ajstringham said:
I never claimed to be some master. I was just sharing what I've done and what has worked well for me. Notice the opening lines of the article.
No worries. I don't think the opening lines make this clear. Also, how do you know you didn't get jobs despite your resume? You could have a rubbish resume but be so awesome people offer you work anyway? See SAM's "well it worked for me" thread.
I'm not having a go. I just find the art of resumes to be so difficult. I really haven't a clue, despite having a fairly varied 20 year career as both an employer and an employee. One thing I would note is that when everyone follows an accepted "best practice", resumes become bland and derivative. It's a bit like modern websites - they all start to look the same (same colour scheme, same fonts, same layout, same bland statements). A resume that breaks all the rules could be the one that stands out and attracts the right kind of attention. Maybe.
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I think everyone loses jobs because of their resume. The best resume in the world (on average) will still be tossed from at at least 5% of shops.
I know people at Goldman Sachs who feel that even their senior engineers should have a one page resume that tells no details and at Citi they are looking for ten pages or more of serious information.
There is, sadly, no way to really know how your resume will be received in any specific situation.
