You’ve worked hard on your resume. It is polished and ready for the recruiter. You’ve been a job seeker for a while and hope that your new approach to job hunting will attract an employer who will challenge you and advance your career. However, in our attempt to market ourselves effectively we can often make drastic mistakes. These are not the obvious mistakes which every resume writer learns to avoid, they are subtle, intangibles, that strain the nerves of an over-worked, HR manager with a looming deadline.
1. Short Summary. Keep this employer focused. It is often best to write this last. The most important thing is to ‘solve a problem’ for the employer. Parroting the same claims that you will work hard and love stress is a great way to make the HR professional stop reading.
2. Can they identify your Skills? Your clever and witty titles also need to be easy to understand. Do they explain what tasks you’ve done, and skills you’ve developed?
3. Does your history resemble a job ad? Don’t list the reasons you were hired. If you were a restaurant manger then you were hired to perform the tasks a restaurant manager needs to perform. Instead of industry jargon and tasks, list experience in a way that identifies the skills learned. How did you perform in the job? Every manager’s resume states that they handled employee problems, but fails to list whether they were good at the task.
4. Did you leave them with questions? It is better to focus on a few strong skills then list everything you’ve learned and leave the HR manager with questions.
5. Limit the Soft Skills. They may energize your resume, but personal traits should only be listed if they make you the perfect person for the job.
6. Do not list more than 5 – 6 bullets under each job description. Combine similar achievements instead of highlighting everything you’ve accomplished.
7. Do not write a check list. If your resume is packed full of every task a manager completes then the HR manager will just skip it.
A resume’s job is not to list every detail of your previous jobs. Recruiters want to see three things.
a) are you qualified
b) are you a problem solver
c) are you loyal
When these objectives are complete then the resume is finished.
Robert Krzak is author and CEO of Geckohospitality a respected hotel and restaurant recruitment and recruiting firm.