I’m going to share with you the awful truth about resumes and cover letters.
Here it is: Most of them stink.
I’ve read nearly 15,000 resumes and cover letters over the years and found glaring mistakes in about 85-90 percent of them.
It’s also the opinion of most of the hiring professionals I’ve spoken to over the years.
Where do most resumes and cover letters go wrong? How can you avoid the mistakes of most job seekers?
To find answers, I spoke with two experienced recruiters. Their candid advice can help you avoid typical pitfalls, and get hired faster.
Here it is ...
Don’t Use The Same Resume For Every Job
Would you grab any old suit off the rack and rush off to church to get married? No. First, you tailor the suit so it fits. That way, you don’t look ridiculous.
Unfortunately, job seekers look ridiculous applying for jobs without tailoring their resumes. It’s a real pet peeve of most hiring professionals, including Larry Harris, a Minneapolis-based recruiter and President of American Consulting (americanconsultingcompany.com).
"Why don’t candidates customize every resume they send out, to fit the job they’re applying for? That makes my job a lot easier when I forward that resume to my client, the hiring manager."
According to Tony Haley, Director of UK-based Fenton Chase International (fentonchase.com), most resumes come across as generic, with no consideration about a particular position or company.
"The most surprising group of candidates who do this is Sales Managers and Sales Directors. These people spend their days reviewing resumes from candidates and yet when it comes to their own, they cannot sell themselves," says Haley.
Solution?
Customize, customize, customize.
Tailor your resume for every different company, position, and manager. Detail experiences most relevant to each opportunity.
Don’t Be Boring
A boring resume is one of the worst sins. The rule of thumb is simple: If they snooze, you lose (because your resume will go in the trash).
Resumes filled with jargon, dry job descriptions, and lack of specific results bore the reader, according to Haley.
"Consider the reader. Remember, the people reading your resume might not be that proficient at it. If they cannot see what they are looking for almost immediately, they might reject it, and if it’s full of technical jargon, they might not understand it," says Haley.
Solution?
Read your resume to 2-3 friends to eliminate dull wording. You lost the audience if eyes glaze over or brows furrow. Revise the resume until it holds your friends’ attention to the end.
Haley offers another way to create a compelling resume: "Use the ‘So, what?’ test. Any sentence on a resume that causes a reader to think ‘So, what?’ probably means it’s waffle. Reword it or take it off."
Don’t Forget The Cover Letter
Don't alienate anyone who could help you get a job.
A missing cover letter alienates busy hiring professionals because it creates more work. They spend time trying to match your application to the open position and more time trying to uncover how you heard about the job.
Solution?
Write and include a cover letter with every resume, including those you send by e-mail. Even a one-line cover letter in an e-mail is better than nothing, according to Larry Harris.
"You could simply write, ‘I’m applying for your telemarketing software sales position. I spent five years doing that exact job. I’d be perfect for it!" he says.
Use these tips from hiring professionals to write a better resume and cover letter next time you apply for that dream job.
Now, go out and make your own luck!
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Kevin Donlin owns Edina, Minn.-based Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1995, his firm has provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in 48 states and 23 countries.Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, WCCO Radio, WLTE Radio and KMSP TV, among others.
His articles have appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly, Home Office Computing magazine, Twin Cities Employment Weekly, the cnet online magazine and others.Kevin can be reached through his Web site Guaranteed Resumes.
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