Your résumé is,
for better or worse, your one shot at wedging the door of hiring opportunity
open using the figurative shoe of your employment history. Here are ten
tips for what you can do to make yours stand out from all the others:
1. Remove your name, address, phone number and any personal
information. This creates an air of mystery that hiring professionals find
intriguing. They'll be anxious to start digging deep to learn more about you.
2. One page is preferred. The easiest way to do this is to keep
reducing your page margins to eliminate useless "white space". The
whole point of your résumé is to promote yourself as the best candidate for the
job for which you are applying -- white space just provides an opening for
whoever is reviewing your qualifications to reflect and mentally compare you to
other candidates, which you want to avoid since the odds are most other
candidates are more qualified. (Alternate suggestion: Set up your template to
print out on 11" x 17" paper.)
3. If multiple pages are required... whether to document
extensive work experience or due to your choice of a monstrous font size, print
each page on a different-colored paper. It's a unique and distinctive approach
and also implies your familiarity with the "color wheel".
4. An "Objective" is passé. Today's candidates in the
know include a "Subjective". Unlike an Objective, listing the
qualities of an "ideal position" that doesn't exist, a subjective
statement provides an honest assessment of what you hope an average work day
will be like at your new company. EXAMPLE: "Seeking a comfortable position
with responsibilities similar to but less taxing than what I've done before,
and with better pay and additional vacation days than my last job. Lax
attendance policies, free soda/coffee, and attractive co-workers are a
bonus."
5. Be specific with your accomplishments. Include quantitative
measurements of what you've achieved. Replace a vague "Responsible for
creating Excel spreadsheets" with the more precise "Responsible for
creating Excel spreadsheets containing up to 65,536 rows".
6. "References available upon request". Here's a
secret top hiring managers won't tell you -- no one checks references, ever.
There are too many legal restrictions around what your previous employers can
say about you, and employers are concerned with potential liability if they
offer a negative (i.e., honest) assessment. The only questions the EEOC permits
to be asked regarding previous employment are: "What did you say your name
was again?" and "Are you hiring? I hear there's about to be an
opening at your company." If you are asked for references (which should be
done with formality, since the standard is "upon request"), provide
names that will impress your new employer but are impossible to verify: Steve
Jobs, Ronald Reagan, Carl Sagan.
7. List your hobbies and outside interests. Since you'll be
spending three-fourths of your time at work using your employer's resources to
pursue them, it's important to make them known so the new company's IT
department can adequately plan for bandwidth requirements.
8. Be flexible about your education. Every job out there
requires an MBA, so be sure to include that degree on your résumé. While there
is great debate regarding the merits of public vs. private universities, there
is no question that people think their school is the greatest. Leave enough
room on your résumé so you can quickly write in the name of your new boss's
alma mater once you discover it during the interview process.
9. Bullet point or narrative style? Neither -- both have been
done to death. Make creative use of the "Tab" key to set random
indents. You can also highlight your individuality by switching from left to
right justification mid-way through the page. However, avoid full
justification unless you have time to count the number of letters in each line
to make sure they match.
10.
Over-promise and under-deliver. For
example, I said I'd provide ten tips but have only included nine.
Good luck! If you follow these guidelines, you'll certainly need
it.
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