General Thoughts
Resume writing is a complex undertaking for most people. Their first questions are usually what type of data to include, how lengthy should it be, how far back in my work history I should go and what type of format should I be using. Additionally, they struggle with words, using the same words repetitiously (managed, developed and maintained). They randomly over capitalize, use bold letters, underlining and italics for special emphasis, which leaves the document a distracting mess. They seldom pay attention to the margins, going with one way too wide or way too skimpy. They select font styles that are gimmicky, their reasoning being that “they want to stand out.” Depending on the amount of their data, they sometimes use font sizes that take a magnifying glass to read.
Generally speaking, people pay too much attention to the content of their resume and how much content goes into it. Some people try to place everything that they ever did in a resume, no matter how much space it takes or how far back it goes. Content, length and deep work history can often be fatal flaws in terms of getting your resume read. You can be the very best in the world at what you do, but relying on your content would be a mistake.
The goal of the resume is to call attention to your talents, skills and abilities. If that goal is reached and you have applied for a position that matches the background on your resume, the result will be a phone screen, an interview or both. In order for that goal to be reached, your resume obviously has to be read, by someone, anyone. The best way to ensure that someone will read your resume is to make it easy to read, easy on the eyes, in a format that is clear and concise and straightforward.
Keywords & Phrasing
The phrasing in many resumes leaves much to be desired. Let’s examine a few:
1) Maintain all shipping and receiving logs in order to control on-hand inventory.
2) Perform other duties as needed.
3) Including but not limited to
In the first example, the words “in order” are not needed. If you subtract them from the sentence, the sentence maintains its meaning.
The second example illustrates additional duties but apparently they were not important enough to define. Therefore, this sentence just takes valuable space. The end of the sentence, “as needed,” is also poorly defined.
The third example is a phrase used most often when people are trying to impress just how much they do. What is more impressive is including everything of significant value you do and omitting this phrase.
The primary reason writing your own resume is so difficult is because you have a hard time being objective about yourself. I have been writing resumes my whole career and still have a difficult time when writing about myself.
Another real issue that people have when writing their resume is trying to build themselves in the eyes of the reader by the use of certain adjectives or adverbs. Without realizing it, they have created potential interviewing snares and traps. Some of the aforementioned words are:
Successfully
Effectively
Promptly
Many resumes include sentences that read “successfully increase revenue by ___ percent.” As opposed to unsuccessfully increasing revenue? The sentence that shows real action on behalf of the subject reads “increased revenue by ____ percent. The trap is this: what if the person reading your resume were to define success differently than you do? For example, if you successfully increased revenue by 5%, many people would consider that a failure. Saying “increased revenue by 5%” shows positive action as opposed to subjective action.
While resume writing might appear easy, it is not. Finding the right words, ensuring an aesthetic appearance and standing out amidst the myriad of candidates takes precision, accuracy and creativity.
The next time that you attempt to update your resume, remember that.
Proverbs 23:12
