Is Your Resume Holding You Back?

If you’ve been looking for a job for a while, and you know that you are qualified, but no one is calling (on any of your phones!) What should you do?

I speak to potential clients who fit this category regularly. Clients suggest many possible scapegoats as to why the phone isn’t ringing:

• Age discrimination.
• My experience doesn’t exactly match their needs. No one will give me a chance to prove myself.
• I’m trying to transition from non-profit to for-profit and they just don’t want me.
• They look at my previous industry and discriminate against me because they don’t like (fill in the blank).

I would never tell potential clients that these factors have NOTHING to do with their hunt or that it is easy to overcome these possible roadblocks. However, when I review resumes from these job seekers, I usually identify fatal resume flaws that have nothing to do with age, experience or industry. Many times, it is clear to me that these job seekers are approaching their searches with resumes that are doing them more harm than good.

Some examples:

Age Discrimination. Many resumes appear old-fashioned and outdated. They include information that isn’t necessary (such as date of birth), but  omit key resume details (such as dates of employment). If the job seeker is “experienced” (read: older), an outdated looking resume only puts a spotlight on a factor that might be considered a drawback.

Lack of experience. Job seekers who don’t have direct experience in their field of choice make mistakes when they don’t attempt to address the needed skills and stick to a basic “this is the stuff I did” resume. Listing “stuff” isn’t going to cut it when you’re reaching for a job. Focus on those transferable skills. Look at your “soft” skills. Figure out what you have to offer and highlight it for the reader.

Transitioning. Consider how you describe your past experiences. If you are moving to a for-profit, use language that appeals to that employer. Always write for your target. I recently worked with a client to re-write a “non-profit” sounding job description using “for-profit” language. She landed an interview within 24 hours of sending the resume.  If you are applying for a job in France, you’d write your resume in French. Similarly, be sure to use lingo and descriptions that will make sense to the reader. Don’t expect them to translate it!

Industry Discrimination. I’ve worked with clients who believe their current industry isn’t an asset in moving to a new field. For example, a chiropractor who wants to work in accounting. It is easy to write a resume that makes accounting skills and experience the first thing employers will read. I’ve seen many resumes of job hunters who highlight the very information they think detracts from their candidacy!

So, if your phone isn’t ringing, don’t start assigning blame and throwing up your hands until you take a good, long look at your resume. You may be surprised at what you DO control in your job hunt.

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Can’t figure out how to optimize your resume with key words? Need a great resume? Career search advice? Mock interview? Visit Keppie Careers online for information about our services: www.keppiecareers.com.

photo by friendly123

A Resume is Just a Resume?

Last week, a client asked me if I thought “a resume is just a resume is just a resume.”

No, I replied…I don’t think so! A resume is a reflection of the resume’s owner. It must represent what you have to offer and directly target the employer you hope to reach.

Just as you (hopefully) wouldn’t just walk up to a rack of birthday cards and randomly select one to offer a loved one, you shouldn’t think of your resume as inconsequential to your search. Even as networking and personal branding become more and more important in job search, it is still necessary and important to have a solid, well-designed and written resume.

I recently spoke to a potential client who explained that he didn’t have a resume of any kind. He had been able to land an interview or two based on well written letters to targeted employers. The jobs didn’t pan out, but I reminded him that, at some point in a hiring process, he probably would have needed to produce a resume, even as a formality, for HR.

So, while you try to network your way to a job, using every tool at your disposal, take a good, hard look at your resume. Many times, clients believe that they aren’t getting interviews because of a specific thing that cannot change. Their age. Their level of experience. Their field. All of these may be factors if you are not landing interviews, but more often than not, there is something specific about your resume that is holding you back.

Make sure that your resume isn’t the one everyone is calling home about – for the wrong reasons! You want to stand out, but not because you misspelled “Public” or forgot to list your contact information. Your resume shouldn’t be a laundry list of “stuff” you’ve done, at the expense of listing your skills and accomplishments. Make sure that your resume isn’t a 5-page autobiography of every computer program you have ever touched in the last 12 years.

Review. Revise. Re-envision what you have to offer. You’ll be better off!

I’ll be happy to give you a free resume assessment. Just email it to results@keppiecareers.com.

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you via email! Prefer to subscribe in a reader? Click here for a link to receive Keppie Careers’ feed sent to the reader of your choice.

Need a great resume? Career search advice? Mock interview? Visit Keppie Careers online for information about our services: www.keppiecareers.com.

photo by abiznessdigital

Most Abused Resume Words

Key words are crucial for resumes. You want to be sure to hook your audience and entice them to want to learn more about you. However, sometimes, it is easy to fall into a trap of using a key word or phrase that is a little overdone!

The November issue of Real Simple magazine lists the following as the “most abused phrases on resumes and profiles, according to research by LinkedIn:

• Proven track record
• Problem solver
• Faced paced
• Due diligence
• Cutting edge
• Results-oriented

For women: attention to detail

For men: disaster recovery

This doesn’t mean that these words and phrases don’t belong on your resume. However, if you try Wordle (described HERE) and find any on this list as the biggest words in your resume cloud, you’ll probably want to re-work things a bit!

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you via email! Prefer to subscribe in a reader? Click here for a link to receive Keppie Careers’ feed sent to the reader of your choice.

Need a great keyword rich resume? Career search advice? Mock interview? Visit Keppie Careers online for information about our services: www.keppiecareers.com.

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Resume Tip – Your Resume Should Read as the Perfect Match for Your Next Job

 So, you are trying to write your own resume, and you are focusing on all of the things that you’ve done in the past to highlight?  STOP!

Your resume isn’t ABOUT your past – it’s about your future! Of course, you need to rely on what you have done to convince your next employer of what you can do for him or her, but remember: Your resume needs to read as the perfect match for your next job. You don’t want to look like the candidate who is qualified to do the job you already have.

Just as you need to target you resume to address your potential employer’s problems, you also need to target it to highlight the skills and accomplishments that propel you to where you want to go.  Review job descriptions that interest you. What do they want? What skills do they seek? Demonstrate that you are that person by artfully illustrating that you have the skills and accomplishments to get the job done.

You don’t have those skills on your resume? The “propel you forward” ones? Take the wheel and get them! Talk to your employer about the skills you’d like to develop. See where there are opportunities to get involved in projects that will give you what you need for your resume. Drive your own career bus, or be stuck hopelessly at the red light.

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you!

Need help with your resume? Did you know we offer a resume consulting service? We advise, you write! Or, hire us to write your resume for you. Visit Keppie Careers online for information about our services: www.keppiecareers.com.

photo by KM

Resume Tip – Be a Knight in Shining Armor!

Do you want to be a hero?

Who doesn’t want to hire a knight in shining armor, ready to take on the problems of the day?

When you focus on your resume, don’t just focus on you and what you offer. Remember to focus on the target - the potential employer. It is just as important to know what the employer wants as it is to know your own skills and accomplishments!

Figure out what problems your target organization is trying to solve. Sometimes, this is easy to discover by reading their website and job description. Other times, informational interviews and keeping up with the news of the day helps. (If the Wall Street Journal just ran an article about the organization, you’ll want to be sure to know about it!) Be sure to Google the organization; don’t just rely on what they say about themselves. What are others saying about them?

Once you know their needs, determine why and how YOU can provide the answers to their problems. Make a clear connection on your resume. Show them that you are their knight in shining armor, slaying dragons left and right.

If you want to receive free up-to-date tips to help with your job hunt, Click here to subscribe to receive future blogs sent directly to you!

Need help with your resume? Did you know we offer a resume consulting service? We advise, you write! Or, hire us to write your resume for you. Visit Keppie Careers online for information about our services: www.keppiecareers.com.

photo by Ms. Kathleen

Heat Up Your Job Hunt With Hot Resume Tips

Photo by Lallyna

Keep the sun rising on
your job hunt with a hot
resume!

A job search can be so overwhelming…A resume may represent a huge obstacle if you have been thinking of looking for a better job or making a career change. How can you put something together that will give you the best chance of landing the position that you seek?

Obviously, the easiest plan is to hire Keppie Careers to handle your resume! You won’t believe the peace of mind that can come from having a trained professional write your resume. Here is a summary of things to think regarding your resume if you are getting started on a summer job hunt:

A resume is a marketing document, not a laundry list of “stuff” you have done.

The point of a resume is to demonstrate your value to the employer. You must connect your value to their needs.

Be sure that your resume represents your career stage. For example, if this is not your first job out of school, you may want to consider moving your “education” section from the top of your document.

Remember, although no one resume style or type is right for every job seeker, there are some do’s and don’ts for resume writing!

A resume should include skills and accomplishments, including soft skills. It is okay to brag a little in a resume Just be sure that you support anything in your resume. Employers frown on the “perfectionists” with strong “attention to detail” who have typos or grammatical errors in their job search documents!

Save time, money and sanity! Hire us to write a top-notch resume that will get you noticed for all the right reasons! www.keppiecareers.com.

Thinking of Adding Linkedin Link to Your Resume?

Have you considered adding a hotlink to your linkedin profile on your resume or other job-search correspondence?  If so, keep these tips in mind:

• Make sure your linkedin and your resume match up 100%.  Sometimes, since it’s “just linkedin,” jobseekers are not as careful about dates and details as they would be on a resume.  You don’t want any discrepancies to raise red flags.
  
• Spend as much time making your linkedin profile perfect as you do your resume.  Neither  should have typos or careless errors.
  
• Enhance your linkedin profile.  Be sure to optimize your linkedin materials, as many recruiters source from that pool.
  
• Be aware that potential employers will use linkedin resources to find out about you.  Granted, this is true whether or not you offer the link, but if you have a profile and offer the link, be sure you don’t mind people following up with common connections without your knowledge.
  
• Be careful about what information you make public.  For example, if you’ve asked a lot of questions about job hunting, you may not want to make your list of questions public on your linkedin profile.

If you have a strong linkedin profile, solid connections to colleagues and employers and have spent time enhancing your linkedin image, you will be prepared to use linkedin as a job-hunting tool.

 

Keppie Careers will help you with your linkedin profile, your resume and coach you through every step of your job hunt.  www.keppiecareers.com.

 

Top 5 Resume Do’s and Don’ts

There is a lot to consider when writing your resume. You don’t want to miss an opportunity for an interview by offering a less than stellar result.  In her blog, Hire Someone to Write Your Resume, career advice blogger and author Penelope Trunk refers to a resume as a “complicated sales document and also a piece of direct mail.” That said, here are my top 5 Resume Do’s and Don’ts…

DO

Remember that your resume is a marketing piece, not a laundry list. Sell yourself; don’t just list what you’ve done.

Focus on transferable skills and quantifiable accomplishments. Determine the employer’s key words and incorporate them. Include soft skills, otherwise known as emotional intelligence. Use strong, active language that helps the reader picture you working for them.

Design your resume to be easy to read and scan – both with software and the eye. Remember that the typical first read allows a 10-second glance. (Some say 7 seconds is all you get!) Make it count by using white space, bullet points and bold, appealing design elements. Ensure that your resume is error free.

Target your resume to the employer. Do NOT zap your generic resume to 100 different online job postings. If you do not personalize your resume to include key words, you may be wasting your time sending it at all.

Be precise. Although the “one-page” rule no longer applies for all employers, it is important to narrow your information to include the most important material. (Typically, two pages are plenty.) Employers do not want to wade through a lot of extraneous information.

DON’T

Use “I, me or my” in your resume. The first-person is implied. Don’t use the phrase “responsibilities included” or “responsible for.” These are passive ways to structure your information.

Don’t use an objective. Your objective is to get the job, so you are wasting space in the very important real estate of your resume – the top! Attract readers with a targeted “Accomplishments,” “Highlights,” or similarly named section. Don’t list “References upon request.” This is assumed.

Don’t include ANY personal information such as age, gender, religion, marital status, social security number, weight, etc. In the U.S., do not include a picture on your resume.  All of this information is inappropriate and will make you seem dated and unaware of correct resume etiquette.

Don’t rely on standard resume templates, especially from your word processing program. Don’t copy text from sample resumes posted on the web. You are unique; your resume should be distinctive.

Don’t ever lie on a resume. Present the best possible image consistent with the truth.

Keppie Careers will design and write a resume that captures your skills and accomplishments and sells you!

Read more about us at www.keppiecareers.com.

Bragging

When you are writing your resume, don’t be afraid to brag a little bit!  Some may say that there is a fine line between the obnoxious, pretentious job seeker and the applicant who wants to show their stuff.  I think that the difference comes down to proving it!

If you can support accomplishments with cold, hard facts – do it!  Avoid vague, generalized statements touting yourself as a “results oriented achiever” or a “visionary executive” unless you can actually demonstrate that those tags suit you.

Your resume is not a place to be modest.   If you don’t explain to the reader what you have to offer, he or she isn’t going to know, so don’t hold back.  Think about you and what you have to offer.  (Self-assessment is a theme that will run through much advice from Keppie Careers…Take note!)

 Just don’t let your resume drown in unsubstantiated, fuzzy, one-size fits all, over-the-top expressions of grandeur.  Your hiring manager will thank you!

 keppiecareers.com…We advise, encourage, enlighten!

Targeting Your Audience

How can you tell if your resume targets your market?  Read it from the prospective employer’s perspective. 

Ask yourself: 

• Does it speak their language?  Does it echo lingo, jargon and buzz words found in the job description?
• Does it focus on what YOU can do for THEM? 
• Does it emphasize themes and values found on the employer’s website or other written materials?   

If the answers are “no,” it is NOT targeting your market.

What can you do?  At the risk of oversimplifying the issue…

• Incorporate language from the job description and lingo their company favors in your materials.   Take advantage of the fact that job descriptions are lengthy and involved…Someone spent time writing down exactly the skills and experience they seek.  How flattering if you echo their language when you apply!  You’ll look like the perfect candidate. 
• Think about what you have to offer in the way of accomplishments and skills.  Eliminate any language that suggests that they can do something for you.  For example:  “Seeking experience in a fast-paced, high-tech environment.”  No employer wants to hire someone to give them experience!  They want to know what YOU can do for them. 
• Your research (via web information, informational interviews, reading industry publications) should uncover the organization’s culture and values.  Do they emphasize volunteerism?  Are they “green?”  Are their employees chained to their PDAs and work 24/7?   Your materials should incorporate how you fit into their culture.  The point is to help them visualize you fitting into their environment.  If you can paint a picture that helps them see you working for them, you are one step closer to an interview!