One note – in today’s business climate, many companies (well, larger ones anyway) are including “career transition counseling” as part of the severance package. This is where you get some training and coaching in resume writing and interviewing skills. Take advantage of it if you can! The people involved are usually HR professionals, and any tips and hints they can give you can be helpful for most people. Take what you can from them, but don’t follow their advice slavishly. The last time I went through this, they wanted to totally rewrite my resume and I refused to do so. I work in somewhat of a specialized niche, and my resume is tailored for that. Reworking it to a more generic format wouldn’t have benefited me.

OMG, some people have no clue how creepy they are! We had one candidate start mock kick-boxing and throwing punches to show how “strong” she was, and then talking about how she didn’t always sleep well because her brain kept talking to her. At the time she was sitting with some of the team members who would have to work with her–they were so freaked out that they immediately came down as a group and begged us not to consider her. Another candidate was introduced to someone who was extremely well-known in our field. The candidate made a very smarmy “Isn’t it soooo nice to finally meet the famous John Smith” comment to our colleague, then couldn’t understand why he didn’t get hired. Hint–when the star member of a team feels you were *trying* to insult them, you probably are NOT going to get hired.

I would suggest (and I do this personally) keeping a “master resume” that has all of the jobs you’ve ever had with the description of the job and your accomplishments. Then when you go to apply to a job, or at least an industry, you can choose whether you want to go chrono or functional. You have all of the jobs right in front of you so it will minimize the time it takes to tailor.

1. I, too, find the “objective” section to be pointless. The objective is to get the job, the rest is drivel. Anything you think need to say here can be included in your cover letter.

2. Stop using a thesaurus to find “bigger” words. It doesn’t make you sound smart. “Utilize” is not necessary when “use” is a perfectly good word. For more on this, see The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

3. Do not include personal information. I’ve trashed resumes that list height and weight and other personal stats. I’ve trashed resumes that included religious verses at the bottom and one that included headshots (for a receptionist job in a distribution warehouse). A potential employer only needs to know how your skills fit their needs.

4. When you get an interview, don’t be creepy. One interviewee took it upon herself to go into our breakroom and chastise us for not having coffee made, which she proceeded to make herself. Another interviewee followed up his interview with a diorama of a deserted island with a message in a bottle for us to “rescue him.” I’m sure these people thought they would stand out, and they did, just not in the way they probably had hoped.

Probably not your readers – but please – add a cover letter that speaks to the job/positon. Otherwise why are you applying for the job?

We (client & I) just interviewed for an open position – we received 120 resumes and only 12 had cover letters! Sad state of affairs – bottom line – only six of the 12 came in for an interview and we did hire the greatest person for the job!

Over the last year, I have interviewed dozens of people. Our HR team screens the resumes, and then the “professionals” do the technical portion of the interview. I am astounded at how many people cannot speak to the content of their resume. And and over, I interview people who have all the right words in their resume but can’t give one concrete example of their work to back up their claims. It’s getting to the point were I’m now inclined to hire people just for being honest. It’s that bad.

Please, above all, be honest in your self promotion.

For instance, in France your resumé won’t be given a second glance if it doesn’t have a picture. No picture is ever required, but people started including them to their resumés, and nowadays if you don’t you’ll probably be the only one, and that won’t look very good.
However, in many countries you’re not supposed to put a picture.

Similarly, in France your birth date and status (ex: “married, 3 kids” or “single”) are often included (once again, they’re not required, but most people include them so it’s become standard).

I guess what I mean is that bosses from different countries will expect different things. Make sure to be prepared and check what will be expected of you.

Of course, all of this advice still works perfectly for French resumés. I assume most of it is the same wherever you live. Learn to show off your qualities, be clear, specific and organised, choose your words carefully.

And I’m not sure if it’s done in other countries, but I have always sent a letter along with my resumé, explaining how I can help the company, what my skills are, etc, without of course repeating what is already said in the resumé. A handwritten letter always gives a better feel than a printed resumé, and the person reading it knows you wrote it just for them and didn’t just print twenty of them.
Of course, depending on cultural differences, such a letter could be seen as a faux-pas, I guess.

I’m another who thinks that “objective” in a resume is worthless. It’s junk. I haven’t hired a lot of people, but I have reviewed resumes for various positions, and the objective has always been useless to me. I would never include it on a resume of my own.

1. List your ACCOMPLISHMENTS, not your tasks. “Re-organized purchasing process,” not “managed purchasing.”

2. Help the reader understand the SCOPE AND SCALE of what you did – how big was the team, how much revenue did you bring in, etc.

3. NEVER use a functional resume. No hiring manager wants to read it – they can’t make sense of it. If you are right our of school you’ve already worked, I hope. If you are a career-changer your cover letter and your summary statement can help the reader understand why you are the right person.

Let your resume highlight your qualifications and describe your passion and goals in a cover letter.

You make a good point, though – change the resume depending on the job. If I’m trying to get a corporate finance internship/job, it should look a lot different than a stock brokerage job.

I do like the point that #9 made. My mom was unemployed for an extended period of time and applied for many jobs. But she ran into a guy at the state fair at their companies booth and ended up getting an interview. It looks like she is going to get the job.

Networking is key. Get a few resumes written up, tweek them, and then go out there and network!

That criticism being laid down, update your resume yearly(at least with the latest projects details and contact info). Always get a 3rd party to review it for spelling, punctuation, clarity and effect.

You have to go out there and network. My fear is that some people might focus all their attention on a perfectly sculpted resume and expect the job offers to come pouring in.

Ain’t going to happen.

In reality, a resume is simply an advertisement for yourself. It is a way of getting a potential employer to notice you among all of the resumes submitted for a specific job in an effort to get to the face-to-face meeting where you will really be able to show them what you can bring to their company. The resume is just an introdcution and method to get a foot in the door and secure an interiveiw where these tips may be useful.