Proofread Your Resume, Please!

Before you send out your resume, you must proofread it. The task of proofreading a resume includes not only a spell or grammar check, but also a check on its visual presentation, readability, and rationality. A resume is a business document. It is sort of a business proposal. In a resume, you are proposing that the employer should interview you because you would be a good employee. When your resume has language, a presentation or rational errors, you are only hurting the case you are making for your employment value.

At this time of year, a lot of hiring and job searching occurs. So, I am getting a flurry of resumes to review. Lately, the results have not been great. With a sigh, I can only suggest to all job seekers, proofread your resume, please. Let me go through several real examples to illustrate the lack of proofreading that is occurring.

1. BULLET FORMATTING

•        Education

o        Times High School 2001-2003

o        State Area Technical Center

§         Multimedia Program 2002-2003

o        Central High School 2003-2004

o        Williams High School 2004-2005

§         Graduated May 21, 2005

o        Gary Technical College 2007-2008 

What's wrong with the above resume section? There are three layers of bullets and the section has too many lines. The owner of this resume used this bullet technique for the entire resume. There are about 100 bullets over the entire resume! Too many bullets make a resume hard to read. If you are unsure of a resume style, pass your resume around to teachers, family or friends. You may get some valuable feedback prior to sending your resume to a recruite.

2. PARAGRAPH FORMATTING

Whenever I receive a resume that is 6 pages long, I know someone hasn't taken a hard look at it. Six pages is not a rational length for a resume. Most resumes are 1 or 2 pages long. For a few people, it goes up to 3 pages, which is common for technical people who have equipment lists or project descriptions that are included in a resume. For this example, I saw the following:

James Wilson

10008 Main St. #362

Rialto, CA 90034

311-903-0000

name@name.com

The large spacing was a red flag for not setting the paragraph formatting on the menu bar of most word processing programs. In this case, the paragraph was set to leave a 16 point space after a line. No wonder the resume was 6 pages long! Single space everything on a resume. If you need a space between job entries, then insert a page return. 

3. BLOCKS OF TEXT

A resume should be presented in a manner such that a recruiter can skim the information quickly. Using lists, bullets, and textual emphases help a recruiter digest your career information quickly.  But, in this example, the resume owner did not give a thought to the readability of the resume:

Acme Tool Company, Dixon, IL

Assistant Pricing Coordinator - July 2010 to Present

Duties: Complete all price changes with use of hand held pricing tools and computerized scanners. Operations of store point of sale computer system, handle customer transactions while following company policies; procedures as associated to each transaction. Presentation of company Extended Service Plans on each qualifying product sold and benefits of HFT Club Membership to all customers. Assist in the replenishment and filling of merchandise on sales floor, set-up and replacement of displays, advertised items, missing labels, signs, and ad tags issued by outs program manager. Work in all new merchandise on a weekly basis, complete and post PC log. Detail each store section and perform POG verification while maintaining store appearance and cleanliness of displays and merchandise, shelving and display areas. Assist in training of new hires (management, cashiers, sales floor and warehouse personal). Other duties as assigned.

No one is going to read much less skim this block of text. You have to proofread your resume for readability. This person did not. So, she risks being passed over for another candidate who ensured her resume was easy to read.

4. PROOFREAD OUR RESUME FOR COMMON SENSE

A resume should be proofread for common sense. Re-read your resume statements. Do they make sense? Do they have meaning to the recruiter who will review your resume. Here's a recent example of an Objective that illustrates this problem:

Objective
To help everyone with anything they may need; also to work with all associates as a team member.

I surely will not fault the resume owner for highlighting the importance of team work. But, team work is not a resume objective.  As I cited above, a resume is a business proposal of sorts. This business proposal has a goal. The goal is to persuade an employer to hire you for a specific position. So, the objective must include some reference to a job that the employer is trying to fill. So, the objective as written is nice nonsense. Take some time to re-read what you have written. Does it make sense or nonsense? If the latter is the case, it's time to rework the language.

Can I Trust An Online Résumé Writer?

Finding an online résumé writer you can trust can be a difficult and frustrating process. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of services available and only a fraction of them can truly be relied upon. One of the main issues is the fact that the résumé writing industry is unregulated so just about anyone can refer to themselves as a professional résumé writer and set up a website. To make things even more difficult, even the most reputable companies work in a different manner to one another so a service that works for your friend may not be right for you. Read on for some tips to help you find an online résumé writer you can trust.

•    Samples: The most trustworthy résumé writing services tend to have ‘before’ and ‘after’ examples of their work on their official website. Your mission is to analyze their corrections and see if there is variety. You don’t want a service that only creates résumés using one single format and structure.

•    Marketing: As you know, a résumé is essentially your very own personal marketing tool. This means you need to choose a provider that knows who to market themselves. Does their website seem modern and well-maintained? Does their brand resonate with you and are you impressed by their marketing efforts? It’s a good idea to look at the social media presence of these businesses. If the résumé writing service is not using up to date techniques to market their own brand, they are clearly not good enough to help you market your skills.

•    Guarantees: Companies at the very top of the tree tend to offer 100% satisfaction guarantees because they have such faith in their ability. At the very least, you should choose a company that provides unlimited revisions to your résumé. Remember, there are so many companies in competition that it really is a buyer’s market.

•    Cost: We believe that cost should actually be one of the last considerations. While you want to pay less for more, beware résumé writing services that offer remarkably cheap services. In many cases, you get what you pay for which is not much! Writing a killer résumé takes a great deal of skill and experience so it really is a specialist vocation. At the end of the day, your résumé is supposed to represent you so paying a little extra for high quality should not be a problem.

•    Qualifications: While certifications and qualifications are not always an accurate representation of a service’s quality, they do increase the chances of finding a trustworthy provider. Some qualifications are more relevant than others so bear this in mind before being wowed by companies with a few letters after their name.

Follow the above tips to find a reliable résumé writing service online. If all else fails, check out customer reviews as these tend to paint a reasonable portrait of the company in question. One thing you must do is compare and contrast 4-5 different résumé writing services to get a reasonable comparison.

How To Handle Old Job Experience on a Resume

Today's NY Times published a news story about the difficulties older workers face in obtaining employment after a layoff. Older workers fear age discrimination, a loss of their homes from medical expenses and, most importantly, a loss of their personal self-esteem. I work with this age group in my job consulting service and they do face roadblocks, especially if they do not have high-demand skills (e.g., tech skills in the cloud, mobile and IT security sectors). But older workers get hired if they learn some inside tricks of the trade.

One of the issues older workers debate about is how to handle their job experience. They ask, if I place all my experience on my resume, employers will think I am too old, right? It's a valid concern. I have studied recruiter/employer sourcing behavior. It's like clock work: they look at the skills, the education and only the most current job; they never contact anyone for an interview for a job where the candidate's experience is not current unless it is in an area where there are no other job candidates. But this is a rare occurrence. 

So, how should a job seeker handle his/her job experience greater than 10+ years ago? Should you list all of it? Should you truncate your resume to only 10 years? And, if you shorten the time span of the resume, doesn't that amount to eliminating valuable job experience you developed over the years?

It's a tough question to answer. Let me go through a recent example to see how one job seeker handle the "age problem." After that, I will outline my recommendation on this topic.

This job seeker has more than 15 years of experience on this resume. He earned a Master's Degree in 2009 and was laid off in June 2012. Here is the basic outline of his job experience on his resume:
 
Operations Manager, ABC PROPERTIES, INC., Milwaukee, WI. (January 2005 – June 2012)

• Independently manage day-to-day business operations at Wisconsin Self Storage facility 
  Manage customer accounts, leasing, accounts receivables, delinquent accounts/collections, maintenance supervision, and security monitoring

Retail Manager, HORIZON CORPORATION, Gary, IN. (May 2001- January 2005)

• Assist with day-to-day business operations, collaborate with ownership to improve sales/service 
• Supervise and manage part-time employees; including selection, training, scheduling and accountability processes 

Assistant Testing Administrator, ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY, Peoria, IL  (August 1998- May 2003)

• Mentor and advise undergraduate Psychology students for testing/exam purposes
• Supervise exams, assist students during exams, implement testing policies, ensured lab security 

OTHER EMPLOYMENT: Team Leader (AGC), Sales (Bill Owens VOLKSWAGEN), Shift Foreman (Caterpillar), Loading Supervisor (UPS)

This job seeker only mentioned his old experience (beyond 15 years ago). He clearly wanted a recruiter to focus on his most recent management experience. This is fine. But what got him to his most current position? Look at his early positions. They were all supervisory in nature. So, they support his career path and tell his career story. But look at the last position he detailed: Assistant Testing Coordinator. This looks like a low-level, administrative job that he was overqualified for. Why does this job merit a description yet a job as a Shift Foreman at Caterpillar does not?

In essence, he has chosen to strangle his most relevant and supporting experience because he wanted to highlight only his most recent jobs. I see this as the manifestation of his concern over his age. But has it served him well? At this moment in time he is still unemployed and interviewing. He's been passed over for jobs several times. I guess his approach isn't working that well.

All resumes have compromises. One cannot mention everything. If you did it would be a career manifesto instead of a resume! But, my recommendation is a compromise: choose the most relevant experience to detail on your resume for the specific position you are seeking. Everything else should be deleted. Experience older than 10 years is fine if it is relevant to the job application because it builds credibility. Here's how I would have done this job seeker's resume if he was seeking some type of operations management position:

Operations Manager, ABC PROPERTIES, INC., Milwaukee, WI. (January 2005 – June 2012)

• Independently manage day-to-day business operations at Wisconsin Self Storage facility 
  Manage customer accounts, leasing, accounts receivables, delinquent accounts/collections, maintenance supervision, and security monitoring

Retail Business Manager, HORIZON CORPORATION, Gary, IN. (May 2001- January 2005)

• Assist with day-to-day business operations, collaborate with ownership to improve sales/service 
• Supervise and manage part-time employees; including selection, training, scheduling and accountability processes

Team Leader, AGC, Hawkins, MO. (May 1995- January 2003)

• Provide leadership to team; communicate results and issues to adjacent shifts, complete manpower plans, conduct daily quality and productivity start-up meetings.  
• Train associates and temporaries, audit training and identify future training needs. 

 Shift Foreman, CATERPILLAR, Peoria, IL (May 1990- Jan 1995)

• Oversee safety and security procedures, implements organizational policies and goals, measures performance to budget.
• Supports the general supervisor in budget analysis and adherence, assists in production control projects, manages work pack in accordance with production control plan, plans overtime and schedules resources as required.

 This version has more impact despite the employment gaps, which can be explained if asked. It demonstrates a defined career path in the operations/production area and gives credibility for his being a good candidate for an operations management position. I deleted the least relevant and earliest jobs because they didn't add value to his hiring appeal.