job seekers | Robin's Resumes (r)

Bad Santa’s Advice for Writing Your Resume

Dec 23 2018

I am continually astounded at the bad resume advice handed out by the “bad Santas”: resume writers who have no professional credentials or well-meaning friends and family.

Bad Santa Advice from Resume Writers

Many so-called resume writers, without credentials, training, or professional affiliations, will give you bad advice, like telling you to alter facts on your resume. For example, they will encourage you to simply forget about a short-term position or period of unemployment and modify dates to cover the gap. They will tell you to say you have skills that you do not have rather than be upfront about skills you are willing to get. They will tell you to lie to make yourself more attractive.

These clueless helpers will also tell you that you need to keep your resume to one page—regardless of your years of experience and achievements—and that cover letters or emails are no longer necessary. They advocate unusual formats as though the format will impress hiring managers more than the content. They ignore applicant tracking systems which have difficulty with unusual formats, even though most large companies today use an ATS.

Their bad advice can lead to your being fired for lying or to your resume being suppressed by the applicant tracking system before you even begin.

Bad Santa Advice from Family and Friends

Some bad resume advice comes from family and friends who have your best interests at heart, but do not understand the current job seeking environment. They will tell you to be more modest or more boastful than your achievements warrant. They will tell you to add words like “hard working,” “loyal,” and “interested in furthering my career,” which take up space that could be used to quantify your achievements.

The absolutely worst advice these good-hearted people can give you is to write your own resume because no one knows you as well as you. The truth is that most job seekers find it difficult to assume the viewpoint of recruiters and hiring managers; and yet a resume has to appeal to that audience, not best friends or relations or to the job seeker’s own internal critic. Over and over again, I have worked with job applicants who overlook the basics of stellar resume writing: clear, concise, accurate, and focused. Instead they come up with a generic resume that describes their past more or less but has absolutely no chance of getting them the job they want now.

Good Advice from Robin’s Resumes®

To avoid the Bad Santas, whether unprofessional resume writers or your well-meaning support system, research carefully to find a professional resume writer with credentials, experience, and references. You will find all three on my website. I look forward to hearing from you.

Resumes for Jobs in Foreign Countries

Jun 26 2016

If you want to live and work at a foreign location—whether outside the United States for a U.S. citizen or within the United States for a citizen of another country—your resume has to meet certain special criteria.

You will want the hiring manager or recruiter to know that you are familiar with the language of the country where you want to work. It is also important to mention if you have citizenship or dual citizenship in that country, if you have lived (or visited) there previously and if you have educational degrees that are equivalent to those in the foreign country.

If you use a professional resume writer, the writer should be a native speaker in the country where you want to work. Even small mistakes in spelling (for example, between American and British English), grammar or cultural references may undermine your resume.

Different countries have different standards for resumes; may prefer CVs, which are more detailed. Some require your social security or passport number; some (like the U.S.) do not want it. Some expect a photo; some do not. Make sure you understand the expected format and content.

Make it easy for foreign companies to contact you. A LinkedIn account and a Skype account are very helpful additions to email and phone.

Different countries have different ideas about appropriate behavior. Religious views about foods or beverages, comfort with direct eye contact or with touching between men and women, the type of clothing considered professional and many other social norms vary greatly. Make sure your photos and comments on social media do not violate the sensibilities of your target country.

You will face different visa, driving permit and work permit requirements in foreign countries. Familiarize yourself with those requirements before you start your job search to make sure you can meet them in a timely fashion if you are offered an interview or job.

Robin’s Resumes® has helped many foreign job seekers find work in the United States. Contact us today.

Resumes That Stand Out: Details Make the Difference

Jan 10 2016

You could inscribe your resume on a gold bar and deliver it in a Lamborghini—but the company you are applying to will still hire the individual who has the right set of skills, accomplishments, knowledge, and experience. You could simply shout from the rooftops that you are the best prepared, best organized, highest potential, most focused candidate for the job—but every company still wants proof in the form of actual accomplishments.

That’s where the details count. Before you even begin a resume, gather all the information you can about your previous and current jobs, including job descriptions, reviews, and examples of your work.

Providing More Than a List of Tasks

You want each job description to contain more than a simple statement of duties or tasks. Check out the differences between these two descriptions:

Worked on network security.
Improved network security at a college by configuring Cisco firewall servers and routers and protecting private addresses with a new IP address scheme.

Clearly, statement (b) is more detailed. That detail sets the individual apart from the competition who may have also worked on network security but not at a college, not using Cisco technology, and not employing the same two techniques.

Using Numbers

Any time you can put numbers on an achievement, you have added a detail that will catch the eye of a recruiter or hiring manager. You trained other salespeople; it is much more compelling to give the details: “Trained 30 salespeople in two divisions; subsequently, ten became sales employees of the month and one became division sales employee of the year.” You could simply state that you increased attendance at community events; it is more impressive if you give the details: “Increased attendance at community events 30% over 2 years through Facebook and Twitter campaigns.”

Naming Names

You also add detail when you provide the name of the project you worked on, the organization you led, the awards you won, the technologies you used (for example, Facebook and Twitter in the previous example), the departments you interfaced with, and the title of the individual you reported to. For example, “charged by CEO to improve communications between Finance and Sales Departments” or “led Lean initiative for all Midwest branches.”

How Robin’s Resumes® Can Help

When adding detail, make sure it is relevant to the job you are applying for. No one expects (or wants) your entire life history in a resume. Hiring managers and recruiter are looking for those details that match the company’s needs.

Robin’s Resumes® helps job seekers add the right level and type of detail to their resumes. Contact me today.

Three Major Mistakes Job Seekers Make on LinkedIn

Nov 30 2014

The other day I reviewed the information a client sent for his resume, including his address on LinkedIn. When I went to LinkedIn to look at his profile, I discovered he had not updated it after leaving his previous job. His LinkedIn profile had him working at a company he had left two years earlier!

Another client who wanted her LinkedIn address included on her resume had not posted a profile at all—just her name and job title. While her desire to include her LinkedIn address was sound, the empty profile simply wasted a recruiter’s time.

Bottom line: if you are going to direct people to your LinkedIn profile, make sure it is up to date, matches your resume and is fully filled out.

Now here is another mistake job seekers make on LinkedIn: They do not use it to network. LinkedIn is a wonderful opportunity to connect with individuals who work in your field, work at companies you are interested in and may have early knowledge of job openings.

How do you get in touch with these people? Comment on their posts, with thoughtful information, questions or referrals. Ask your #1 connections if they know your desired contacts/companies and would introduce you. Join groups that your desired contacts/companies are likely to follow or join.

Finally, job seekers are making a mistake if they believe LinkedIn is a one-way street. Yes, companies will look for potential employees on LinkedIn but job seekers should also be looking for potential companies to join and jobs to apply for. The LinkedIn profile established by companies in your target industry or field contains valuable information about their own achievements, struggles and company culture. This information can help you write a resume that better shows your fit for the job you want.

Robin’s Resumes® is your source for a profile that adds value to your resume and for information on using LinkedIn to your advantage. Contact us today.

Applicant Tracking Systems, Part I: What They Mean for Job Seekers

Oct 05 2014

Today, up to 80% of resumes are scanned by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) before a human being gets even one glance at them. If a resume does not pass the ATS criteria, it is likely the resume will never be read by a human being. In this blog post, I will explain what the ATS means for job seekers. Next week’s post (Part II) will explain the drawbacks and myths associated with Applicant Tracking Systems. Part III will explain how you can best ensure your resume will pass the ATS and be read by a Human Resource professional, hiring manager, or recruiter.

Human Resource departments, hiring managers, and recruiters use Applicant Tracking Systems to streamline and accelerate the recruiting process. By using automated, computer-based, ATS technology, hiring managers can more easily and cost-effectively identify and hire the best qualified job candidates. Since the advent of Resumix, the first-ever ATS introduced in 1988, the industry has been marked by enormous growth, technological advances, consolidations, the birth and death of entire companies dedicated to posting jobs and parsing resumes, and finally the dependence on ATS that we have today.

Why have Applicant Tracking Systems emerged as a dominant force in the employment industry?

Monster effect: With thousands of folks responding to every job posting, it is no longer possible to read every resume for every open position.
Matching Ability: ATS can help the hiring manager find candidates that truly match the job requirements without expending hours reviewing irrelevant resumes.
Ability to Find Candidates: ATS can search LinkedIn profiles and other social media for matches to the job.
Regulations: The federal government requires employers to report hiring statistics and to ensure hiring policies follow EEO requirements. ATS makes this easier.
Automation: By automating the hiring process from the beginning and tying the ATS into the existing HRIS platform, companies increase efficiency and save significant costs.

Every ATS is different. That said, here is how Applicant Tracking Systems work from the candidate’s point of view. First, the candidate selects a job to apply for. The candidate uploads a resume online and may need to fill out company-specific forms and answer additional questions.

Second, at the company, the ATS “reads” and parses the candidate’s uploaded resume. Based on how the software algorithm “reads” the resume, information from the resume is entered into set fields in the ATS database. Many ATS use clues from the resume, such as standard headings, to determine where to put the information in the database. The resume joins the LinkedIn Profile, other social network information, and application answers in the ATS.

Third, the ATS uses algorithms to score the candidate based on the job announcement. Many ATS either use keywords entered by the hiring manager or selection algorithms based on the job announcement itself.

Finally, the ATS uses the scoring algorithm (equation) to determine how well the candidate fits the job requirements, based on keyword matching and/or answers the candidate made to the questions.

Ideally, the ATS will select the best candidate(s) to be referred to the Human Resources Department, hiring manager or recruiter. Many hiring managers and recruiters will read only the resumes with the highest scores.

As this series will show, Robin’s Resumes™ thoroughly understands the benefits and limitations of Applicant Tracking Systems, and we have worked with them for years. We are ready to help you over the hurdle of the ATS.