Resume Checklist

How many interviews has your resume gotten you? If you're hearing crickets chirping, it might be time to take a step back and read it like it doesn't belong to you. Here's a checklist - how's yours looking?
The Résumé Checklist:




□ Two pages or less.



□ Formatting is standard and easily readable. Uses only standard fonts (Times New Roman, Ariel, or Century Gothic etc.) No colored text, graphics or other non-professional flourishes. Is saved in the standard Microsoft Word format – .doc (not .docx or .pdf.)



□ Contact information is up front and easy to spot. Email address sounds professional.



□ Clearly says in top third of first page what industry you are in, and what profession and job function you’ve had, and what you want to do next.



□ Chronological format (as opposed to “Functional.”) Lists the most recent and relevant companies you’ve worked for, what positions you held and the dates you worked at each place. Has brief one-line descriptions of the companies. Has bullets that show what skills were used and what you accomplished at each place.



□ Showcases critical background, experience, education, and skills directly tied to your work objectives.



□ Highlights your most marketable skills.



□ Contains all the various keywords and buzzwords common in your industry, and typically found on job descriptions for positions you match. (Create separate modified versions for specific jobs you are applying to, using the language found in the job descriptions.)



□ Contains quantifiable results, accomplishments and achievements using numbers, dollars, percentages, names of any awards you’ve won, etc. Provides concrete, measurable data whenever possible.



□ Makes liberal use of “action” words (e.g. “created,” “completed,” “built,” “developed,” etc.) to trumpet your accomplishments.



□ Avoids using the “I” word.



□ Answers the question: “Why should someone hire you?”



□ Does NOT include a list of your professional references. (Save them for when they are requested.)



□ Avoids personal details that have no connection to your professional profile (e.g. hobbies, family information, non-work related activities, etc.)



□ Contains no typos, spelling or grammatical errors.

What "brand" are you?

Everywhere I look on the internet, the buzzword it "BRANDING". Personally I can't wait for it to fade and something else take over, but when it comes to job hunting it's the keyword that you need to think about especially to win interviews.Think about it. Why do companies have interviews? Is it so they can add you to their collection of employees? Nah. They want to know what YOU can do for THEM.

"Sure," you say, "everybody knows that!" But are you really prepared to sell yourself as a profitable investment for an employer?

When you think about it YOU are a product that you have to market; you have to sell them on buying YOU. Each and every question that is asked is an opportunity for you to sell your best features and give examples of how you did that. It doesn't matter if you're being interviewed for Head Fry Guy or CEO of Kajillionaire Corporation, you have to prove how you can improve productivity or profits for a potential employer. Your resume should give teasers with numbers and percentages and that hooks you an interview. Once you get the interview, though, the real pressure is on. How many other people is the company interviewing? What is the company looking for? Why are they hiring? (Is this a new job because the company is expanding? Did the last person get fired for not being the right fit? Is it a maternity leave position and you'd be filling the shoes of Ms. Dynamo? Try to adjust your answers once you get that information if you can get it before the interview; if not, use that question as one of yours when they ask if you have any questions - you know, the part where your mind goes blank because they pretty much told you everything you wanted to know already.)

Look at anything around you that you bought - why did you buy that product or brand? What were the advantages of you investing your money in that product? A company is going to make an investment when they add to their staff - if you are the one they need to hire, you have to prove it to them.

There is an old writers adage "show, don't tell" and it holds especially true for your resume and interview. If you improved customer service, how did you do that? If profits for your department went up 800% while you were there, what was your part in it?

You hooked them with your resume, now reel them in with your fabulous interviewing techniques. Show them the advantages you brought to others and how you can bring those same incredible results to this new company.

If you're having problems trying to word potential answers or want to get ahead by preparing for possible questions, have a look at one of these books. Don't forget to do your company research first so you can weave what you know about your future employer into your answers!

Unethical Recruiters, Unethical Companies

One of the things that I'm reading over and over these days are the unethical practices that recruiters and companies are putting jobseekers through. This has been rampant forever, it's just more prevalent now with the internet making all kinds of reporting avenues open.

The major reason I went into business for myself is because of an unethical small operation recruiting company I worked with. When I met the owner, a guy about a decade younger than myself, he told me he owned the company and worked with a best friend who'd taken off to the Grand Caymans to work. This guy didn't know whether or not his friend was coming back and was looking to expand his recruiting biz into my area. I could work from home, I wasn't supposed to call any of his buddy's established clients unless a definite job needed to be filled and I should get my own business number to declare taxes with. If candidates I put into the system got hired on someody else's job, I'd get a cut. If I filled a job of my own with my own candidates I got 60% of the fee. Seeing as I was the only one in this area, they were 200 miles away in a bigger city, I thought it would be a good thing, no pressure, lots of opportunity, so I agreed to work with him. I hit the ground running. I was getting and filling new job orders within weeks - this guy was making thousands off of my work.

Suddenly buddy came back and hit walls when he started up again. I started noticing that in the internal system where I'd upload all my new candidates into their system the ownership was being changed - this meant less money for me if the candidates I'd uploaded were placed. When I got job orders, mysteriously the owner would "help" and only the candidates with his or his buddy's name (conveniently changed, right?!) would be on the shortlist. Then I got emails from the buddy asking if it bothered me that he contact the companies I'd gotten for them. He'd ask how I was finding all the new companies I was working to put in the system. The friend was a completely jealous, unethical Shmo.Then I got calls from my companies asking me why Shmo was calling them, didn't we have a system where a company shouldn't be contacted more than once by more than one recruiter? Uh huh.

The owner guy put up a Spring and Fall challenge with cash and a hotel weekend which I easily won but never actually received. That pissed off Shmo even more, when I called the owner to address all this he told me flat out that Shmo was not bringing in any money and was jealous that I was beating his ass. Guess Shmo should've stayed in the Caymans.

I placed people left, right and centre. Owner guy wasn't doing anything about his "friend" so I got smarter than these "smart" guys; I took owner guy's advice and got my own business name registered so that I could recruit people through my own email and prove what underhanded bullshit was going on. I got a call from the buddy one day saying they'd cut me out of the system because I'd caught on to them. I'm out about $20,000 because of their unethical ways but ahead because I ended up sticking with my own company.

With my own company I was hired by a private specialized "cheese" company to find a needle in a haystack licensed cheesemaker. Nobody trusted the company, as I found out from the cheesemakers and the governement agencies that I spoke with, and they warned me about dealing with the company. I had a contract and wanted to finish the job so I kept going. I found a cheesemaker who went behind my back and organized a short term"contract" with the jokers who owned the cheese company, as I found out directly from the unethical cheesemaker guy.

Once the cheesemaker's contract was up they went behind my back and hired another cheesemaker from the resumes I'd sent them, and the first guy trained the second guy in that particular kind of process. The company then refused to pay me the $18,000 they owed me because the contract they'd signed with me was for a permanent cheesemaker.

The first cheesey contract guy spilled his guts telling me what a dump the company was operating, the fact that the on-site religious representative had quit and the company was producing regardless of the fact that they weren't providing a blessed product, the fact that the people who worked there were banding together to sue the company - all kinds of neat information. The yahoo thought his confessions were going to soften me up and get him another job elsewhere which will never happen. I won't get into the fact that the one owner was emailing me wanting to meet me in a hotel for "a shower." Yeah, he was married and yeah he had girlfriends on the side. No, I never met this jackass or his jackass partner in person. I hope their company is wildly successful and the wife, when she gets the smarts to leave, takes him for every penny she can - if she hasn't already dumped his ass.

What did I learn? Trust nobody. That's a good one. Religious cheese doesn't mean the cheesemakers adhere to their religious tenents, that's another point. Mostly I learned how to be more ruthless in my business dealings. My contracts are rock solid. I also firmly believe in Karma for lawyers as well.

Ethics are important in all aspects of life, especially business, the object is to check out all aspects, phone references on the people you're dealing with and find out as much information as you can about them. And when somebody tells you a religious cheese company's cheese "tastes like ass", trust that opinion rather than wondering how the person came to that conclusion. If they're turning out a crap product, how can they pay their creditors or their employees?

I rock as a recruiter. I take care of both my candidates and my clients - I have that experience in employment counselling and recruiting plus the fact that I upgrade my recruiting skills regularly to keep on top of employment law, recruiting practices, resume & interview changes etc..

When I read complaints about people not getting calls back, I know there are shitheads like the smart asses I worked with. I can't do anything about those bad experiences, I can only make sure that I take care of my own people and I train my internal recruiters to do the same.

If you've had a negative experience with a recruiter or company, I can only say do what I do - don't take it personally, keep going and doing things right. It pays off in the end - the bastards who are unethical eventually fry themselves; be glad you're above them, I know I am!

The 10 Types of Crappy Interviewees

http://theoatmeal.com

Human Resources?

Human Resources is a dirty word to recruiters. They are generally difficult to deal with and change frequently. Trying to establish a relationship depends on the day, the weather and the stock market plus whatever they had for breakfast. Today's rant is advice - if you are actively seeking a new job then let's build on the thought "pick your top 10 companies where you'd like to work" and go a level up - never deal with 'em.
If you've been lucky enough to be called by an HR person who says "we'd like to discuss your resume", do whatever it takes to talk to the Hiring Manager first, even if it means calling the company and asking or crawling the internet to find out.

I read alot of blogs, I read alot of boards where job hunters whine and cry and pat each other on the back. That's ok for about 5 minutes but it's not going to take you to the next level.

Most job hunters make the job hunt their job. They email their resume out to everything that's out there - that's like shooting a gun in the air hoping you'll hit a duck. If you're a real job hunter, you've hunkered down to do exactly what I'm suggesting - focusing and honing in on that JOB.

Have you ever had a look at what Human Resources studies before they got their certification? Check it out sometime. See if what they study to do their job has anything to do with what you've studied and what you do - and they're in charge of hiring?

Another problem - the "I'm God" confusion that HR types tend to take on. Oooh the power of it all! They hold all the cards, so they think. They think wrong. The hiring manager is looking to find someone to make their headaches go away, that is YOU. Your job is to connect with the hiring manager and convince them that you are the magician who knows exactly what to do - not with lying or over embellishing or being obnoxious. HR knows zip to nil and doesn't have the smarts to question what you know about doing the job, so they're going to zip you through what they DO know - personality tests, behavior tests, tricky questions, watching your body language blahblahblah. That's crap. We all have worked with someone who squeaked through the interview, landed a job (probably at the desk beside you and made your life complete hell...I know mine did) and can do jack squat at the job.
Bypass the 3 ring circus and constant rejection. Focus on the job you want and figure out who to talk to. You need HR after you get hired for training or benefits information or maybe just signing that new contract!
Have you made that list yet? Have you researched that company's chain of command to see who to approach? You have control over it all, you really do.

Upgrading skills FREE? Online? Yale, Harvard & more?

One of the worst things about being out of work for an extended period of time is trying to  validate that block of unemployment on your resume. In this fast-paced millenium where we can be outdated and outmoded overnight, this email I got with employment information was a welcome surprise. Check this out:

"Employers are starting to hire again and we know for a fact that they’re going to hire individuals who can contribute. Employers see each of us as a unique mix of education, talents, skills, and experiences – and it’s up to us to continually nurture and fine-tune who we are and what we have to offer.
Never stop educating yourself. If you have access to a computer and the Internet you can give yourself a first rate education. Leading universities like Yale, MIT, Princeton, and Harvard are offering their courses for FREE online. This really levels the playing field, allowing everyone access to instruction from some of the world’s greatest scholars. One organization we recently heard about, Academic Earth, has brought the best courses from some of the most respected colleges and universities together in one place. Academic Earth was founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education and they are working hard to achieve that goal. Their site includes video lecture clips, lecture notes, practice problems, exams, and other resources.
So start hitting those ‘virtual’ books and keep learning. Acquire the knowledge you need to get that next great job. There's nothing holding you back!:

How cool is that? In the comfort of our own home, in our pajamas and close to the edge of the depths of despair, quality free online education can get us dressed, keep our skills current and actually lead us to a great job with some top-of-the-line upgrading!

For the Zoomers and Boomers out there, this is especially vunderbar. In an economy where hires need to have a loaded bag of tricks, these upgrades plus the knowledge and maturity that have come with your years of experience make you all the more appealing and valuable.

While I'm not as enthusiastic as the email author that "employers are hiring again" (Which employers, where and how many? I haven't seen any real indication of a big hiring swing yet ) - I know that it definitely is starting to simmer out there. They're coming, those jobs, and let's all be prepared for them - a little Ivy League upgrading would look great on a resume, don't you agree? It can't hurt to check out what they're offering and how you can benefit.

Roundhouse kick to the head Resumes

Forewarned is forearmed! (See information on how to create e-z to scan, success-filled resumes at the bottom of the article.)

Research shows that only one interview is granted for every 200 resumes received by the average employer. Research also tells us that your resume will be quickly scanned, rather than read – the reader takes from 3 to 8 seconds. This is all the time you have to impress a hiring manager to read pursue your resume further. What this means is that the decision to interview a candidate is usually based on an overall first impression of the resume, a quick screening that so impresses the reader and convinces them of the candidate’s qualifications that an interview results. As a result, the top half of the first page of your resume will either make you or break you. By the time they have read the first few lines, you have either caught their interest, or your resume has failed. That is why we say that your resume is an ad. You hope it will have the same result as a well-written ad: to get the reader to respond.

To write an winning resume, you have to learn how to tell a prospective employer what you can do for them while pointing out what qualifications you have that match the job description. The new resume doesn’t follow the old standards – it grabs the reader’s attention and gets you put in the “yes” pile.

By starting with your current resume and some effort, you can make a resume that you’re confident that shows who you are and what you can do.

Each advertised position gets a ton of resume responses from those who are underqualified but hopeful to overqualified and close to perfection. All of these resumes are your competition. The hiring manager has to read all of these unless they have an assistant who will prescreen them first.

With a job description in front of them, someone is going to scan your resume starting with the email subject. For information about emailing etiquette, read our article. They may or may not know what all of the job necessities are or mean, so they’re looking for a resume that matches up quickly with the job description. This is your starting point:

THE OBJECTIVE/SUMMARY

A powerful objective that really tells what you’re looking for versus the standard “seeking a position as” that is 50 words or less is going to get the reader’s attention. Bolding any words that match the qualifcations from the job ad is easy on the eye and jumps out especially to someone unfamiliar with your occupation. This may be the only section fully read by the employer, so it should be very strong and convincing.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This is the part where you demonstrate what you can bring to the employer by proving what you’ve accomplished in the past. You tell which skills you used that match the ones mentioned in the job ad or description and THEN you show your accomplishments that set you apart from the rest of the herd. The basic formula is:

1. Problem/ Challenge
2. The actions you took 
3. The outcome

In the combination objective/summary, you gave an overview. Now you tell the rest of the best of your story. Let them know what results you produced, what happened as a result of your efforts, what you are especially gifted or experienced at doing. Make sure that you are validating the most important highlights from your objective/summary.

EDUCATION

Be sure to keep the education section concise and clean. If you won any awards or published articles, list them seperately. Putting a grade point average is a personal choice but not necessarily needed especially if you won awards that will indicate your scholastic brilliance in a different section.

DO’s AND DON’Ts

DO spell and grammar check your resume

DO keep it to 2 pages or less if you can

DO apply this to any position – you’re selling yourself and listing previous job accomplishments is going to tell the employer they need you

DO make a different resume for each different job title that you’re applying for – “general” resumes don’t get interviews, they get “kept on file”.

DO include if your degree is from overseas and has been equivalency assessed by a North American certified institution such as WES

DO separate relevant work experience from non-relevant work experience

DON’T lie on your resume

DON’T add your photo

DON’T put personal information ie: marital status, Social Insurance Numbers, number of children, political or religious affiliation information on your resume

DON’T save your resume as “resume” – save it with your name and which position/job that it applies to

DON’T send wpd or obscure formats – send .doc or .pdf so that they can easily be opened or parsed by the reader. If you were the person reading 1000 resumes, you wouldn’t search for an program to read a resume, you’d delete it too, wouldn’t you?

Check out the resume sample before and after – apply this to your own resume. Get noticed and get the job with a winning resume!

 Before: Boring, average, unimpressive.

AFTER: WOW! Look how much money this guy could make us/save us! Impressive!

See original article at http://platinumstaffingsolutions.ca/articles-for-job-hunters/writing-a-winning-resume

THIS is the book that can show you how to turn your successes into numbers that win the interviews AND the jobs!