Over the years we've encountered career counselors, writers, former human resource professionals, and outplacement executives who claim to have the last word on resumes. We have read many of their books and have been impressed with what they had to say. These self proclaimed gurus promise that if you follow their advice, you'll end up with a winning resume. In the back of our minds we've always wondered if the people who have the last word on resumes the employers agree with their advice.
To answer this question, we administered a questionnaire to over a hundred recruiters at some of the nation's top corporations spanning the fields of accounting, banking, computer science, consulting, consumer products, education, health care, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, marketing, publishing, and retail. Simultaneously, we administered the same questionnaire to over a hundred career development professionals working in settings such as colleges, outplacement firms, non profit organizations, and private practice. The questionnaire included a broad range of resume related issues.
The polls have closed and the results are in. Forty five corporate recruiters and sixty four career development professionals completed the survey for a response rate of nearly fifty percent. Let's see what they had to say.
"Since recruiters deal with a large volume of resumes, on applicant needs to make his or her resume stand out. An effective resume highlights an applicant's achievements in a clear and concise format." Undo Goglio, University Relations Manager, Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.
The career development folks and the recruiters all agreed on this one. Recruiters cited readability, overall presentation, and conciseness as the three keys to a successful resume. Incidentally, all three of these qualities make the recruiter's job easier. Makes sense when you consider the thousands of resumes they have to sift through. Career counselors also cited readability, presentation, and conciseness as the three main keys to a good resume.
In addition, they emphasized that the resume should be tailored to fit the requirements of the job and that it should stress notable accomplishments and results in your former jobs, not just job descriptions. Recruiters generally agreed with this advice.
Question #2: What Are the Three Most Common Resume Mistakes Made by College Students?
Again, our two groups of respondents were basically in agreement. Employers cited sloppiness, wordiness, and omitting grade point average as the three top resume killers. They found typos, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes to be especially irksome.In their eyes, a resume with these careless errors is simply unprofessional. Employers assume that if you make thoughtless blunders on your own resume, you may be equally sloppy on the job.
Fortunately, typos, misspellings, and poor grammar are avoidable mistakes. To ensure that you don't commit these careless errors, always take the following precautions: 1) Keep a dictionary and grammar guide (such as The Princeton Review's Grammar Smart) by your side whenever writing a resume; 2) If you have any doubts about how to spell a word, or which preposition to use, consult your handy reference sources; 3) Spell check the entire document on your word processor; 4) Ask two trusted friends who have a good command of the English language to proofread your resume. Proofing it yourself is okay for starters, but an objective third party should always read your final draft.
In our questionnaire, nearly a third of the employers cited wordiness as one of the most common resume, an applicant proclaims that he or she is detail oriented, and then submits a resume with typos or grammatical mistakes. In fact, on your resume the more long winded you are, the less likely you are to hold your audience's attention. The idea is to get to the point. Remember, your resume is just a summary of your experience you can supply the gory details during the interview. Also keep in mind that you can only squeeze around 250 words onto a standard one page resume. Therefore, every word should be chosen with great care and consideration, and for a specific purpose. If a word doesn't enhance the way you look on paper, don't use it.
Consider the following example:
Original Version
I compiled information and wrote the first draft for a launch book introducing the first sinus relief product with daytime and nightime formulations in a single package.
Revised Version
Completed draft of launch book introducing a unique sinus relief product.
Note that the personal pronoun "I" and several articles ("the," "a,") have been omitted to unclutter the statement. Editing has reduced the new version from three lines of text to two quite significant in a one page resume of thirty three lines. Just think: each line you waste with wordiness is equivalent to approximately three percent of your life. Waste three lines and you've just flushed nearly ten percent of your life down the drain.
The third most common resume mistake according to employers omitting CPA was somewhat unexpected. While recruiters in many fields use grade point average as an initial criterion for job qualification, in certain fields, GPA is a lesser or irrelevant factor.
Unlike recruiters, career counselors were not dismayed by the omission of GPA. In fact, many counselors actually encourage students to omit GPA, particularly when it is below a 3.0.
A fourth common resume mistake that really bothered the counselors was lack of career focus. Interestingly, this did not seem to be an area of concern for the recruiters. Perhaps they take it for granted that many students have little idea what they want to do with their lives.
Question #3: Which Resume Format Do You Prefer?
Among the recruiters, more than three quarters preferred the reverse chronological format. It is the easiest format to read. A few recruiters favored the functional approach, and a few didn't really care as long as the candidate communicates her qualifications clearly.
The career counselors were not quite as uniform in their opinion, although more than half preferred the reverse chronological style. Those who preferred the functional format said it was particularly effective for students with little or no work experience, older students with varied backgrounds, career changers, and job hunters with erratic work histories. Counselors also pointed out that writing a functional resume is an excellent exercise in skills assessment that requires the writer to articulate what he does best.
Nearly a quarter of the counselors stated that the choice of format depended on the client's individual circumstances. About one in ten counselors favored alternative approaches, including the combination format and the targeted format. The combination format integrates elements of the reverse chronological and functional styles, while the targeted format highlights accomplishments and skills that are particularly relevant to the job sought.
