An Interview Is Like a Date I think it’s safe to say that the majority of people reading this have been on a date before. It may have been a long time, but I’m sure you remember the drill—or most of it. Your time for dating may be over, but probably not for interviewing. I […]
Formatting a Résumé If you want to know about formatting a résumé, the best way to do it is to make it as unobtrusive as possible. Don’t use special fonts or eccentric styling and, for God’s sake, don’t use pictures. Make the résumé as plain and simple as you can. The content is what’s important […]
How to Write a Résumé. It’s easy to write a résumé, he said with a smirk. What could be easier? You’re simply reducing your five or ten or twenty-plus-year work history down to one or two pages. How to write a résumé sounds simple enough. But the reality is that editing anything is difficult, much […]
How can a cover letter do that? Suppose you want to apply for a position working for a medical device company that designs and manufactures devices for diabetics to monitor their blood sugar. The job description calls for experience that you don’t have, but you do have the skills. Don’t fret. Great cover letters can […]
The Importance of Trust in a Work Relationship I’ve been married for 47 years. I have run my own business for 33 years, and done business with more than a few of the same clients. I’ve gone to the same doctor for 35 years. What is the secret to all of this longevity? Trust. It’s […]
Responsibilities Or Accomplishments? I have screened thousands of résumés, hell, tens of thousands. And yet, not much has changed. I still see about the same percentage of mistakes as when I started. What mistakes, you might ask? The ones demonstrated by that age-old haunting question–should I list responsibilities or accomplishments? There are plenty to choose […]
How to Format a Résumé There are plenty of ways to format a résumé; I’ve seen a million (slight exaggeration). And there are almost as many opinions about how to do it right. But there aren’t many ways to format a résumé that aren’t distracting. And that’s what you want to aim for. You want a […]
Numbers On Résumés Before we get started, I’m going to briefly discuss numbers and numerals. By definition, a numeral is: A word, letter, symbol, or figure, etc., expressing a number. There are rules regarding when to use the word numeral versus number. I’m going to ignore those rules and use number/s for everything. Now back to the looking […]
Put Your Best Foot Forward When writing resumes, it’s important to remember that your “best†accomplishments might not be the right ones to list on your resume. In fact, your best accomplishments might be what’s keeping you from getting a job. I’m going to let you in on a secret—resume screeners are opinionated! Imagine that? […]
Interview Questions When I think of the interview questions a person needs to ask, quite a few come to mind. Some of the ones I recommend are a little too risky, but there are others that you’d be wise to consider; in fact, many companies expect you to ask them. Candidates don’t often think of this, but […]
Things Headhunters Do Wrong I know what you’re thinking—things headhunters do wrong could fill a book—and you’re probably right. But today I’m only going to tackle a couple of the main issues. In fact, let me clarify that even more—these are only main issues as I see them. And I’m looking at it from the wrong side […]
Words That People Misuse Have you ever heard someone say “ain’tâ€, and thought—they should improve their grammar? Most of us have probably thought that at some point. But perhaps we shouldn’t judge too harshly, because there are many words that are misused on a daily basis. They might not seem as bad as ain’t, but some […]
Resume Mistakes Can Kill Your Chance For An Interview Scoring an interview is difficult, but a lot of people make it tougher by presenting an inferior resume. A good job posting typically draws at least 100 resumes, and quite often as many as 300–500. In mid- to large-sized companies, a significant number of resumes are […]
List of Business Redundancies Everyday speech, television, movies, books, emails, and all other forms of communication are riddled with redundancies. Most of it is harmless, of no consequence, but if you want to present yourself in the best light, try learning a few of the more common business redundancies. These appear frequently on resumes, […]
Clarifying What We Mean—When Is Midnight? During one of my book promotions, the people running the ad sent me this message: Hi Giacomo, I will be posting your book, Murder Has Consequences, as a bargain book on Wednesday, 7/17. Please leave your book on sale until midnight 7/18. Thanks, Administrator I thought to myself, but when […]
What a Headhunter Doesn’t Tell You Working with headhunters can be beneficial, helpful, troublesome, and frustrating. And sometimes all of these can be rolled up into one experience. The best way to deal with headhunters is for both parties to be honest. The problem is that not all job seekers—or headhunters—follow that rule. I’ll cover […]
What To Say When You Don’t Know The Answer To An Interview Question Interviews are easy, especially when you’re prepared for them. Some people, however, grow anxious as interview time approaches. They are unsure how to answer interview questions. Relax. Take a deep breath. I know you may be nervous, but there’s no need to […]
3 Important Sections of Your Resume I have been reviewing resumes for more than 30 years. During that time, I think I’ve seen it all—from one-page resumes to ones that looked more like small books, weighing in at 30 plus pages. The crazy thing is that the vast majority of people continue to include things […]
Behavioral Interview Questions—Tell Me About Yourself Before we get started with this section, let’s talk a little about how to answer questions. Yes, (said with a sigh) there is a method to everything, especially when dealing with behavioral interviewing questions, and especially when dealing with the seemingly innocent “tell me about yourself” question. Most companies […]
How To Close the Job Interview Your Way There are a gazillion (I know I keep using that word, but I love it) ways to close the deal, and if you read enough articles and books, you’re bound to encounter conflicting opinions on how to do it and what the most important thing to do is. My […]
Use or Utilize This post is more for the professional crowd. I may have mentioned that I worked as a headhunter for more than thirty years. During that time, I got a lot of résumés—more than twelve thousand of them. One thing that used to jump out at me was how people tried so hard […]
Make Sure Your Résumé Isn’t Wasting My Time When companies need to hire someone, they resort to what they feel is a process that works, and all too often, it’s a black-and-white decision. It has to be. The person screening résumés has a stack of 200–400 or more applications in front of them, and they […]
Ten Best Words to Put on a Résumé A while ago, I did a post on the ten words to avoid on your résumé. You can see it here. In that article, I mentioned how many of the “go-to” words people typically use are useless. I’m including a table I used in that post to show […]
Rules You Shouldn’t Break When Writing a Résumé The easy answer to that statement is “all of them” but that wouldn’t be correct. As we saw in a previous post, there are a few rules you want to break. The majority of them, however, should be adhered to. So read on for a quick rundown […]
Seven Worst Résumé Mistakes There are a lot of mistakes people make when writing résumés. Some are forgivable and some not. But instead of talking about all the mistakes, let’s just discuss the seven worst résumé mistakes. What Is a Résumé’s Purpose? We’ve talked about this before also. A résumé has only one purpose—to get […]
It Takes a Great Résumé to Get an Interview Before we begin, let’s look at a few things that take a résumé down a peg or two. Spelling mistakes. This may be the number one reason why résumés go into the trash, and yet they’re so easy to fix. A quick run with a spellchecker […]
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