A lot of writing, whether or not it’s books or, especially formal business writing, has become excessively bloated, quite pretentious, and very confusing. It has been heavily bogged down with redundancies, and it seems to be quickly getting much worse. Whoa! I hope you made it this far, because if it had been me reading […]
Should You Ask For Introductions on Linked in? This is a tough question, and the answer is—it depends on the relationship you have with the person. I have a statement at the bottom of my profile that lists my policy. It would be great if everyone did. Here’s mine: I don’t forward requests from people […]
The 10-Second Resume Rule: Truth or Bullshit? It seems as if every other month someone is writing an article on the “10-second†rule of resume screening—that you only have 10 seconds to get the recruiter or the gatekeeper’s attention. I even mention it in my book, No Mistakes Resumes. I don’t like the way it’s […]
Two-Dollar Words Many people think that the bigger the word you use the better it sounds. They seem to equate the number of syllables, or scarcity of word usage to sounding scholarly. What these people don’t understand is that the trick is not to find the biggest word, but the word that works best in […]
Resume Killer What Are The Biggest Resume Killers? Resumes are complicated—at least that’s what many people think. But in reality, they are one of the simplest documents to write. Despite being simple, a lot of resumes from qualified people end up in the trash. Why? Sometimes it’s a single item, at other times it’s a […]
7 Steps To A Winning Phone Interview Many interviews are preceded by a phone screen, which seems friendly, but don’t be lulled into complacency. A phone interview is not a friendly chat; it’s a process to eliminate you. You need to prepare for it just like you would an onsite interview. If the company is […]
3 Things Every Resume Should Have If you want to make a difference on your resume, a real difference, make sure to include these three things. The items I’m talking about are these: #, $, %. The symbols don’t have to be on there but what they represent should. Not every resume will have them, […]
25 Impact Words For Your Resume (Most of this is an excerpt from one of the chapters in my book, No Mistakes Resumes.) Your resume should be filled with impact words. Words can be very powerful. Think of the emotions some of these simple statements generate: “I love you.†“I hate you.†“You are so […]
Are Your References Killing You? Imagine you’ve gotten through the first few steps of the hiring process, and now you’re at the gates, ready to get an offer. All that’s left is for you to pass the reference check process. But that’s a piece of cake, you think. You’ve got great references. All I can […]
Should I Tell A Headhunter My Salary? This question often brings strong opinions, on both sides of the fence. I’ve seen advice stated firmly for and against, and I’ve seen some of the experts waffle on the issue. If you’ve followed this blog for long, or you’ve read my resume book, you know I don’t […]
What To Capitalize On Your Resume Capitalization Many people who write resumes have an inclination to capitalize damn near everything. Perhaps they think that by capitalizing words, those words, or the functions they represent, become more important; ergo, the person becomes more important. (Did I just use the word ergo? I did, didn’t I? Smack […]
Resume Tools I’m going to start this post out discussing tools. You might wonder what tools have to do with resumes but you’ll see they have a lot in common; in fact, your entire resume is a tool, and it consists of hundreds of other tools—words. When you mention “tools,†most people think of a […]
When Should You Write A Resume? The technical answer is you should write a resume when you have a position to apply for; however, you should keep a document that resembles a resume updated at all times. Anytime that something occurs in your work history that you might want to put on a resume, update […]
What Is the Best Resume Format? First, let’s talk about… Formatting Mistakes Note: Part of this I’ve taken from the formatting chapter in my book, No Mistakes Resumes. A lot of people pay no attention to the resume format, but that’s a huge mistake. Formatting deals with the readability of your resume, and that affects […]
Interview Tips—Your Smile Is a Weapon You might be surprised when I tell you this, but your smile can be a powerful interview weapon. Yes, you heard me right—your smile. I know what you’re thinking. What about my experience? My accomplishments? Those are certainly important; they are what got you to the interview. But now […]
Getting Ready For The Interview You’ve worked hard, perfected your resume, got through a phone screen, and now you’ve been invited for an onsite interview. The job you want is within your grasp—so don’t mess it up. Interviews are tricky, and interview preparation is really tricky. A lot of things can go wrong. These three […]
Exclusive or Not? I often have candidates ask me this question: “If you can’t help me to locate a new position, can you recommend someone?” My answer is always the same. “I might be able to help you, but your best bet is to find half a dozen or more headhunters you trust and see […]
There’s a Lot of Reasons… …why I’m writing this post, and the heading of this sentence is one of the primary ones. To a growing number of people, the phrase, “There’s a lot of reasons,” and others like it are okay. They’re acceptable. But to other people, in particular, resume screeners and gatekeepers…let’s just say […]
Responsibilities Dilute Your Message Responsibilities take up a huge part of most resumes, and that’s unfortunate. I say unfortunate because the space most people devote to responsibilities could be used much more effectively. If you have a compelling reason to list responsibilities, follow these few rules: Keep it simple. Keep it short. Keep it relevant. […]
Let’s Take A Look At Resumes By definition a resume is: …a brief account of one’s professional or work experience and qualifications. …a set of accomplishments …a brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications. Please note the words in italics: experience, qualifications, accomplishments. That’s what a resume is about. A Resume Isn’t About… […]
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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