Hey everyone! Remember last week when I got other people to
write the content for my blog….I mean when I consulted professionals in the
field to give you some well-rounded advice on resume-writing? Well go ahead and
get excited, because this is part 2 of that panel.
We’ll start by re-introducing the
panel:
Kathy Wishart, Recruiter and Job Search Consultant with Priority Personnel Inc.
Priority Personnel Inc. is an independent and locally owned New Brunswick recruiting services company. Operating since 1993, our office is conveniently located in the downtown core of New Brunswick's capital city of Fredericton. Wendy Southworth, President, leads this dynamic, forward-thinking organization. Priority Personnel Inc. is driven by a commitment to meet and exceed the needs of our diverse customer base. 75% of our business comes from repeat clients and word-of-mouth referrals.
A wide range of job classifications and services are provided to all levels of Government; not-for profit organizations; and private business such as consulting, legal, insurance, financial, accounting, development projects and corporations, communication, and information technology.
Dana Leavy is the founder of Aspyre Solutions, and a self-proclaimed "Entrepreneurial Wingwoman", helping aspiring entrepreneurs & creative freelancers start, build & grow sustainable small businesses, through career transition and business consulting. As a career advisor and small business entrepreneur, Dana has helped hundreds of professionals in advertising, marketing, design, multimedia and other industries in creating and executing effective career plans to find and DO the work they are passionate about.
Mark Babbitt is CEO and Founder of YouTern, where emerging talent connects with entrepreneur-driven businesses and non-profits through high-impact, mentor-based internships. Mark has been quoted on internship, experiential education and career matters in Forbes, Mashable, Under30CEO.com and ReadWriteWeb. Mark also contributes to Business Insider, StudentBranding.com and Intern Advocate. A serial mentor, Mark was recently honored to be named to GenJuice’s “Top 100 Most Desired Mentors” list.
Participants were asked to answer
the following questions:
6. If you are
over-qualified for the position, should you leave out some of your
qualifications?
Kathy Wishart - If
you are over-qualified, please reconsider your application. It’s not likely to go well if you do get the
job. If you need the job, however, be
honest. Omitting items on your resume is
treading dangerous ground since most are likely to regard intentional omissions
as on par with lies and misrepresentations.
You might try using the cover letter to leverage your reasons for
wanting the job.
Dana Leavy - There's
no one right answer here. Generally
speaking the last 10-12 years are going to be the most relevant information,
and you want to be aware of dating yourself if you're a senior level candidate,
or you're breaking into an industry and vying for a more entry-level role. Do your best to only include the information
that's going to be most relevant to the role and the organization. If you're breaking into the creative industry
and going for an entry level designer role, they're not going to care that you
have 12 years of professional work experience, especially if it's in a
completely different field. You're not
misrepresenting yourself.
Mark Babbitt - No.
You want to get the interview – and to do that you have to confidently display
your abilities. Once your foot is on the right side of the door, you’re in a
much better position to counter the “over-qualified” objection.
7. Chronological,
Competency Based or Other? How do we organize our resumes to screen in and
catch your attention?
Kathy Wishart - A
combined format is probably the most informative type of resume since it links
skills and experiences to actual jobs in a chronological order. In terms of catching my attention, I’m old
school. Make it visually appealing and
don’t give me too much to read or wade through.
Dana Leavy - I
prefer and often recommend using a hybrid-style resume that includes the
summary, a skills or core competencies section, and work experience &
education. I like this formatting
because again, it's really effective for presenting the resume as a branding
tool, really communicating who you are and what you're bringing to the
table. But it also flows really well in
terms of each section - the summary is a general overview of your top skills,
followed by additional skills and core competencies you have, and then the
experience section goes into more context about where you've used those skills
and expertise to be successful and contribute to the organization.
Mark Babbitt - Again,
depends on the career and industry. For old-school medical, legal, and
engineering firms, for management positions and academia a chronological resume
is standard – and expected. For other industries – including digital media,
advertising, public relations and more – a hybrid resume (summary statement and
then chronological) tends to work best.
8. Is there a better
font, font-size, length etc.? When the employer doesn’t specify these things,
what do we do?
Kathy Wishart - I’m
personally flexible on font type. It
needs to look professional. Most fonts
are fine at a size 11 or 12. Some people
recommend a page of resume for every ten years of work experience. I certainly wouldn’t go more than 3 pages
EVER for a resume; a two page resume with a cover letter is ideal.
Dana Leavy - It's
an antiquated myth that the resume HAS to be on one page, but do keep it under
two if possible. Really it's about what
is the most effective format for presenting the information, keeping
readability, aesthetic and communication in mind. As far as fonts and sizing, stay with the
standard fonts that work on both Mac and PC (Ariel, Helvetica, Georgia,
Palatino, etc.). If you use a
Microsoft-based font that doesn't translate to Mac platform, and it's in a Word
document, you risk throwing off the formatting of your entire document, and it
can look sloppy. With that in mind, I
always suggest presenting your resume in a PDF format, so as avoid any issues
with margins when your reader opens it up.
Mark Babbitt - Same
criteria as above. Old-school industries and positions stick to Times New Roman
12 or maybe a non-serif Arial 11. For other industries use a Cailbri 11 or
similar visually appealing font. Just please don’t use more than two fonts on
the resume; if the resume comes across as loud or obnoxious – it gets
discarded.
9. Are graphics and
other media helpful in getting through the screening process? If yes, do you
have any tips on this for applicants?
Dana Leavy - I
don't suggest getting overly creative or putting graphics on the resume,
outside of maybe a sidebar as a formatting tool for listing additional
information. Besides taking up space,
graphics on resumes don't really serve a purpose, impress anyone, and in my
opinion they're cheesy. If you're a
designer, your portfolio should speak for itself. Video resumes are kind of cool, but they're
still up and coming, and most companies prefer the standard resume that they
can scan really quick instead of watching a several minute multimedia
presentation - they don't have time for that.
The only time I would say it's okay to get creative with your branding
package is if it's something that's really going to appeal to the type of
company to whom you're applying. If
that's what they do, they might enjoy knowing that you're knowledgeable in that
area. But I would still have a standard
resume, and then maybe redirect them to your blog, or website, if you want to
give them more of an in-depth creative branding presentation on who you are.
Mark Babbitt - Links
to social media sites, as well as an online portfolio or blog, is more than welcome.
Graphics can be a distraction for most industries (design and digital media are
exceptions). Infographic resumes – when well done – can be a great way to get
noticed in new media companies and positions.
10. Is there any
advice you would give to job applicants regarding their resume that you have
not already addressed?
Kathy Wishart - You
wouldn’t walk onto a construction site without a hard hat and steel-toed
boots. Why, then, would you approach
your job search without the adequate tools to get the job done? I’m talking about your resume. Unless you’ve
been formally trained on resume writing and are an accomplished resume writer,
don’t go it alone. Consult a resume
writing service. It’s an investment in
your career.
Dana Leavy - Once
again, just remember that the resume is a branding tool that's meant to tell
the story of your career, and the biggest aspects of that to keep in mind are
professionalism, formatting/readability, and messaging. Is your brand consistent throughout? What do you want the employer to know about
you as a candidate, and are you communicating that? Are you using words and phrases that describe
what is unique about YOU, and not just presenting you as someone with the basic
qualifications? If you look at it as a
branding tool and build it in that way,
instead of a standard required document, it's going to work much better
for you.
Mark Babbitt - Your
resume must be positioned to compete. That does not mean the resume has to be
perfect; it just needs to be a little bit better than your competition. To do
that, the resume must be:
1. Free of grammar and spelling errors
2. Tailored to each
position/application
3. Peppered with keywords directly from
the job description
4. MUST contain a statement summarizing
your soft skills
5. MUST contain quantified
substantiation of your performance (i.e., “exceeded quota by 132%)
Proper execution of these five issues alone places you ahead
of at least 90% of your competition, and should be considered mandatory
elements of a good resume.
Thanks again to all of the participants. If you have any
questions or comments feel free to add them below, or follow the panel members
on twitter and ask them yourselves. I hope this unraveled some of the mystery behind what the "rules" on resume writing are.
Happy job-hunting
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