You are here: Home / Archives for Resumes

How to Find a Job by Writing the Perfect Resume

January 10, 2012 by

Are you looking for work? Have you been looking for work for a while? For many people who are unemployed or under-employed, the question of how to find a job is a vital importance. The frustrating thing is that finding jobs is not hard. There are hundreds of websites, headhunters, ads in the paper, even job fairs where open jobs can be located. Finding a job isn’t really the problem. Knowing exactly what steps to take to land the job you find, is another matter altogether.

One of the most important steps you can take in your pondering journey of how to find a job is to write a resume that really let’s you shine as a potential employee. Here are some straight forward tips to writing a perfect resume that will help you get noticed right away and increase your chances of being hired.

First, when writing your resume, use clean but intelligent language. Avoid excessively long sentences and watch for grammar errors.

Next, be sure that the information you include is relevant. If you’re applying for a management position, the fact that you used to be a track star in high school is not really relevant. Even if the company you are applying to encourages you to include awards and recognitions on your resume, keep in mind that they really want to see awards that are relevant to the work you hope to do for them.

A third surprisingly common mistake is admitting you were fired from a previous job. There is no legal obligation for you to state that you were fired from a job in your resume. First of all, this often automatically gets your resume set on the ‘no’ pile. Also, most companies have no way of finding out if you were fired because of state laws prohibiting the disclosure of employee records. (Not all states have these laws. Check to see what your specific state says about this matter.)

One last thing to keep in mind when asking how to find a job: be realistic about your personal value. A great resume is absolutely vital. But don’t say you were ‘invaluable to the team’ unless you know for a fact your former supervisor will back you up. Don’t let old hurt feelings get in the way either. Never, ever bad mouth a former company or employer in your resume or in any interviews.

Keep these tips in mind and you will be on the right track to finding a great new job!



Filed Under: Resumes Tagged With: , ,

Resume Mistakes

November 25, 2011 by

Being on the other side of the hiring process, I have a file full of resumes I’ve kept through the years for potential employees and freelancers. I went through them and spotted some mistakes that caught my eye. I rarely hire based on a resume alone. These are all people I’ve met and networked with before, but keep their info on file as contact information.

  • Mixing personal and professional – Personal information is something that can come up in an interview. There’s no reason to have it on your resume.
  • Keep it clean – I noticed that many resumes had long paragraphs that were hard to read. Make sure there is lots of white space with info that is easy to read at a glance.
  • Using language specific to other employers – A lot of people in my file come from the entertainment industry, so I understand the insider terms. But don’t include language that only the last company you worked for would get. All companies are different. New job search, new, updated resume.
  • References available – That should be a given, so don’t take up space on the resume with it.
  • Team player – in this case, “show, don’t tell”. If you are indeed a team player, prove it with a concrete example of a situation in the past where you’ve been a team player and what the outcome was.



Filed Under: Resumes Tagged With: , , , ,