Cool Resumes
Business Writers recently published an article about the ways that awesome resumes have benefitted applicants. What you should be able to see in the entire resume that is featured in the article is that the applicants weren’t just great, but they could be the most skilled in the abilities they had to offer.
Remember, when you’re more successful than everyone else, all the world will be your playground. Explore your resume as well as your profile and approach to interviews, and you’ll be selected.
If you’re not the most desirable, don’t. Period.
A well-designed resume is always noticed, no doubt. However, you must be aware of the areas you submit it. Graphic artists and illustrators will be rewarded for their efforts. Marketing grads might be. Finance professionals, certainly not!
If a business has a serious culture of work, the effort you put in on your side will not be considered a success; in fact, it could be viewed as offensive in certain instances. Therefore, you must use your discretion.
LinkedIn Profiles
Social networking is the hottest trend at the moment. When Google launched Google+ seven years following the launch of Facebook, you’ll know that social media isn’t going to go away anytime quickly. In fact, in certain countries, such as India, it’s only beginning to open up! One of the key tools for professional and social networking is LinkedIn. Many employers are willing to use LinkedIn to hire and find qualified candidates. Here’s a quick fact:
“Recruiters for about 45 percent of employers are using social networking sites to research job candidates, a jump from 22 percent in 2008, according to a June 2009 CareerBuilder.com survey of 2,600 hiring managers. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. Of those who conducted online searches, 35 percent found content on the sites that caused them not to hire a candidate, according to the survey. And, in a 2010 Microsoft-commissioned survey, 70 percent of the 275 U.S. recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers that responded said they had rejected candidates based on information they found online.” – Dori Meinert, Senior Writer for HR Magazine, February 2011
So whether it’s LinkedIn or LinkedIn killer, your profile on social media is under scrutiny, regardless of whether you’re happy with it or not.
“There’s nothing that screams more accurately who you are than a Facebook page.” — Van Allen, Owner of The Hire Connection (excerpt from Dori Meinert, Seeing Behind the Mask, HR Magazine).
In this situation, it becomes essential to improve your social profile’. The things you could and should do include:
1. 100% Completeness of Profile (must)
2. Recommendations that are honest and meaningful (at minimum 3)
3. There are also some value-added applications that can be used to communicate your preferences.
Another thing that you will need to consider is joining professional groups and participating in questions in their forums. It is essential to conduct some research to be conducted to find out the groups that you should and shouldn’t join.
Resumes that Sell
The traditional method to impress employers is the most popular method. There is nothing better than a well professionally written and well-crafted resume that is margined on an A4 paper. The resumes which have been “worked upon’ are resumes that are actually selling. If you’ve spent time making your resume look professional, you will see that employers appreciate it.
But be aware of what you write on your resume to ensure it never goes to the bin! Here’s a list that, as per a Human Resource Strategy company, can completely ruin your A4 resume:
1. Words such as “detail-oriented,” “team-player,” “hardworking,” and “proactive” are not considered to be”show words. How did those humble candidates? These adjectives aren’t even near to improving your resume as recruiters understand that these are just words. There’s no job that doesn’t require you to be a hard worker and, therefore, implicit, and you don’t need to be able to write about it.
2. “Salary negotiable” – this is not something you should include on your resume. This kind of line shows that you’ve probably run out of accomplishments to discuss. If your salary isn’t negotiable, that’s sort of bizarre, isn’t it?
3. “References – available on request” If you don’t record this information and the employer requests references, would you decline? Another unneeded item that must be eliminated.
4. “Objective” – There is only one situation in which you’ll need an objective statement on your resume: when you are making a Career Change or when you are applying for a job in which you don’t have the required previous knowledge. In any other circumstance, it is unnecessary to include objective spaces in your resume.
5. A quirky email address like “luvtohunt(@)xyx. com” is a big turn-off for any recruiting manager wanting to contact you. Avoid using such email addresses and, ideally, create separate email addresses for communications with professionals.
