Writing Success: Writing Resumes that Win Interviews
This week's lead article comes from another of our Heart Harmony writing team - Beverley Neil. Beverley is our internationally award winning resume writer and has a brilliant success rate at helping people win interviews. She also teaches other people how to write killer resumes through her online resume writers course. We thought it very timely to ask Beverley to share some of her resume tips.
Recruiters and employers agree – due to the standard of resume they often receive it is difficult to identify the value the applicant has to offer to the role. Also, many applicants never receive an interview because the resume is:
Far too wordy and full of irrelevant information
Lacking targeted information or achievements to sell the job seeker
Too general and not tailored to the role being applied for
Not professionally formatted and full of spelling and typographical mistakes
Full of jargon/buzz words with no demonstrated depth of skills or achievements
Top Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out
# 1To write a truly strong resume you must have a focus. Naturally, for best effect, your focus should be the position you are applying for.
Even though your resume may be more generally targeted to the industry rather than the role, you can still make a resume stand out as a focussed document by including in the heading the job title and below that in a row at least 3 key strengths you possess that fit the role and the job description. It is also an ideal place to draw attention to a particular qualification, achievement or skill that is vital to the position.
For example:
Sales and Marketing Manager
Driving Sales Revenue ? Territory Expansion ? Team Direction
Boosted Sales 200% within First 6 Months of Tenure
Winner: Sales Champ of the Year 3 Consecutive Years
# 2Keep your writing concise and informative. Never waffle – every word must be there for a reason, therefore everything you say must be addressing the position requirements and must be demonstrating your ability and/or experience.
For instance, if you’re applying for a position as a Personal Assistant you would not include ‘typed correspondence’. Naturally you did, it goes with the territory. What you would indicate is whether you were entrusted to type highly confidential documents, or to write correspondence and sign off on it, that you typed it faster or more accurately, formatted important tender or contract documents. You take what is essentially a ‘duty’ and turn it into an ‘achievement’.
# 3Keep your resume to between 2 to 4 pages. This is an area that some recruiters do disagree on – some want only 1 page, some want at least 4 or 5 (though they are in the minority!) but if you keep your document concisely written and well laid out and to within 2–4 pages you will keep the ‘greater majority’ happy.
But no matter the length, it must be and look professional from the start. Fully justify the text, right justify the dates to keep them in line with the text, add headers and footers with your name and page numbers with a line to ‘draw’ it off from the rest of the text, keep to plain black with perhaps one carefully used highlight-colour such as burgundy. All little things, but things that give a touch of the professional.
# 4 When stating your interest or hobby, with a bit of thought you can turn it into a key selling point. For example, if you participate in activities such as rugby, rowing, netball etc, try stating it this way –
Rugby: teamwork, responsiveness, fair play
But be aware of any possible conflict between the position and your favourite sport. A love of canyon swinging could be too high-risk for many companies and may well raise doubts about your ability to return to work each Monday, yet canyon swinging could be perfect for an adventure tour guide.
What to Avoid on Your Resume and Cover Letter
Never include your age or date of birth (it might wrongfully rule you out of the position), your marital status, number of children, nationality or religion. None of these are relevant to your ability to perform the job. They also bring forward the perception, rightly or wrongly, of discrimination.
Only include a photo if it is totally relevant to the role – and if you do be sure it is a highly professional head and shoulders shot of only you.
In the cover letter, never include family or personal information or berate your current or past employer. It doesn’t matter what the justification is you never criticise another person or company. Be discrete.
Never neglect attention to detail. Numerous applications are binned because the cover letter was addressed to the wrong person, the name was misspelt, it was addressed to Mr when it was clearly a Ms, even because it was entirely the wrong company. Always double check, triple check and then check again. Even get someone else to check if necessary, but don’t do anything that could ruin your chance of receiving that magic phone call.
And finally - Have you ever considered sending a thank you letter after you’ve had that interview? You can guarantee around 85% of the other candidates haven’t thought of it either. So can you think of a better way of ensuring you receive prominence in the interviewer’s mind than by sending off a note of thanks for their time - and by way of an after thought happening to mention - very briefly - why you would be perfect for the job?
Beverley Neil, owner of d’Scriptive Words, has dual international résumé writing accreditation, is a multiple award-winning résumé writer and is known for her ability to craft interview-winning resumes for job seekers and teach people how to DIY winning resumes.
If you want to give yourself an edge in your next job search – have Beverley create your winning resume - Contact Beverley at beverley@d-scriptivewords.com
HR Tip of the Week - Sorting Candidates by their Resumes
Over the years I have had the pleasure of sitting in on a few thousand job interviews for many hundreds of jobs (yes I am showing my age here!). From a manager's perspective here are my tips on resumes:
Don't spiral bind them! If there are a few people on the interview panel we need to copy your resume so everyone gets a copy. Pulling apart your resume binding adds in time and hassle . A simple staple in the corner works just fine!
Watch your email address. partygirl@hotmail.com does not give a great impression!
Spell check spell check spell check (got it!)
When we receive resumes, depending on the role we may receive a few hundred that need to be reviewed to determine whether to interview the candidate. (I think my all time recruitment record was 1800 resumes for 200 roles for a large new retail store.) In most cases in this economy you can expect you will be competing against at least 20 other candidates.
Many managers have their own ways of sorting resumes - how I do it is by quickly scanning the resumes in a few seconds and sorting them into 3 piles:
Definite Yes - The resumes are clear and address the selection criteria in a way that clearly shows the candidates skills. They have followed instructions in terms of how to apply and what to include (e.g: links to online work examples).
Maybe - The resumes are wordy and it is hard to work out if they meet the criteria. I need to spend more time to work out if they match the role. Part of the instructions on how to apply and what to include may have not been followed.
Definite no - No attempt to match selection criteria, little relevant experience or skills, poorly structured or worded resumes for roles where English is essential.
I then read the "Maybe" pile in more detail to determine which if any should gain an interview.
You really only have a few seconds for most managers to grab their attention to set your claims for an interview. Make the most of your time!
Book of the Week - Now, Discover Your Strengths
Many people struggle with the concept of "what am I really good at". They focus on developing their weaknesses and hope that this will be enough to make us successful. This book was one of the most earth shattering books of its time as it suggested that for true success we should focus on what we were good at and hone those areas.
This book has a great profile to help you identify your strength areas and then shows you how you can use these strengths to your best advantage. It is brilliantly researched - over 2 million people were surveyed as part of the Gallup research organisation and well written.
Every manager, teacher or parent needs to read this book.
Creativity is not an exact science. Some days it is there - and other days ... In this post I look at the concept of creativity as it relates to a very talented jewellery designer and her journey through a creative dry patch.
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