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Practical Resume Tips

Today we are going to write about a pleasant experience we had not long ago when we could help out one of our readers.

MyOnlineCareerSpace.com was contacted by an avid job seeker who was not sure how to format his resume and if it in fact was up to scratch. As we’ve written before, having a resume that stands out from the bunch is extremely important. Yet there is a delicate balance to be struck with standing out and still remaining professional.

This was exactly the problem our reader was having so he asked us to have a look. We made a few notes and remarks along the way which we would like to share with you today.

The first problem we ran into was the most serious: we could not open the file he sent us. It was in a file format so obsolete by today’s standards that even a Google search returned mixed results about how to open it or what to do with it. So even if we wanted to, we could not open it. This is something that recruiters will never do. If they can’t open your resume, you won’t get the position. It’s as simple as that.

Luckily this can easily be avoided by always sending resumes in file formats that are considered standards: .doc files are usually accepted as are .pdfs. Some prefer PDF files for their ability to preserve formatting exactly as intended. An excellent article on this matter can be found here.

After we received a file we could actually open, we gave our reader this advice:

1) The formatting of the resume was off. Our reader was an IT professional and as such employers have higher expectations as far as the formatting of the resume goes. It is considered an indication of the job seekers level of professionalism and should not be taken lightly. The formatting has to be constant and easily recognizable for the reader.

2) We recommended a stronger specialization statement. At http://www.ItsNotYouItsYourResume.com there is a free specialization workbook that will help you to clarify this statement and we recommend that you work through this ebook as the opening section of your resume is the most read portion of the resume and it needs to SCREAM what you do and who you do it for. Remember, more resumes have a limited amount of time to make an impression: typically between 20-30 seconds and this objective/specialization statement is key.

3) We advised, especially considering his target position, that you have a professional website that speaks to your specific talents. More and more, employers and recruiters are going online to find their ideal candidates and they are doing more than just checking resumes to find their ideal candidates, rather, they are doing Google searches for your name.
You should take control of that online persona and create a website that you can put on your cover letter and resume that employers and recruiters can click on to find out more about you: your special talents, testimonials and references and what you bring to the table.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 9:38 am and is filed under Career, Job Search, Online Career Space, Personal Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.