The Worst Resumes on the Planet

January 8th, 2010

 

I have reviewed thousands of resumes as a hiring executive (and another couple of hundred as a professional resume writer and career consultant) and worse than the occasional type-o or overly-flowerly language or some of the other resume sins I could mention (and there are many), it really all comes down to one thing:

Please don’t bore me with your resume.

That’s the least I should be able to expect. And I have known perfectly lovely and even fascinating people in my career and I have freakin’ come thisclose to dozing off while reading their resumes.

If you are even considering sending your resume out to score a new job in the next few months, please give it a critical read. If you are bored with it, it will definitely bore the poor recruiter or hiring executive you are sending it to.

Forget about all the talk about computer scanners looking for industry buzzwords on resumes being submitted for jobs. There are people reading your resume, actual human beings deciding whether you should be contacted for an interview. If they start thinking about what they are going to have for lunch while trying to get through your resume, you are in serious trouble.

You are an interesting person. Your career has had some interesting highlights. Make sure that comes across on paper.

 

Photo by b_heyer.

Related posts:

1. Rule #3- Your Resume Should Be Easy to Digest
2. Putting it All Together and Writing the Resume
3. Do Freelancers Need Resumes?
4. How to Be Good in a Room
5. Personnel Agencies and Headhunters and Hiring Managers, Oh My!

Filed under: miscellaneous career advice

Tags: resumes