Hunting for Jobs

As many Americans are out of work and on the job market again, I thought to lend my expertise as a Recruiting and HR professional to help those in need. Be careful as many "career coaches" and "resume writers" are often people who have never worked in a recruiting capacity before, simply out for their own interests and bottom dollar. Here is what I can impart in my years in this field across different industries and how I want to help YOU. I'm offering some blogs focused on the job hunting process, including first and foremost, your resume. How your professional story, aspirations and past portray you. They say it's six seconds on average that a hiring manager will review your resume. Make or break, my friends. Let's make your resume sparkle and shine and paint you in the best light.

Resumes only tell some of the story.

I need to start charging people to revise their resumes- I have seen so many bad ones. For instance, why on earth are people using Comic Sans or Courier? People... Don't even get me started with the Microsoft Word templates, especially the green one with the gradient, that I've seen a million times. Style aside, let's go to the basis of do's and don't:

Do's:

• Include your job history from most recent job at the top to oldest job toward the bottom. There is someone out there who keeps giving people bad advice and having them do this backwards. Why would I care if you are talking about something you did 10-20 years ago versus what have done most recently?

• Do tell me about what you have done in your past roles with detail. If you are a front desk person, you can be more of a receptionist or more of an officer manager. What do you do in your day to day? What are you most proud of? How would you explain this to an outsider looking in? Simply a job title, dates and company isn't helpful. If you're more on the technical side, say a software developer, what scripting are you most familiar? What environment? Paint the FULL picture.

• Do include any job experience you feel necessary. My general rule of thumb is to include your past ten years of work history. For some professionals, it's key to understand how one has started and moved into their career to understand the scale and evolution of their career. I would also say, no one just wants to see 1-2 jobs on your resume (unless you have only worked that many places!) but if you were with your last company for 14 years, you can include older work history. One size does not fit all. I also see people who only include "relevant" work history. You can include jobs you've done in college even if they were menial. I would like to some work experience as opposed to none.

• Have you spell checked? I am not even a very detail oriented person, however I am not blind! I notice when things don't look right. Have a friend, co worker or mentor look it over and give you feedback.

• Make sure your format is consistent. Bold here, a period there, make sure everything looks up to par. Don't say you're a detail oriented professional but don't double check your resume. Please.

• Write to an outsider. Would an HR professional, hiring manager or someone who is outside your organization/ industry understand what your acronyms stand for? Sure most know what a CSR (Customer Service Representative) is, but write it out. Also company specific acronyms you may know, another may not so do your best and explain. It also looks lazy.

• Do include your technical skills. This can be software you've used, methodologies, certifications, training, etc. Break it down to the core for words/ concepts that could be picked up on from an #ATS or Keyword Search. For an HR professional, I would want to include Employee Relations, Interviewing, Screening, Compensation Negotiations, and the like as those are things I do on a daily basis. I would also want to include software I've used like Taleo, Lever, Fieldglass, etc, in case employers are specifically looking for those, it makes you easier to stand out.

Please Don't

• Don't feel you have to include general buzz words on your resume, just cause. You do not have to elaborate on how you're the best team player or dynamic leader then list off from a definition from Merriam Webster. There's no need to read a paragraph on how creative you are. Speak from experience, whether it be an award, recognition or how your individual contribution showed results. I can recall one resume, where the entire first page (!!!) were bullets of traits and how he exemplified those traits (like courage, leader, respect, etc). He was a good candidate but you wouldn't know until page two and by that time, the hiring manager's eyes were glazed over. You want to keep someone's attention, not lose it.

• Don't feel restricted to keep your resume to one page. If you're just starting out, sure, this may be the case, but again, one size does not fit all. If you are a manager or director with 15 years experience, you may need a 2nd page. Additionally, research or academic settings, you may need to include your research, publications and the like. Regardless, be cautious of your space. Your resume is prime real estate to your professional life. Try bullet points instead of paragraphs. General rule of thumb would be 3-7 bullet points per position.

• Don't sound to sales-y. I want to know what you did day to day. Sure, your achievements are equally important but I want to know how you increased your market influence by 10 percent, not just that you did it. Also, you're more than welcome to have an achievements section to your resume or job description. Wooo!

• Send an attachable resume in Word/ PDF. Oh. My. Gosh. If I have to be granted access to another Google doc, I will scream. Sure, in a snap, fine. You can also convert Google and Pages (for Mac users) docs into PDF. I know an Office Suite application is spendy, totally get it. Also, don't send me an Indeed resume. Just don't.

Hope this helps. This is the second recession I am facing in my young-ish life. In the great words of Anthony Kiedis, "Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation".

Amidst the chaos, there is a future for you on the other side. This too shall pass. Don't let a job search consume you. A few hours per week is just fine. Let your intention be known that you are looking. Connect with your network.

YOU GOT THIS.

....But you didn't need me to tell you that, did ya?