Got any resume tips? (1 Viewer)

[Philip_G]

it's been 2 weeks now, and I haven't had so much as an email on mine, even on jobs I'm grossly overqualified for.
So, there must be something amis with my resume, too short, too long, not descriptive enough, I really don't know.

It's pretty simple and straight forward, my info, my education, my previous employers, dates of employment, and position duties, should I add more?

what do you guys think?

 

[Kenneth]

I just got a job after an extended look. The biggest problem with a resume is getting it to the right person. However, here are some of the hints I got from the resume service my former employer contracted for me after I was laid off:

1. Every accomplishment should have a power word rather than a passive word (created, managed, delivered, etc) instead of (assisted, participated, etc).

2. Every accomplishment should, where possible, have a concrete benefit (saved $, reduced time, reduced headcount, etc).

3. Make sure that you have key words or phrases appropriate to your skills scattered in your resume (DOE, SPC, six sigma, etc). Many companies run resumes through search engines to check for key words.

4. If you are trying for a job in a new field or have less experience you might try a functional resume rather than chronological (resume uses skills as the main blocks and adds chronological experience at the end).

If you are interested, here is a portion of my resume:


If you do get interviews, don't forget thank you notes or emails. I suspect that fewer people send those out these days so it will help you stand out. I won't have internet access again until Monday since I am moving for my new job but best of luck.

One more thing, you might want to talk to local contract agencies. They will give you an extra set of eyes looking and generally will give you free resume feedback so you are more marketable for them. Also, Manpower Professional has an extensive set of online classes to help beef up your skills and they give free access to them.

Good luck,

Kenneth

 

[Chris]

Here's the top words I have for you on a resume:

Accentuate the positive but don't overplay it. Only true, checkable facts should be presented. If you have anything in your Resume that is false, it almost immediately disqualifies you from positions. (period)

You cannot believe how many resumes some of my clients throw out because people over-inflate everything from education to honors they received.

Have one paragraph written up for each job you are applying to. Consider it your mission statement. Put in it what you want the HR person to see as far as: "this is why I -WANT- and -WOULD BE GOOD AT- this job"

 

[Chris Bardon]

If it's only been two weeks, they might not have even been looked at yet. I'd applied for a few jobs with one company that finally emailed me a rejection about seven months later for a couple of them. Some companies are just slower on the uptake than others...

 

[LewB]

Tell them you live in Bangalore.

Good luck with your job hunt !

 

[Paul Bond]

IT can take time. I applied for a position at one company. During a 10 month period, I got a contract position at the same company and was then hired by the same company. Three weeks after I was hired, I received a "thanks but no thanks" letter from HR. I took it to my new boss and asked if that meant I had to quit.

I think the most important thing you can do with your resume' is to be sure you have correct spelling and good grammar. One manager friend told me once that at the first misspelled word he will put a resume' into the NO box. He said if a person cannot take the time to get an important document like this correctly, what will he/she mess up during a normal day's work.

Bond. Paul Bond.

 

[Malcolm R]

What Paul said, make sure the spelling and grammar is flawless. Lots of derisive laughter in the places I've worked over incoming resumes with obvious errors.

And as Paul and Chris B. both said, two weeks in corporate HR is like 2 minutes in the real world. It could take weeks to months before any decisive action is taken on your resume.

Plus, if you're "grossly overqualified" for a position, many times they won't consider you thinking either that you'll want too much money, or that your knowledge will upstage your boss's (especially if said boss is reviewing the resumes and doing the hiring).

 

[WillG]

Good luck to you, but get used to this. You can have a great resume, with professional help and it can still take a maddening amount of time before you get any good leads or responses. But, maybe you will get lucky.

 

[Philip_G]

or that I just want employment until something better comes along

 

[Philip_G]

I even applied to be a cop... because it pays Ok. I've never really WANTED to be one, but why the hell not? heheh.

 

[Cary_H]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

One, phone the company and ask for the person at the desk the piles of applications reside.(you know this 'cause your resume and cover letter was addressed directly to them in the first place, right?)
Once you've got them on the line, explain to them that you are just calling to make sure they got your resume, and where they're at in the hiring process. You can't leave it up to them to contact you.

And in response to a previous post. As a boss, I want the most qualified person I can get, as long as I feel they will fit in with my staff and can get along with me.
I wouldn't ever want to work for a boss who is afraid of me taking his job. This type of boss shouldn't have made it to Management in the first place. I'd be concerned now that this is a company I'd ever even want any part of.

 

[Philip_G]

My last employer had to replace my boss, he moved up.. so they interview me and 2 others from my department, and then hired someone from outside the company with zero management or related experience to manage our department....
Gotta love corporate america. Don't even get me started on the reasons I don't work there anymore

 

[Cary_H]

Passing over insiders and importing from elsewhere is not uncommon. I know of a couple of instances recently where management pulled an about face and promoted an insider despite him not packing the papers to meet the qualifications for the position. This was directly due to growing protests over bringing in outsiders rather than promoting from within. What is unusual in this case is that the position requires paper that next to no one on the inside had made any real effort to obtain. The two that did, left. One left the company altogether after 20 years there. The other remained with the company, but at another location and has returned recently into a slot where he started out at.

 

[Philip_G]

I don't have a problem with bringing in qualified candidates from the outside, but bringing in a manager with (as near as I can tell) zero management experience, zero customer service experience, and zero computer knowledge, into a tech support group is rediculous. Not to mention he's a furloughed airline first officer, in a year when he's recalled where do you think he's going to head?
Boring desk job for 40k, or FO job at united for 40k with the possibility of 120k or more within 10 years? hrm...

 

[Cary_H]

Phil....about this guy you got passed over for.
Anyone figured out who it is in upper management that this guy's related to?

 

[Cary_H]

1st Officer with an airline? Why would he want to go back to working for a living like the rest of us?
These guys have the pension packages second only to politicians, fly very little over the course of a month, and fight forced retirement to get time off from their wives and hang with the boys. $40K a year barely covers their bar tabs on layovers.
This smacks of medical leave or something along these lines.

 

[Philip_G]

no, as many know united has fallen on hard times.. sort of, but that's another story.
they've laid off a lot of their less senior crews, both pilots and flight attendants. He was an FE, then moved to an FO and didn't make the next round of cuts, but rumor has it united recalled a load of FA's, which means soon enough they'll need to un-mothball some airplanes, for which they'll need crews.
their load factors right now are insanely high, in the 80 percentile or higher. 65 is usually a good goal if you want to be profitable.

let me tell you about the guy that assaulted me at my desk, then complained to said manager, who then went to HR and got me canned. Even WITH photographic evidence of the assault injuries....

 

[Eric D Wong]

The airline industry isnt as "awesome" as you think it is. Particularly nowadays. Just read all the pilot forums out there, cause it was an industry I wanted to get into, however my heart really wasnt on flying. I wasnt prepared to have odd work hours. Oh yeah, and starting out you wont make JACK. You're only paid for time in the air, you're not paid for the time it takes to drive to the airport, or when you're on the ground in the terminal. Not to mention unless you go military it costs ALOT for flight school. The image that commercial airline pilots make $300,000 a year and fly only 20 hours a week and get to visit exotic locations is a stereotype. Maybe 1% of airline pilots do that and even those have been flying for many decades. Just like in ANY other profession there is that 1% which you'd say "wow I wish I had a job like that". While yes in 10 or 20 years I'm sure the airline industry will pick up, but that is a very "pay your dues" industry.


You guys are scaring me with this corporate talk, being assaulted at the desk and fired, then having an outsider becoming managers yikes... I start my first real "desk" job TOMORROW (at a consumer audio company nonetheless). Ugh, im gonna be a slave for the next 43 years.

 

[Philip_G]

well, as a commercial, multi, instrument, CFI, CFII and someone with an aerospace degree, I know how the aerospace industry is right now.