Resume for Harvey the Dog

Here's a great little video resume for a dog who wants a new home, and is willing to work for it.

Small Businesses Use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

This is a Dice TV News Report. What's particularly interesting to me is the information about how small businesses (even less than 20 employees strong) now have the ability to use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to manage incoming resumes.

Video Resume for Barney Stinson

I'm not a big fan of the TV show How I Met Your Mother, but I thought this video resume for its lead character, Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris), was pretty funny. It's only a few minutes long and might give you a chuckle.

Don't Put Your Name in the Header of Your Resume Document

In the course of reviewing lots of resumes, here's a mistake I see many job seekers make: They put their names and contact information in the header function of the resume document.

Yes, your name and contact info should be at the top of your resume, but not in the header function of the document. Why? When the recruiter or employer reads your resume on a computer screen, the header is greyed out. Your reader can see the header text but it's de-emphasized compared to the easy-to-read black text in the body of the page. Your name is very important, and should not be diminished by being a lighter color text.

The solution? Don't use the header function at all on a resume. Instead, place your name and contact info in the body of the resume where it will have high contrast (black against the white background) when viewed electronically. Make your name bold and a few font-points higher than the rest of the text on the page, which will make it the most dominant piece of information on your resume.

How to Write a Magnet Resume and a Grabber Resume

You've decided you need both a master resume (for all jobs you would consider) and a target resume (for a specific job). So which should you create first? Continue reading...

2 Resumes You MUST Have: Magnet Resume and Grabber Resume

In today's job market, most professionals need two resume versions: a Magnet Resume and a Grabber Resume. What's the difference between these two resumes? And when should you use them? Continue reading...

Is the Curly Apostrophe Playing Wicked Tricks on Your Resume and Cover Letter?

Did you know that curly apostrophes can create nonsensical gibberish in your resume and cover letter? Without realizing it, you could be sending an employer something that looks like a typo and makes a negative first impression.

In a previous post, "Smart" Quotes in E-Resumes, I explained how curly quotation marks (aka, "smart quotes") can translate into a series of nonsensical characters when transferred through email or posted on websites.

Turns out, curly apostrophes can pull the same wicked trick. For example, here's what might happen if you use curly apostrophes when you write your resume and then post it online:

ABC's products  

might turn into something like this "typo"

ABC & # 039;s products

 

The Solution to the Curly Apostrophe Problem

Here's how to fix the curly apostrophe problem and prevent both apostrophe and quotation mark "typos" from sneaking into your documents: Use straight quotes, not curly (smart) quotes.

Because the quotation mark and apostrophe functions are tied together somehow in the MS Word settings, when you choose to use straight quotes instead of curly quotes, you will automatically be telling Word that you want straight apostrophes instead of curly ones.

8 Steps to Replace Curly Quotes With Straight Quotes in MS Word 2007

1. With MS Word open, click the Office Button in the upper left corner of your screen.
2. Select Word Options (in the lower right corner of the window).
3. With Word Options opens, click Proofing in the left column, then click AutoCorrect Options.
4. Click the AutoFormat tab and unselect Replace Straight Quotes With Smart Quotes.
5. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab and unselect Replace Straight Quotes With Smart Quotes.
6. Click OK to exit AutoCorrect Options.
7. Click OK to close Word Options.
8. Open your Word document and manually delete and retype each apostrophe and quotation mark in your document (or use the Replace option found in your Home toolbar).

How to Upload Your Resume to LinkedIn

LinkedIn has made another big step toward becoming the major job search player on the Internet. Now you can upload the Word version of your resume to your LI profile so recruiters and employers can download it with one click. Continue reading...

Market Yourself on an Employer's Hard Drive

Here's an easy way to market yourself right on an employer's hard drive: incorporate your name into the file name of the resume, which you send as an attachment to your email. Here's are some guidelines... Continue reading

Best Format for Resume Attachment

Most employers prefer that you send your resume as an MS Word document because MS Word docs can can easily be input into recruiting database systems for keyword searches, storage, sorting, and distribution. Read more...

Mulitple Resumes for One Company

Question
I'm a graduating student in civil engineering and I need help with submitting resumes online. At the company where I'm applying, prospective employees have to create a profile and upload a resume to the company website. For this company, I found multiple postings that I want to apply for.

1. Do I need to list a goal/objective in my resume since the positions I'm applying to have different titles/duties.

2. Do I need to upload multiple resumes?

3. I'm not sure if I need to upload a cover letter, only a resume is required.

4. The postings I want to apply to are at offices all over the U.S. Would I need to research HR contacts at those offices and upload multiple cover letters as well?

Answer
Because all company recruiting webpages are not the same, the answers to your questions depend on the particular site you're looking at. So let me give you some general guidelines that you can adapt to your current (and future) online applications.

1. It's always best to have a job objective statement or professional title (such as Civil Engineer) at the top of your resume. Once your resume is in the company's database, it can be downloaded and printed out by a number of recruiters and employers. An objective statement will give your resume focus, no matter whose computer screen it's on.

2. If the system allows you to upload multiple resumes, then do so if you have more than one job objective. That way, you can change the job objective statement, and customize the content of your resume, if necessary, for each job post.

3. Always upload or copy-and-paste a cover note when given the chance. It's an opportunity to add a personal touch and include more keywords to your online application. Your note should be short and have a professional, yet friendly tone that invites a telephone or in-person conversation.

4. If you're applying for several positions across the country, you could post one cover note that's addressed "Dear Recruiter." In that way, it will cover all your bases.

Good luck with your online job search!

Can Recruiting Search Engines Find You?

Wonder what job candidate selection looks like from the employer's side? This video is an advertisement for TalentSpring, an online recruiting tool for employers. TalentSprng offers to find, sort, and rank job candidates it finds on job boards, LinkedIn, and through web searches.

I'm not endorsing TalentSpring; I simply think this is an interesting presentation of the type of instruments some employers use to find job seekers, like you!

If you answer "yes" to the following questions, a search engine like TalentSpring should be able to find you.

1. Is your resume online, up to date, and filled with keywords that define you as the ideal candidate?
2. Are you a member of LinkedIn (and possibly other networks)? Is your profile current and does it contain relevant keywords?
3. Are you active in the blogosphere and online professional groups, using keywords when you write about industry topics?

Wife Helps Husband Get New Job

When you can't get a job, who do you call? Your spouse? That's what it seems Mike did. His wife, Robin, has created the website My Husband Needs a Job to help Mike with his job search.

I love the creativity behind Robin's efforts. Why, it even got featured on our local network news here in the San Francisco Bay Area. But it begs the question: Why is the site so obviously create by Robin instead of Mike? Even though the site speaks about Mike's MBA qualifications (in the third person), it seems it's really demonstrating Robin's website and promotional skills. I wonder who got the new job, Robin or Mike.

Video Letters for MindValley Jobs

MindValley is an organization that requires video resumes (or video cover letters, as MindValley calls them) from their job applicants. Video applications are fitting for this innovative group, and the YouTube clips they receive are creative, each ranging from around one to nine minutes in length.

Before you take a look at the string of submitted videos, read MindValley's Career page, which explains what type of video cover letter they want.

Here are my two favorites from the group:

How to Cancel Your Monster Account

Last week Monster.com put out a press release advising Monster account holders to change their passwords because:

"We [Monster] recently learned our database was illegally accessed and certain contact and account data were taken, including Monster user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data."

Because my Monster account is not active (I'm not looking for a job), I decided to cancel my account all together. Not so easy! I searched all over the site for instructions to close my account but couldn't find any. I'm sure they were there, but hidden so well that if it hadn't been a security concern to me, I would have given up.

I emailed Monster's customer support, who responded with the following instructions. I post it here in case you want to close your Monster account and can't figure out how to do it.

How to Close Your Monster Account
1. Go to www.monster.com
2. Log into your account
3. Click Preferences on the top right side of the screen
4. Click to expand the section ‘Resume Privacy’ (Unless it is already expanded)
5. Click on ‘Cancel Membership’
6. You will see options learn more about membership cancellation and/or cancel your membership. (Please Note: Canceling your membership can not be undone.)

Resume for Project Work

When the economy tightens up, employers look for ways to trim costs. Aside from laying off workers and downsizing operations, they tend to hire people for whom they don't have to pay benefits (healthcare, social security, retirement, vacation pay... all that good stuff). Here are some examples of consulting resumes. Continue reading...

No Street Address on Resume

Managers and recruiters, would you hold it against an applicant if there was no street address on his resume? That's this month's Job Lounge poll (in the upper left corner of this page).

Some job seekers are concerned about putting a street address on their resumes because of identity theft and personal security. MapQuest and Google Maps have made the latter concern even deeper. Continue reading...

Short Line-Lengths on Resume

Whether you're sending your resume via email, US Post, or posting it online, use a healthy dose of margins -- a minimum of .75 inch on each side. The top and bottom margins don't matter as much, but the side margins need... Continue reading...

Uploading a Resume to a Job Board

Most job boards offer a few options for posting your resume online for recruiters and hiring managers to find. Uploading your MS Word resume is one of those options and can be a great way to get your masterpiece on the board looking like the original -- with all the indents, columns, bold, italics, and spacing intact. However, on many job boards the uploading process scrambles the formatting, requiring you to adjust alignment and spacing on your uploaded resume to make it look right.

If you chose to upload your MS Word resume, check the uploaded version carefully before submitting it. Make adjustments where necessary. If your online resume isn't suitable or if the job board doesn't allow you to make adjustments, copy and paste a Plain Text version of your resume that's been prepared for your online submission.

New E-Resume Guide

The updated version of my E-Resume Guide is completed! It features step-by-step instructions for how to post your resume online and email your resume to recruiters and employers. Here's what's new in the Guide:

- Insights into how recruiters and hiring managers prefer to receive and process resumes
- Why not to use the resume builder on a job board
- Pros and cons of uploading your resume to a resume site
- How to create a good-looking Plain Text resume (using MS Word 2007 and earlier) for the copy-and-paste option on resume sites
- Do's and don'ts for writing a cover note for a posted resume
- How to format an emailable resume
- What MS Word extension to use when attaching a resume to an email
- How to write an effective cover note to introduce your emailed resume
- Lots of samples of the above!

The E-Resume Guide may be licensed as a PDF to organizations. It's excellent for workshops and one-on-one counseling. For more info, please email me, Susan Ireland.