Help Wanted

Looking for a new job?  How’s your resume?  Having been on both sides of the hiring desk, I’m always amazed how little effort people put into getting a new job.  This is the first step in what could be a life changing situation, and yet you’ll find resumes in every stack from ‘non-Hallmark’ people who didn’t “care enough to send the very best”.

Here’s why it’s so important.  A new survey by CareerBuilder.com shows that over a third of hiring managers spend less than one minute reviewing a resume while 18% spend less than 30 seconds!

Think of it as a relationship.  Your resume is your first impression and hopefully your foot in the door.  If you want to get to the first date, make the impression a good one.  Don’t make the mistakes these people made.

The most memorable missteps HR managers encountered when going through resumes included a candidate who:

put God down as a reference
listed her hobby as alligator watching
claimed to be a direct descendant of the Vikings
had an email address with “lovesbeer” in it
listed “Master of Time and Universe” under experience
specifically pointed out he was not a gypsy
said he must be allowed to bring his pet monkey to the workplace
pointed out, “I’ll have your job in five years.”
sent a 24-page resume for a five-year career
put a picture of her cat on top of her resume
sent a video trying to hypnotize the HR manager into hiring him.

My favorite package I ever received as a manager was (pre-9/11) a packaging tube painted to look like TNT with a “wick” sticking out of one end.  Inside was a resume that said “Dynamite Employee Inside”.  Got him an interview!