Signs Your Resume Is 'Old School'
Don't miss out on interview opportunities because of an out-of-date resume.
In a post at TechRepublic, Randy Barger writes about retooling his resume after being rejected by three potential clients because they couldn't tell from his resume that he had the expertise they needed. Experienced IT pros have a lot on their resumes, he says, but one issue was that his resume could land him a job as an administrator or engineer, but he was looking for work as an architect or consultant. That wasn't clear.
To Barger's credit, he asked some friends who were IT hiring managers to critique his resume. One told him:
Yep, I'd have thrown it right in the trash.
Ouch. But he needed to hear that. And he sought their help in improving his resume.
So among his pointers:
It's so hard to know how much detail is the "just-right" amount. Of course, you need proper context and clear, simple language so that a non-technical HR person, who might be doing the first pass on the resumes, won't dismiss it out of frustration.
In her book, "The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Any Top Tech Company," Gayle Laakmann McDowell, who sat on Google's hiring committee, critiques some resumes. Although the book is geared more for less-experienced folks, it does offer some insight into the "just-right" amount of detail for those bullet points. Here are some examples:
Having a lot of experience means you'll have to be a pretty wicked editor, slicing and dicing what you've written until it's down to solely the most impressive stuff. Look at the job posting, now look at your resume. Make it say specifically that you're that person.
Then ask your friends to read it and give honest feedback.
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