Fresh front line advice…
I’m back in the resume reading business this week…took a recruiting contract, so I’m poring over dozens of resumes every day, interviewing and watching hiring managers walk people through the hiring process.
A few thoughts from my first week for job seekers who trying to crack the code.
1. Think about what you’re NOT saying on your resume.
Most people write 2-page resumes, assuming the resume readers will ’see between the lines.’ But in my first week here I got to sit with two managers as they screened a candidate to decide whether to bring him in for a few hours of interviews. Guess what the phone screen was about?
Filling in the holes left behind by a ‘thin resume’ approach. They had to ask questions just to make sure that the ‘hints’ he’d put in were tied to deeper experience that would help them. He had the answers, they just weren’t on his resume…and easily could have been. So his resume got him a phone screen when it could have gotten him a step farther with a better structure.
Ask yourself – have you structured your information so a reader can understand the context of what you’re saying since they don’t have access to the entire picture that’s in your head? Have you explained everything in enough detail? Have you made it simple? Are you using word pictures and ideas that they can grasp? Have you eliminated jargon?
2. Never miss a good chance to shut up (from the original “Cowboy’s Guide to Life.”)
It didn’t knock him out, but one candidate just droned on and on when asked a question during his phone screen. 3-5 minutes of talking is WAYYY too much time to spend blabbering on, even if it’s relevant and on target. Think about it – how many conversations do you have face to face with people where you just natter on for 5 minutes without any give and take?
The candidate was probably just nervous and trying to do well using the ‘volume’ approach, but it almost cost him. He couldn’t see it, but I was watching the face of the manager as he kept trying to break in with questions, but couldn’t get a word in edgewise. He was pretty frustrated!
Keep your answers in the 60-90 second range initially, and then ask, “Is that enough, or should I keep going?” Then the interviewer has the opportunity to ask a question, confirm interest, or move on to the next question if he’s already convinced that you have answered the initial one.
3. There’s no impression like a first impression:
For crying out loud, how many times do people have to read about bad cover letters before they take a step back and look at what they’ve written from an HR and management perspective. Says one I read last week, “I first got into programming in [date] when I became the first person to sell term papers online and take credit cards, with online delivery. This business was in a gray area legally and it became necessary to move on.”
A ‘gray area?’ Wow…and it was the FIRST thing on the cover letter!! Guy is probably sitting at home bewildered by the lack of responses for open jobs!
He may think that kind of admission will endear him to certain managers, but no recruiter or HR person can afford to touch him with a 10-foot pole if he’s admitting to helping people cheat in college. Building a nifty online system and getting paid doesn’t change the fact that it’s cheating.
So bottom line – fill in some more detail on your resume…you’ll eliminate more ’screening’interviews because you’ll convince them on paper that you are worth a full interview. Shut up a little bit…don’t let your nerves kepe you from letting the other guy talk during your interviews (you’re not Jay Leno, you don’t need a 5 minutes monologue for each question.) And for pete’s sake – LOOK at what you’re writing with someone else’s eyes before you send it out.
That’s it from the front lines!
Happy job hunting.
