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Dominant communicators need not apply

Recently, we decided we required additional staff in our office to manage the ever-increasing sales volumes. This prompted us to run ads requesting resumes from suitable applicants.

Recently, we decided we required additional staff in our office to manage the ever-increasing sales volumes. This prompted us to run ads requesting resumes from suitable applicants. For the last few weeks I have been reading dozen of resumes, and naturally, I found many errors. Since classes are now ending at many universities and colleges, it struck me that students will soon be busy writing their own resumes for summer employment and that discussing some of the errors I have seen might help them avoid these mistakes.

• Please check your spelling. When you state that you are a “quick learner,” it might sound good, but if your resume is full of spelling errors, it suggests you may not be as quick as you think. Equally, your claim of being a computer expert rings hollow when it’s obvious you don’t know how to use the spell check feature in your software.

• Many jobs require specific areas of knowledge. If your training has not been in this area, then you really need to tell me why you would be a good match. For example, a hospital recruiting for a brain surgeon is going to be puzzled by your application, as your last job was being a shepherd. These two facts don’t match up very well so you really need to tell me why being a shepherd is great training for being a brain surgeon.

• “References available upon request.” Why? I didn’t ask for your address and phone number but you sent me that information anyway. Why not send me your references? Include them or leave them out, but don’t tell me they are available — I’ve already assumed they are.

• If you are young, your work experience is limited. I understand that. Don’t take your limited experience and make it more than it is. If you were a waitress or waiter, mention this but don’t spend three paragraphs telling me you “took orders, served food, served drinks, gave the bill to the customer, thanked the customer,” etc. I think I know what a waiter/waitresses does.

• Many of you grab a dictionary and try to insert “unusual” adjectives to describe yourself, but be cautious. Some of the adjectives you use are rather bizarre. Telling me you are great at communications because you are a “dominant” communicator isn’t really painting a good picture of you. Know what the words mean before you use them.

• If there are big time gaps in your education or work history, explain them to me. Don’t mention that you graduated high school in 1948 and then worked at ABC Company from 2006 to 2009. This just leaves me guessing what happened between 1948 and 2006? Were you in prison for murder? Bad case of amnesia? Don’t leave me guessing.

• “I work extremely well with others, but also work equally well on my own.” Really? I have seen comments like this on every resume I have read and I don’t believe any of them.

• Your interests: I hate to admit this, but I don’t really care about your interests and I certainly don’t want to waste time reading pages and pages of information about what you like. Either keep this section short or drop it entirely. You may think it looks powerful to describe your 83 separate interests, but all that goes through my mind is whether you’ll have any time to actually work.

• Finally if you include your e-mail address in your resume, think about the name you’ve used for this e-mail address. I can promise you that your email address of [email protected] or [email protected] just does not give me a good feeling that you are my kind of employee.

Over the years, Brian McLeod has found that attaching a $100 bill to his resume greatly increases the odds of getting an interview.

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