how not to look for a job

[Nystul]

I've been recruiting for only 3 weeks now but I've already cataloged a few pet peeves. If you're looking for a job these days you really should be putting your resume online on Monster.com or careerbuilder.com or something like it. Here's some things to keep in mind:

1. When it says "title" it is taking about the title of the job you had or want. They don't mean "Mr." Congratulations, now I know you're stupid before I even look at your resume.

2. Take the time to make your resume look nice, not like a messy wall of text. SHitty cut/paste jobs make me think you don't care enough to try to look for a job so you're definitely going to suck AT the job. I'll only call you if you're a last resort.

3. Fill out the information as accurately as possible. Especially the title of the position you are looking for. "Recent college grad" is not a good way to describe yourself. I read that as "I have no experience and I have no clue what I want to do." Figure out what you want to do and put that in there.

4. Be honest. I mean this. In 3 weeks I've seen no less than 5 people fill out the info saying they have a masters degree. I eventually dig and figure out that they took masters level courses. A few said they are one thing shy of finishing. SOme had only taken a few masters level courses. You know when you put down that you have a masters degree? WHEN YOU FINISHED Y OUR FUCKING MASTERS DEGREE. You have it or don't. You do that and then I think you're a liar. ANd instead of thinking "oh this guy is almost as good as a masters pretty much!" I'm going to wonder what else you're fudging on your resume. And then I'm going to be hesitant to send your resume to a company because I don't wan them coming back to me saying that you weren't qualified and they don't trust ME anymore.

It's better to be someone with a BS and lots of experience than to be someone who's almost a masters. You're a big fish in the BS pond and a guppie in the masters pond.

5. A nice looking resume is great. Plenty of spacing, easy to read. But don't get all fucking cutesy and use a lot of fonts and stuff. Those caligraphy fonts are not easy to read and they don't earn you points. Simple clean concise.

You want to know how to get noticed? Know what you're looking for. Make my job easy. Use keywords, tailor your resume to a job description for the job you're interested in. FIll out the info accurately. Don't bullshit or embellish. For fucks sake don't lie we'll find out fast. Make it look like you care about being represented well.

[Quicklet]

All you really need to be using for a resume is font size (marginally), bold, italic, underline, and possibly bullet points as needed to delineate different stuff.

It's a given though that some people are going to try to put every little thing or spin everything to what they think looks better, even if it's not factually true.

Even at a high (administrative) level, there are some people who are not good resume writers. Some people just aren't good at that stuff and it makes it even tougher to try and figure out who's qualified and who isn't from that (of course, there are certain things about a resume that are telling right off the bat).

Anyways, I don't know what type of job you're recruiting for, but yeah, going through resumes can be tedious and, at times, frustrating. Hope you don't have to interview these people too.

[MisterBob]

If you really suck at resumes it might be a decent investment to pay a service to review it for you. It may seem retarded to pay good money for something like that, but if yours is particularly crappy it will pay off in the long run.

[bebeci]

General rule is to keep your resume 2 pages max. Any moar, and it's a snoozefest.

[Nystul]

Oh yea, I see crappy resumes from people with all educational backgrounds- from right out of HS to a MD/PhD Senior Medical Director with 15 years experience. Problem is, there are very few med directors so a shit resume doesn't hold you back much. If you're in a competitive position then it does.


Our company recruits for biotech/pharma. We do all kinds of stuff- medical directors for clinical trials, research scientists, product managers, line workers, QC, QA, technical writers, SAS programmers, etc.

General rule is to keep your resume 2 pages max. Any moar, and it's a snoozefest.

Not entirely true. People with a long work history can have 3-4 page resumes. It's all in how you structure it. Hit the big points first. Summarize stuff, significant skills, some basics etc. Then you can go into detail if someone wants to look more deeply. But make it so I can get the high points by reading about the first half of the page.

[Neosutra]

Bra size is the really only important part of an interview.

But for males, ya thats alot of good advice.

[Nuriko]

Question...Do you care about the length of a resume? When I was looking for jobs right out of college a few years ago, the "guidance counselors" would always highly recommend keeping the resume to 1 page, even if that meant playing with font/spacing. I always found when trying to list prior relevant jobs, I'd be going over that 1 page "ideal". I realize this "ideal" was probably mostly for entry level positions so people looking to hire probably didn't want to see 3 pages of bullshit, but I've always wondered if that was a sort of standard or not.

Edit - dammit, answered already before I finished typing.

[tyven]

who do you recruit for Nystul? I know youre around the DC area but there are like 400 job placement firms around here.

[Nystul]

The length thing was there for a reason but the reason is being forgotten. Shorter forces you to focus on key elements- high the high points. However, people can't pare down their lives like that and they end up mashing 2 or 3 pages worth of text onto one page. Guess what? Now you have an unreadable 1 page.

Here's the way to approach it. People will, at minimum, spend about 15 seconds looking at your resume. That means the top 1/3 of your resume should have name, contact info, a brieft 1-2 sentence statement of your objective (Seeking a job in....etc), and maybe 5 or so bulleted important skills that relate to the job you are seeking. After that you can go into work history and education and all that. But make it so someone can get the picture in the first 1/3 of the page.

I recruit for Discovery Solutions. We're just a startup right now- the whole company is 8 people. But we're adding 5 more recruiters in the next 2 months, and we're looking to be up to around 30 people by this time next year.

[aurik]

My personal pet peeve is people who, to get around the "2 pages max" thing, print on both sides of the page. And then proceed to not understand why the "2 pages max" mantra is useful.

If I don't know why I'd consider you by the end of the first page, chances are the remaining pages won't change my mind.

[BarthelloSylph]

General rule is to keep your resume 2 pages max. Any moar, and it's a snoozefest.

No offense to anyone, but unless you've had multiple jobs and around 15+ years of experience, your resume should be one page.

[aurik]

No offense to anyone, but unless you've had multiple jobs and around 15+ years of experience, your resume should be one page.

Even then, unless your previous positions in ancient history are noteworthy to the position for which you are applying, they should probably just be a bulleted list, further compressing the length of your resume. I really don't care that you stocked shelves at the local grocery when you were 18. Really.

[tyven]

ive always been a cover letter > resume type of guy

[Beckwin]

Question: what if you struggle to fill up a page with relevant info for what kind of job you're trying to get?

In my case I've got my education... and that's it. None of my work experience is particularly relevant at all to what I'm trying to get into. Halp.

[aurik]

Write a good cover letter...and expect not to get a phone call.

[Beckwin]

Write a good cover letter...and expect not to get a phone call.

that's been the story so far ^_^

[izembo]

school didnt have any kind of referral/assistance program you can take advantage of?

[shihei]

I absorb the suns light and turn it into energy. I AM THE GREEN OF STUFF.

[tyven]

Write a good cover letter...and expect not to get a phone call.

as opposed to writing a bad cover letter? im not sure what you are trying to say here.

[Beckwin]

not really. aside from my program getting jerked around a bit, I have a disclaimer: I've got a BFA. I have a couple letter writers, but in general the college is oriented toward showing fine art/going on to fine art grad school.