Online Career Tips

DEAR JOYCE: My teacher discussed information to include in a resume, but what about things to leave out? -- S.S.T.

Opinions vary on what a job seeker should skip when preparing a resume. Here's my take:

1) Empty objective. An empty objective is one that does not laser in on what you are qualified to do for the job you're targeting, such as "I want to be rich and famous" or "Looking for a growth opportunity where I can use my skills and education." By contrast, a focused objective is an excellent strategy for a job seeker who wants to make the screening cut, especially with today's technology.

A focused objective is also useful for prospecting and networking in the job market when you are starting, restarting or changing a career. Recruiters need some idea of whether you're fish or fowl.

2) Any information not directly related to the job you seek. But even then, circumstances may override your initial decision. For example:

Family information (marital status, children, pets) is extra weight, unless this background info is relevant to the job you want and a cultural fit is essential.

By Laura Dolan, Guest Contributor

As nicknames go, it could be worse. I have my tenth grade English teacher to thank for that one. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I was a bit of a know-it-all in high school, and may have corrected my teacher on her grammar. Honestly, I didn’t mean to do it. She was going over the difference between who and whom, and in which context we should use each word. (Simply put, use “who” when referring to the subject of a sentence, and “whom” when referring to the object.) In the middle of this lesson, she said something to the effect of, “I don’t care who you invited.”

And it just tumbled out of my mouth: “Whom. You don’t care whom we invited.” Instant regret.

“Well, aren’t you just a little grammar queen!” Continue Reading

By Susan Adams
Special to Online Career Tips

The toughest thing about putting together a résumé? Figuring out what’s special about yourself. In other words, defining your personal brand.

I’m a journalist with 30 years of experience, but how do my skills differ from countless other 50-something media folk toiling in the editorial trenches?

It had been 10 years since I’d edited my résumé, past time for an update. So I decided to do a résumé fix-up story, using myself as a guinea pig.

My first step was to find a couple of sources who have worked extensively with professionals in my field. I turned to James Borland, a New York career coach affiliated with the Five O’Clock Club, who has done outplacement for clients at The New York Times, Newsday and Time magazine. I vetted Borland’s advice with Eileen Wolkstein, a veteran coach I greatly respect and whom I’ve quoted numerous times.

In Pictures: Seven Ways To Perfect Your Résumé

Borland started out by confirming my suspicion that it makes sense to seek help from a coach who’s worked with others in your field. If you’re going for a job in financial services, for instance, use someone who’s critiqued lots of Wall Street résumés. Do not let a coach write your résumé, however; you have to do it yourself. “An H.R. person or a recruiter will immediately pick it up if a résumé has been written for someone,” Borland says. “All they have to do is spend five minutes with the person, and they can tell the words on the page are not words the candidate would use.”

Both Borland and Wolkstein agree that your résumé should not be a mere list of jobs you’ve had, followed by brisk summaries of the work you did and your college and graduate degrees. That was problem No. 1 with my old version. It wasn’t a marketing document. “Your résumé should entice the reader to want to see you,” says Borland. “It should be designed to sell you as an interesting person to talk to.”

Wolkstein agrees. She also thinks a résumé should tell a story about the résumé-writer, a narrative that captures the reader and makes her want to know more.

Borland told me I had to figure out three reasons someone should hire me, and put that at the top of the page in the form of a summary. That was another element my old version lacked. I just had the word “Experience” underneath my name and contact info, and under that, my current job title and responsibilities.

Borland criticized my old version as too dense. Break up the Forbes section into bullet points, he advised. Pick four to six accomplishments during my tenure, and pull them out, using details and active verbs. I took a stab at that, and Wolkstein pushed me further. I had used the words “write,” “edit” and “create” too many times. I felt mortified, given that I make my living as an editor, when she suggested, “What about other verbs?”

At least Borland liked the fact that I’d mentioned a couple of cover stories I’d written that piqued his interest, including a piece on South Africa’s first black billionaire.That line did what both Borland and Wolkstein wanted me to do: It invited the reader to be interested in me, and it sold me as someone who could produce a substantial piece of work on an intriguing topic.

Borland also exhorted me to describe the reach of the media companies I’d worked for. My old résumé simply said, “Senior Editor, Forbes.” He insisted I include the circulation (900,000 for the magazine, and Forbes.com reaches 30 million people a month). I should do the same with the other places I’d worked.

Still, when I showed Wolkstein my rewritten draft, she pronounced it “essentially good,” but not quite there yet. “What is your place in the world of journalism that makes you special?” she challenged me. Which brought me back to Borland’s point: I should write a marketing document. Hopefully my latest rewrite does the trick.

In Pictures: Seven Ways To Perfect Your Résumé

This is an update of a story that ran previously.

Have you added a few workshops or skills to your resume lately that you don’t really have a claim to? Even though you may not be lying outright, but fudging parts of your resume to beef it up could hurt you in the long run.

[5 Common Resume Mistakes and How to Avoid Them]

For example, saying you’re an expert at a certain program but you’ve used it only a couple times. The problem with this is it could be one of the deciding factors to you getting hired. And imagine working on a project where you have to use this tool at an expert level…but you don’t know what you’re doing.

You don’t want to show holes in your resume, instead go in strong with what you know, and in the meantime to finding a job actually attend virtual workshops for more experience, or watch videos to fine tune your skills.

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