When creating a resume there is the thought that we need to "stand out" above the crowd with a fancy or "blinged" up resume.  This thinking is way off on what you need in a resume and if your resume is "blinged" out, it will noticed - but for the wrong reasons and will probably be passed by.

Fancy and Bling resumes have: multiple colors, multiple columns, non-traditional fonts, different font sizes, watermarks, pictures, symbols, strange bullets etc.  

Below are 5 reasons why the fancy bling resume will get you passed by! 

1.  What looks good to you, doesn't look good to the viewer - Remember the viewer is the person you want to impress, not yourself your mom or your best friend.  The viewer is the hiring manager or recruiter that looks through hundereds of resumes and scans for keywords in 5 - 10 secons to see if you are the fit.  If they can't find the information becuase of non relevant stuff in the way they will move on!

Solution: Keep it clear, concise and professional - make it easy to find your key information

2.  Fancy and Bling resumes say "Look at what I created" instead of "Look at what I can do for you" - Unless the position you are applying to asks that you be very creative in all work such as a graphics designer, the bling says to the hiring manager or recruiter, "I'm hiding something" or "don't look at my qualifications, look at my pretty resume".  Don't give a hiring manager or recruiter any reason to pass on your resume.

Solution: Keep it traditional, there's a reason that traditional resumes are traditionally used.

3.  Resume scrubbing in an ATS (applicant tracking system) or RTS (resume tracking system) - When you submit your resume online to a company that has an ATS/RTS (database entry systems for resume submitting), the first thing the system does is "scrub" your resume of ALL the fancy bling you put in your resume.  What this does is turns your resume into a text format and can easily throw off all of your keywords and layout.  The format will be completely skewed and your information is lost forever in the big database.

Solution: Have a text format resume that can be submitted to the ATS/RTS that won't change your resume.

4.  Your resume gets very hard to read; hard to read = pass you by! - Fancy, Blinged our resumes can be very difficult to read, especially if you use a non-traditional font.  If you were going to advertise a product to a potential customer, would you make it hard for them to read?  Of course not.  Your resume IS your advertisement about you, make it easy for your customer (hiring manager and recruiter) to read it.

Solution: Use only traditional fonts and keep the size of your fonts consistent

5.  Many companies that are hiring are large, traditional and professional organizations; Fancy, blig resumes don't say that - Companies are looking for employees to fit in to their company, especially large corporations.  They aren't looking for the "free thinker" that is going to try to change their company from within.  They want someone who will be part of their proven success, bling resumes say "if you give me this job, I'll make sure to have a thousand questions about how we can change everything".  Hiring managers don't need the headache and recuiters aren't going to send you to their client (unless they ask you to change your resume to a traditional format).  Get the job first and then you can work on fixing the company.

Solution: Traditional resumes!  Clear, Concise, Professional

The bottom line, stay away from the Fancy resumes, you want to be noticed for what you can offer to a hiring manager, not your expertise in creating fancy documents! 

Good luck out there!

The whole idea of a resume is to get noticed by a hiring manager or recruiter.  Hiring managers and recruiters look at MANY resumes and they are looking for key words that stand out to say "ok, I see that, now let's see what else they can do".  They do this on average in 5 - 10 Seconds, you need to make sure they find the right information when they are "scanning" your resume".

Here are 5 way to make sure that happens!

1.  Keywords - Keywords are the quick way someone can see if your have any type of experience for the position.  Make sure they are prominent, relvant and match the key skills for the position.  Example:  In the IT world a Microsoft Certfication called an MCSE is something that a hiring manager would look for when scanning.  You would put MCSE as the very first skill in your technical skills section so it would grab the attention and have the viewer read further.

2.  2 Pages Max - When a hiring manager or recruiter looks at a resume and sees page after page of words.  It easier to pass your resume by.  If it's 2 pages, then the hiring manager or recruiter will think "ok, I can look at 2 pages".  

3.  Bullets - Bullet points are easy to read, draw the viewer to the information and makes it easier to scan for your keywords.  Long sentences, Paragraphs etc, get passed; along with your keywords.

4. Professional and Technical Skills on top - Put your best information towards the top of page 1 of your resume.  You want the viewer to see that you are a start in customer service, have been doing electrical work for 15 years etc.  Make the hiring manager or recruiters job easy, give them what they want and you will get the call.

5. Take Out Non Relevant Information - The more information in your resume that is not related to the job you are trying to get, the more it distracts from the viewer.  You might be the best in the world at golf, but if you are trying to get a retail job, that information gets in the way of your Keywords.

The bottom line, create your resume not for what YOU like but what you want the viewer to see.  Draw them to your keywords and get that call and hopefully the job!

Good luck out there!

10 things to leave off your resume - Why? because you may not get the job!

There are many ideas floating out there as to what should and shouldn't be on your resume and yet we still see the same things pop up.  There are some very simple standards to resumes and you want to ensure you are highlighting why you are good for the job.  Don't do anything to take the viewer off of why you wouldn't be good for the job.

1.  Objective - Very outdated and not relevant anymore, generally they are vague and have nothing to do with the job, don't waste the space on your resume with unimportant inofrmaton.  Put the title of the position you are applying to instead.

2.  Hobbies - Will the fact that you are an expert guitar player, like to golf or garden land you that sales job?  If it has nothing to do with the job you are trying to get, leave it off.

3.  References - Taking up valuable space on your resume with who you know isn't going to get you the job, unless you are the son or daughter of the owner.  Have a separate sheet with your references to hand to the hiring manager when the time is right.

4.  References available upon request - This is related to above.  As a hiring manager, I expect that if I ask for your references, you will give them to me.

5.  A photo of yourself - There is no need to prejudice someone right off the bat with a picture.  Sell your qualifications and don't give a hiring manager the opportunity to pass you by for a picture.

6.  Political and Religious Organziations - If you are a Democrat and the hiring manager is a Republican, the hiring manager will already have a bias.  The old saying "In business, don't discuss religion or politics is true" especially when you are trying to get a job.  Don't give a hiring manager a reason to pass you by on items that aren't relevant to the position.

7.  The 3rd page (or more) - No resume should be over 2 pages long.  When you go over 2 pages you lose your audience.  Remember the hiring manager is going to scan your resume in 15 - 20 seconds, if they can't find the right information, they will pass you by.

8.  Salary History - Are you asking for too much?  Are you selling yourself short?  Hiring managers guage experience level by the amount of salary you ask for, don't let them think, "Wow I can't afford this person" or "Strange they would be asking for so little, they must not be able to do this job".  Let your qualifications speak for themself!

9.  GPA - The fact that you got a 3.4 in high school/college is great, but how does that say you can drive a truck, mange a team or create websites.  It doesn't!  If it's not relevant to the job you are applying to, leave it off.

10.  Bling - Multiple colors, fancy fonts, little pictures, etc. only distract.  It may look nice to you but how does it look to the viewer?  Keep it clear, concise and professional.

The bottom line, think about it from the VIEWERS perspective, what will they think when they see your resume.  If it doesn't seem right to you, then it really won't seem right to a potential employer.

Good luck out there!

Many people aren't aware of what and RTS or ATS is how it effects your resume.

An RTS (Resume Tracking System) or ATS (Applicant Tracking System) are programs used by large companies that receive multiple resumes (think if you submitted a resume online to Target, General Dynamics, Oracle etc.).  

These large companies get so many resumes that they need a database that takes your resume, formats into simple text and sends it to their files for the position you applied.  A person on the other end will sift through these resumes by keywords and hopefully pull yours out for an additional look.  It's a hit or miss system and you have to ensure your information is easy to find.

Some Key Items you should know and why your resume should be formatted correctly:

- An ATS/RTS will "scrub" all the great "bling things" you put on your resume and format it for their system - this means all the formatting that looks great on your end, may end up looking really off in the ATS/RTS

- An ATS/RTS resume viewed by a potential hiring manager that has been scrubbed may have you keywords and key skills lost or in the wrong place - Make sure you submit a resume that can pass through the scrubbing and still have all your relevant information easy to find

- To submit a resume to an ATS/RTS you should have a text formatted resume - this is a resume that removes all the "fancy" things so that it doesn't get lost in their database

- Bling resume means bad formatting in an ATS/RTS - by bling we are talking pictures, non-standard bullets, watermarks, columns etc. - When you put your resume in to the ATS/RTS, the database will try and match what it thinks and will take your column and move it to the bottom, will make your non-standard bullet look like "&&&", "###", "%%%", etc.

The bottom line - make sure you don't get scrubbed by that ATS/RTS and submit a clear, concise and easy to read resume in Text format

Good luck out there! 

How are these lines going to help you get the job? (hint, they won't)

- "contribute to the bottom line" (Isn't that why your getting hired??)

- "grow with the company" (you either grow with the company or you leave?)

- "apply my education and experience" (I hope so or you aren't getting the job!)

I could go on and on....

One of the most common questions we get by our clients or just in general when it comes to a resume is "what do I put in the objective".

The bottom line is the objective is outdated and not really an effective marketing tool (remember your resume is your advertisement) especially when there is information not relelvant to the position you are applying to.

The trend now is to take out the objective and put the title of the position you are applying to, changing it for each position you are sending your resume to.  If you want generic and keep the same title, just put the right title for you.  By putting the title of the position, the hiring manager or recruiter will know right away they are seeing the right resume and will take a look at the rest of your resume (which is what you want!)

Our resumes options are all set up that way for a reason, it's what works and what hiring managers and recruiters want to see

Good luck out there!

Having been on the hiring and recruiting side, we all have our "pet peeves" when we receive resumes an cover letters from candidates!

The list below are some things to do to make the viewer or your resume have a good day!

1.  Submit your resume and cover letters in a Word Doc - it's much easier to open, it's quicker to open and easier to store for future viewing (which is what you want!)

2.  Make sure your contact information is easy to find - the whole point of sending a resume and cover letter is to make sure the hiring manager or recruiter can get hold of you, make sure they can clearly see it.

3.  Your resume needs to be up to date - if you send a resume in and the last job you have listed ended in 2010, that's a problem and you will probably get overlooked.  If you haven't been working then explain it as consulting, contracting, going to school etc.

4.  Have a LinkedIn profile and make sure it matches your resume - Almost all recruiters and hiring managers look at LinkedIn to view your qualifications, if it isn't up to date you may be losing out on an opportunity.

5.  Have your key skills prominent and easy to find - If your best skill is that you can juggle 14 balls at one time and ride a unicycle, make sure eveyone knows it right away when they see your resume, don't bury it deep in your resume!  Grab the attention your viewer and make them want to keep reading about you.

These are just some helpful hints for everyone.

Good luck out there! 

Email: customerservice@easywayresume.com / Fax: 916-313-3432