Top Five Resume Problems

Dear friends,

I write a lot of resumes. I have been writing my fingers to the bone lately
because a lot of people are not happy with their resumes. I read even more resumes than I write, in a resume-screening capacity and on campus and in other settings. Here are the top five resume problems I see:

1) Lots of resumes are really, really boring. You could fall asleep reading
them. A boring resume doesn't make the reader want to meet the resume's owner.
We can add more personality and life to our resumes.

2) Most resumes are too "list-y." Lists are resume-killers. The only kind of
list that makes sense for me in a resume is a list of certifications, or
programming languages or technical tools. Vague, say-nothing lists like "I'm
experienced in Sales, Marketing and Operations" are worse than a waste of space.
Leave them out.

3) Tons of resumes take too long to say what they want to say. "I was
instrumental in moving toward the establishment of a team of people tasked with
the job of...." is already way too long. We can say instead "Our team launched
the X-17 product on time; we generated $70M in sales the first year."

4) Resumes tend to be non-specific in a frustrating way. "I was an internal
champion for change" is not helpful. What kind of change? We can say "I
campaigned for six months to get our leaders excited about telework, and now
we've got 60 people working from home around the U.S." Got it!

5) Zillions of resumes list tasks and duties rather than accomplishments.
"Prepared General Ledger reports" does not belong on your resume unless you were
in a job where no one would expect you to have prepared those reports, and maybe
not even then. Don't use precious resume real estate to tell what your job title
already implies.

If you'd like my help with your resume, let me know - there's more info on that
here.

Thanks! Cheers -- Liz