Competing in a Resume Flooded Market

Tons of resumes are still pouring in for each job opening. If a Human Resource department spends five minutes on each resume, every one hundred resumes will take over eight and a half hours to review. That much resume reading isn’t going to happen.

Companies are still announcing layoffs. What few jobs are available are overwhelmed with more resumes than an employer can handle. As a result, employers have gone to a 15-Second resume read to eliminate unqualified candidates.

Adding to the dilemma, people who expected secure jobs through retirement have suddenly had the rug pulled out from underneath them. Other retirees have found the down-turned stock market means they need to return to the work force. These good workers, for the first time in years, find themselves faced with putting together their resume. Although these people are qualified for the job, many are often looked over by employers because they don’t know how to quickly and effectively communicate their skills.

Here are some guidelines for putting together a resume:

Don’t treat your resume like a job application. A job application gives equal time and emphasis to each position where you worked. A resume is like a business card and needs tailored to the employer and job where you are sending the resume.

Make sure your contact information is easy to find. Label phone numbers as home, work, or cell. Use only one email address, but include one if possible.

Use a faxable sized font. Many people try and use Times New Roman, ten points, because they are trying to cram a lot of information into two pages. That small of a font won’t fax legibly. Give yourself an added advantage by formatting the resume so it is easy to find job title, length of employment, and where you worked.

Don’t put too much information on your resume. Only highlight your work history and don’t load it with extra details. Employers want to know what your job duties were and any major accomplishments you did. They don’t want to have every detail of your work career.

Make sure you break out technical skills and education in their own separate category so they are easy to locate.

If space provides, summarize your pertinent skills in an overview. A good overview offers a tabulation of resume information such as your strong points and how many years of work experience you have in the field. Typically the best order for a resume is your contact information, a brief overview, your work history, your education followed by any special categories such as technical skills.

Don’t fall victim to the common resume mistakes. Excess grammar and typos are unforgivable. Don’t make it appear as if you were a job hopper when a company changed its name by not presenting company merger or buyout information correctly. Never ask an employer to take the time to match your accomplishment to your job position. List job duties and accomplishment right under each position, not in a separate category.

Leave off unimportant information such as objective, hobbies, and interest. Make your resume efficient and to the point, only stating things that are pertinent to the job you are seeking. The resume’s purpose is to get you an interview. The interview is where extraneous information can be covered.

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