The “CIO” had an interesting article by Phil Rosenberg in which he elaborates on what he calls “the dead zone.”  The dead zone is basically what happens to resumes which are sent in, but never read.  With the advance of technology, many multinationals now use computer programs to screen applications to retain only the ones which match specific criteria.

Many job seekers don’t know this or are just too lazy to tailor their resumes.  They might not know this, but this contravenes to one of the key rules of resume writing, which is to research the employer (including the employer’s recruiting practices) and write your resume accordingly.  This means that if a company only accepts applications online, it may be wise to assume that a computer program will be used to screen your application.  What Phil Rosenberg suggests is that you include specific keywords in your resume and customize your resume for the specific position.  That way, your resume will not end up lost in the digital world.

The Dead Zone - Why 97% of Resumes Are Never Read, CIO.com

Joe Turner, a top recruiter with over 15 years of placing candidates, gives six resume tips to instantly transform your resume:

1. Apply the Top Third Rule
2. Focus
3. Add Keywords
4. Brand Yourself
5. Answer the Question, “So What?”
6. Lose the ‘Razzle-Dazzle’

For a discussion of what the six tips mean concretely, please click on the link below.

Six Tips to Rock Your Resume, Joe Turner

Writing is a communication process first and foremost. The point of communicating is to be understood. That’s a key rule that you cannot allow yourself to forget. What does that entail specifically? It means that when you write, you have to keep your audience in mind and make it clear to them what you are trying to convey.

Simplicity is key. The best communicators can discuss complex issues in simple terms. In fact, I know when someone has a grasp of what he/ she talks about when that person can communicate his/ her thoughts to me clearly. Next time that you apply for a job or write a report, try to impress, not through complexity, but rather through simplicity. You’ll be surprised at how simplicity is the cornerstone of effective writing.

Simple Writing Works, NEWS.com.au

Writing a resume is tricky business because it requires us to describe ourselves in an apparently “objective manner,” yet knowing that we are in a competitive process and need to surpass other candidates. How can you be objective when your own future is at stake? Rachel Zupek, from Career Builder, listed nine commonly found resume lies:

1. Lying about what degree(s) you hold: This is a pure lie and there are simply no excuses for it.
2. Exaggerating numbers: Well… if you know the exact number and you still go ahead and lie about it, it’s technically a lie. But how can the recruiter find out about this exaggeration? Does the exaggeration go to the core of your competency? By how much do you exaggerate? It’s a matter of degree I guess. I would qualify lies at the borderline of exaggeration as “soft” lies. A lie remains a lie however.
3. Lying about previous salaries: Nowadays, a salary is not everything. It’s more about the “compensation package,” which includes benefits, bonuses, etc. So if a recruiter asks you about your salary and you feel that it is not very high and want to include your benefits in there and give a number that more accurately reflects your compensation package… it’s your decision. If the recruiter asks, you should have your justifications ready.
4. Changing dates: It depends. If you worked at a company for 2 years and you write on your resume that you worked there for 5 years, that’s a lie. If you were unemployed for 3 months in-between jobs and you’d rather show back to back employment… it’s debatable.
5. Inflating titles of positions held: Depends on whether you had a specific title or not.
6. Lying about technical skills: This can be a very dumb mistake as, even if you end up being hired, you might also end up being fired just as well. Some people, however, don’t lie on purpose on this issue. They just think they are better than they really are…
7. Lying about language fluency: Same as the above. What you consider “fluent” or “working knowledge” might not be perceived as such by others.
8. Providing a fake address: This happens when people apply to a position which would require relocation. They don’t feel their application should be affected/ declined by that fact.
9. Padding grade point averages: Well, again, when dealing with specific numbers, lies can be more easily caught… especially when the recruiter ends up asking you to submit your transcripts.

Again, a lie is a lie… and the best would be never to have to lie. The problem, however, is that we don’t live in a perfect world. Overall, however, there are many degrees of lie. Some are simply unjustifiable and some are at the borderline of “exaggeration.” Use your own judgment and always be ready to justify whatever you write down on your resume.

The above discussion was mainly focused towards job seekers, but employers/ recruiters are also to blame as they sometimes tend to push the envelope too far in asking all sorts of questions which can be a real turnoff and very intrusive.

* The article by Rachel Zupek also discusses some cases of high profile people caught lying. This may be a good deterrent!

Infamous Resume Lies, MSN/ Career Builder

Sometimes your resume can hurt more than help you. In today’s job search market, you are often competing against large numbers of applicants, and your resume has to be good enough to make it past the first screening.

The first people to view your resume are often lower-level staff looking for a quick way to weed candidates out of consideration. You can minimize the chances of your resume being eliminated during this round by following three simple rules.

LESS IS MORE

Don’t tell too much. A good resume should leave the prospective employer with a whetted appetite, a desire to know more. They will be likely to call and phone-screen you. So don’t fill in all the details just yet. Save that for the interview. Do, however, paint a big picture of who you are and what you can offer.

For example, you may have worked several years at your present employer. Certainly you could fill up a few paragraphs with all that you’ve done. Instead, think of the one or two most critical projects, duties or functions that you provide. List the most important in no more than a sentence or two each.

Here is an example:

EXPERIENCE:
Mar 2003 to Present: XYZ Company, Their City, CA
Senior Staff Design Engineer
Products designed/Projects involved: A, B, C.
Description of most important project and why
Description of 2nd most important project and why

Skip the hobbies and personal info. Avoid mind-numbing detail that will cause a reader’s eyes to glaze over. One page is ideal — two pages only if you are a 15- to 20-year veteran with a significant growth and promotion history.

MORE KEYWORDS

You want the computers to flag your resume for closer examination. Do this by including as many keywords as possible that are relevant to your job skills, as well as specific industry words that may be appropriate. A convenient method to accomplish this is to include a separate “Keywords” section on your resume just below the “Objective”. Think of this as an important catchall specifically for the computers to “see”.

Here is an example from a candidate employed as a medical quality assurance auditor:

KEYWORDS: Quality System, QA, QS, Audit, Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), International Standards (ISO), Corrective and Preventive Action Programs (CAPA), training, QSR, Medical Device, calibration, 510K, TQM, PMA, FDA.

Include the names of major companies you worked with or for in the “Experience” section, as this often is important to employers.

BE SPECIFIC

Don’t just tell them what you did. Move beyond that and describe the benefit of your accomplishment. A good way to do this is to include several specific ways you helped your employer make money or save money. Remember, the only benefit you can bring to the table is past performance. When you interview (either by phone or in person) this is what will be discussed.

Review all your previous jobs and bring forth examples of some of your best work. How can an employer think of you as a problem solver? If at all possible, try to “monetize” your accomplishments (state them in terms of money). At the interview, you will be prepared to enlarge upon these successes.

As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their careers. Author of Job Search Secrets Unlocked, Joe has been interviewed on several radio talk shows. Discover more insider job search secrets by visiting http://www.jobchangesecrets.com.

Call it a slogan, a branding image, a tagline. When you hear it or see it, you know exactly what the product is and what it might do for you. Walk down the aisle of any food store and you’ll encounter hundreds of similar slogans that reach into your subconscious and press your “buy me” buttons. Don’t like breakfast cereal? Try cars. Think “Ultimate Driving Machine” instead. See what I mean? The best branding images help to sell billions of dollars of product every year. Why? Because they work by promising you a benefit for using their product.

So, what does this have to do with your resume?

Everything. Too often, I see candidates who think job search is all about selling their specific skills. Skills are only commodities. They get you in the door but they don’t win you the job. Many HR managers now report getting 100 or more resumes per job posting. So it’s easy to get lost in the resume shuffle with dozens of other candidates. They’re all competing for that same job and they all have the same or better skills as you. You only have a few seconds to make a positive impression. How can you stand out and get selected? A great way to do that is to take a lesson from Madison Avenue, the masters of marketing, and develop a “slogan” of your own. Before we do that, let’s do a little Marketing 101.

You purchase products for the benefit they give. You don’t buy snow tires in the winter, you buy traction. Traction is the benefit that gets you where you want to go in the snow safely and reliably. Employers think the same way when they need to hire a new employee. They’re not buying your skills. They want to know how you can be an asset to their bottom line. This boils down to only two areas where you can provide a benefit — how you can help an employer either 1.) make money or 2.) save money. When you answer this question, you’re thinking bigger picture by understanding where you fit into the business scheme of things. You also set yourself apart from most of your competitors.

The best way to accomplish this is to develop your own “slogan”. Called a “Unique Selling Proposition”, this is a short sentence that describes a major, unique benefit that you can offer your next employer. For example, say you’re a project manager and you have a number of skills, such as software, hardware and management expertise. Trouble is, most other project managers competing with you have the same skills. If you think further, though, you find your particular strength might be your ability to identify and solve problems early in your projects. So your USP goes something like this:

“Seasoned project manager with a strength in identifying and solving problems.”

Now we must add one more item and that’s the benefit to the employer. Since employers buy “making money” or “saving money”, we need to find a way to attach dollars to it. This is called monetizing your benefit and it’s what will separate you from every other project manager you compete with. It may take some research or calculations but it’s well worth the effort. Try to arrive at a conservative figure for how much money you helped your employer make or save on a given project, sale or time period. In this case, our project manager calculated that he helped save his employer over $3 million in a 3-year period while he completed over $12 million in projects. His USP becomes:

“Seasoned project manager whose strengths in identifying and solving problems have saved my employer over $3 million while completing over $12 million worth of projects during the past 3 years.”

Now we start to see something different take shape as one individual stands out in the cluttered landscape of project managers. By placing this one sentence front and center at the top of his resume, magic can start to happen. No longer is this candidate a commodity. The employer can clearly see the benefit of having an employee who can bring this special talent to help save $3 Million.

Summary

When you think of job search as marketing, you can see the employer as the purchaser looking through endless ads of candidates that all look alike. You can separate yourself as a special product with your own short “slogan” or “Unique Selling Proposition” on your resume. This short sentence should identify:

1. What you are.
2. What your major benefit is.
3. How this benefit helps the employer make money or save money.

Put this all-important sentence on your resume and watch how your job search can change for the better. Your USP becomes your “Breakfast of Champions” slogan, instantly creating value and pushing the buy buttons of your next employer.

As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs of their careers. Known on the Internet as “The Job Search Guy”, Joe has also authored ‘how-to’ books on interviewing and job search. He’s been interviewed on several radio talk shows. Discover more insider job search secrets by visiting: http://www.jobchangesecrets.com.