Employment Digest

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Why You Were Fired

Fired from your job? Don’t know what to say in an interview? Career expert and author, Joyce Lain Kennedy, shares her twelve best job interview answers to the question “Why were you fired?”

Joyce Lain Kennedy is the nation’s first syndicated careers columnist. Her work is distributed by Tribune Media Services and appears in more than 100 newspapers and Web sites. In addition, Joyce is author of eight career-related books including Job Interviews for Dummies, where you can read additional excellent interview advice, Cover Letters for Dummies and Resumes for Dummies.

Joyce Lain Kennedy’s sample answers to the interview question “Why were you fired?”

* Being cut loose was a blessing in disguise. Now I have an opportunity to explore jobs that better suit my qualifications and interests. My research suggests that such an opportunity may be the one on your table. Would you like to hear more about my skills in working with new technology?
* My competencies were not the right match for my previous employer’s needs but it looks like they’d be a good fit in your organization. In addition to marketing and advertising, would skills in promotion be valued here?
* Although circumstances caused me to leave my first job, I was very successful in school and got along well with both students and faculty. Perhaps I didn’t fully understand my boss’s expectations or why he released me so quickly before I had a chance to prove myself.
* The job wasn’t working out so my boss and I agreed that it was time for me to move on to a position that would show a better return for both of us. So here I am, ready to work.
* After thinking about why I left, I realize I should have done some things differently. That job was a learning experience and I think I’m wiser now. I’d like the chance to prove that to you.
* A new manager came in and cleaned house in order to bring in members of his old team. That was his right but it cleared my head to envision better opportunities elsewhere.
* Certain personal problems, which I now have solved, unfortunately upset my work life. These problems no longer exist and I’m up and running strong to exceed expectations in my new job.
* I wanted my career to move in a different direction, and I guess my mental separation set up the conditions that led to my departure. But by contrast, the opportunity we’re discussing seems to be made for me and I hope to eventually grow into a position of responsibility.
* I usually hit it off very well with my bosses, but this case was the exception that proved my rule of good relationships. We just didn’t get on well. I’m not sure why.
* My job was offshored to India. That’s too bad because people familiar with my work say it is superior and fairly priced.
* I outlasted several downsizings but the last one included me. Sign of the times, I guess.
* I was desperate for work and took the wrong job without looking around the corner. I won’t make that mistake again. I’d prefer an environment that is congenial, structured and team-oriented, where my best talents can shine and make a substantial contribution.

Kennedy also says, “Practice in advance what you’ll say. Then keep it brief, keep it honest and keep it moving.” That way, you’ll get past the sticky issue of getting fired and can move on to your skills and why you’re qualified for the job.

Resumes 101: Be professional, even when applying for jobs online

Dear full name of boss in charge,

When writing a cover letter to submit with a resume, be professional, especially if applying for jobs online. Many companies have moved into online applications or searching resumes via Web sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com.

Be correct in both grammar and punctuation. Have several people read over the cover letter and resume to avoid any mistakes.

Don’t be cutesy and abbreviate just because the application is online. Employers want to know a job candidate is professional and qualified. “They want to know if are you going to be able to perform your job duties,” said Deb Herman, director of employer relations and recruiting at the Michelin Career Center at Clemson University.

When submitting resumes online, be sure to convert the document to a text file so employers can open it no matter what program their computers use. It would be unfortunate for them to open it and get a garbled mess of computer jargon because the document isn’t compatible, said Thwanda Davidson, Anderson University director of career services.

Overall, be professional, be courteous, be correct and don’t spell anything wrong.

Sincerely,

Job hunter

Joe Jobhunter

OBJECTIVE

To get a job, obviously. When applying for jobs in this day and age, many companies look online. Don’t forget to stay professional, polite and grammatically correct. With the objective, be clear and concise. This may be the only way to get the boss to read on, and that is the goal. Use key words listed in the job description to catch the employers’ attention, Ms. Davidson said. And in all things, don’t place all bets on one job; be open to options, she said.

EDUCATION

List appropriate degrees, schooling and classes. If applying for an accounting position, there’s no need to list dance classes. Don’t put a lot of personal information other than contact information into the resume to avoid being passed over, Ms. Herman said.

WORK EXPERIENCE

- List all appropriate work experience and full-time jobs previously held. When listing jobs, also explain what the job duties were and what interaction was had with co-workers.

- Don’t use “I” too much. “Don’t make it sounds too much like a solo deal,” Ms. Davidson said. “You want it to seem like a team deal.”

- Communication is extremely important in any job. Show that you can communicate with people on all management levels when listing work experience, Ms. Herman said.

- Present numbers or percentages to show how things increased at your previous job with you on board. This shows you are a desirable job candidate that will make an impact, Ms. Herman said.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

- Don’t downplay accomplishments when it comes to previous work experience or education. List any big awards you received. Don’t think it’s boastful; you’re proving your worth.

REFERENCES

- Be accurate.

- Make sure references’ phone numbers, e-mail addresses and job titles are current.

- Companies do call these references and will discard your resume if these are not accurate.

Embellishing resume could cost you job

Have you ever told a story and embellished the details a bit? I’ve certainly caught myself exaggerating on occasion, saying, “I waited an eternity for the subway to come,” or “It was the funniest joke ever.”

In those cases, the exaggeration is harmless. When it comes to your resume, though, overstating or making up facts can have serious ramifications.

RadioShack Corp.’s former chief executive, David Edmondson, for example, left this year when two college degrees listed on his resume could not be confirmed.

Career counselors say that inconsistencies on a resume give recruiters an easy reason to pass over a student for a job or internship.

“It makes an employer a lot more comfortable with their decision if they’re juggling a few candidates,” said Michael Worthington, co-founder of ResumeDoctor.com, a resume-writing service.

Recent surveys show that lying on a resume is not uncommon.

In February, a survey of more than 1,000 resumes by Resume- Doctor.com found that nearly 43 percent inaccurately reported dates of employment, job titles or education.

And last year, the career services center at Rutgers University conducted an audit of 2,600 student resumes after receiving complaints about errors.

The center found that 25 percent of students misrepresented their grade point average, citizenship or major.

‘Ethical breakdown’
“What really triggered [the audit] was that we would talk to students about it and they were so nonchalant,” said Janet Jones, senior associate director of career services.

“They said they would put it on the resume and then talk around it in the interview. It was an ethical breakdown.”

Experts say that a competitive job market is one reason that so many applicants are fibbing.

“I think there’s a lot more employment insecurity among twentysomethings today, where the good-paying jobs with good benefits are more difficult to come by,” said David Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead.

Additionally, there is a sense that because everyone else is padding their resumes, there’s no reason you shouldn’t.

“A lot of fudging is impossible for employers to verify,” Callahan said. “What employer is going to go back and see whether a student played a ‘decisive’ role in forming a new club at their college?”

The problem is that once you do land the job, your employer will discover quickly that you’re not as qualified as you claimed.

And more employers are taking the time to check facts, such as your dates of employment, grade point average and degrees held.

“At entry level, there’s no point in lying,” Worthington said. “You are applying to an entry-level job, and employers are not going to expect that you have all this work experience.”

‘Want to dig’
Plus, it’s possible to stand out - legitimately - from your peers as you begin to apply for summer internships or your first job.

Some tips:

• Meet with a school career counselor.

You may feel that your extracurricular activities or part-time job won’t be relevant to a prospective job. But you often can extract a list of skills that will appeal to employers, especially with the help of a school career counselor.

“We want to dig,” Jones said. “We want them to tell genuine stories of their past that infuse their skills. Many people, especially students, don’t know how to do that.”

• Be positive but accurate.

If you don’t have a stellar GPA or you worry that a degree in art history won’t get you a job in accounting, find other facts to highlight.

Calculate your GPA in your major instead, or list, in addition to your major, any classes that relate to the job, Jones said.

• Do your research.

Finally, make sure to write a thoughtful cover letter that shows you’re genuinely interested in the company and come to the interview prepared with questions about the job.

Your enthusiasm and interest - not to mention your integrity - will impress recruiters.

Job Search Website Application Cheat Sheet

Read on to find out how to give yourself an unfair advantage in applying on job search websites.

You need to approach a job search website not from the point of view of someone who wants a job, but from the point of view of the person who has to handle hundreds of applications.

Ultimately, it’s that person’s hopes and dreams for getting through the mass of applications that matters, not your hopes and dreams vis-a-vis your career.

Here’s how you can make that person’s dreams come true:

• KISS–keep it simple and short.

• Provide everything asked for in the application. Someone who has to sort through a hundred applications a day doesn’t necessarily have time to visit your website, or ask you again for the required writing sample, or even clarify any part of the job advertisement.

• Make sure the very first sentence of your cover letter specifically references the job in question in a way that makes it clear this is not a form letter (even if it is a form cover letter after the first line). Even something fawningly polite–no, especially something fawningly polite–such as “”Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to apply for your…”" will greatly increase your chances of ending up in the recycling bin.

Job Search Websites: Advanced Users’ Cheat Sheet

1. After applying online, work your network to try to make a human connection at the company. The person who posted the job has probably already turned the phone off for fear of going deaf from job applicants’ calls. But if you can somehow get within a few degrees of separation of that person’s assistant, or even a co-worker, you may be able to get the face time you need to jump out of the resume slush pile.

2. Try snail-mailing and/or faxing an additional copy of your materials, with a note that you just wanted to make sure the person got your application. The note should also have a relevant P.S., such as, “”congratulations on winning second-place at the Widgets Convention new product awards.”" Does this method have the potential to annoy? Yes. Does it give you an effective edge? Usually not–just often enough to make it worthwhile. Ultimately, if you’re serious about getting a job, you need to make sure your application actually makes it front of a pair of human eyes.

3. In your cover letter use a little humor–mind you, just a little, and keep it tame. Don’t sound like a comedian, but don’t sound exactly like everyone else, either. You have to stop your reader’s eyes from glazing over somehow.

4. Most important of all: submit your application to a recruiter in addition to employers. It’s a recruiter’s job to sift through applications. They’re much more likely to take an interest in you than some human resources officer. Several websites make it easy to submit your applications to numerous recruiters with one push of a button.

5. Most valuable time-saver: Submit your application to a “”meta-search”" jobs search website, one that will let you apply to listings on numerous other jobs websites at the same time. There are well over a hundred individual jobs websites online, not to mention classifieds. You’ll never get to them all on your own otherwise.

In conclusion, the bad news is that you have even more competition than you thought when applying on a job search website. The good news is, it’s a lot easier than you thought to make yourself stand out from the competition. Just show the prospective employer with as much respect as you want them to show you.

The Ethical Job Hunter

Knowing right from wrong is key to the MBA job quest. Exaggerated résumés, misrepresented job offers are dishonest—and counterproductive

In recent years, the ethics of running a business has garnered plenty of attention in the B-school classroom. But until now, MBA students rarely got a lesson on the rights and wrongs they themselves might commit while on the hunt for jobs. Patrick E. Murphy, the Smith co-director of the Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide and professor of marketing at University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business helped create a manual, at www.ethicalbusiness.nd.edu, for students and recruiters that answers some of their questions about how to face certain dilemmas when looking for a job. Murphy encourages other schools and organizations to adapt the document to create their own set of guidelines.

Among the ethical proscriptions for job hunters, the manual lists:

•Misrepresenting background and skills (in a job interview or embellishing a résumé)

•Misrepresenting job-seeking status (e.g., number of offers)

•Accepting on-site interviews when not seriously considering the prospective employer

As for recruiters, the manual warns against:

•Using exploding job offers (failing to allow applicants to participate in the entire recruiting season, or giving applicants less than two weeks to decide at other times)

•Tying signing bonus to exploding job offer

•Using high-pressure interviewing tactics on campus or during firm visits

Murphy says students should consult lists of employers that magazines and newspapers put out to gain insight into companies and their culture (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/18/06, “The Best Places to Launch a Career“).

He also suggests talking to those who already work at the company and taking the time to do some assessment of your own character. “You’ll come out ahead in the whole process if you’re more transparent and honest,” Murphy says. He recently spoke with BusinessWeek.com reporter Francesca Di Meglio. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

What motivated you to write this manual?

One, I’ve had some interchanges with students over the years who are saying, “Why can’t I accept a job offer while waiting for a better one?” Also, I serve on the ethics resource center as an invited fellow and we did a larger study where we asked recruiters, “Do you bring up ethics in the recruiting process?” Only 1 person out of 20 said that he did.

These were recruiters from companies that were already associated with the ethics resource center. If these companies aren’t asking, then the percentage [among other companies] has to be lower than that. Discussions I have had over the years with those in the career placement center at Notre Dame also contributed to my desire to raise the consciousness of students as well as recruiters.
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Follow up wins the interview

You thought you were perfect for the job. So why isn’t your
phone ringing?

Let’s say you just sent your resumé off to 25 prospective
employers and now you’ve done your part. Now, you just sit
back and wait for the phone to ring. But why is nothing
happening?

Stop!

The Job Search Industry is Not on Your Side

This is exactly the wrong approach to your successful job
search. This is because your phone will probably never
ring. The fact that you sent your resumé to some job post
actually means very little in the scheme of things. The
search industry has designed the search process to cater to
their needs and not yours, even if you were a perfect match
for a posted job. By falling into this trap, you’ve just
aligned yourself with the masses to “take a number and
wait”, and play the game on their terms. Meanwhile,
another more enterprising candidate slips in the back door
by way of a referral or a well-placed phone call and gets
an interview and a possible job offer. All this happened
while your resumé sat forever lost in the crush of paper
and electrons as you were waiting by the phone.

Job Tip:

After you send a resumé or an introductory letter, ALWAYS
make a follow up call. Don’t expect these people to call
you. You must always plan on initiating the phone call.

Remember, it’s the conversation that gets you the interview.

Why is it necessary to follow up?

Consider this scenario: Yours may be one of over 100
resumés sent in response to a job post. Three days later,
you call the manager to follow up. You are most likely the
only candidate with the initiative and drive to follow up.
With a decent presentation, you could win an interview for
later that week. Meanwhile, your resumé might have stayed
buried in that huge stack and never discovered.

Once again, it’s the conversation that gets you interviewed
and hired. Don’t leave this to chance. Don’t be bashful
about initiating these calls.

Who do you call?

Be forewarned: HR doesn’t want you to call. But who cares!
You don’t want HR. If you want to get hired, you need to
talk with an actual hiring manager. If that’s a midlevel
project supervisor or the vice president of engineering, so
be it. Find out who this person is before you send your
resume anywhere. You can locate the names of these people
through various sources including the company’s website
“management team” page, phoning the company receptionist,
or subscribing to a corporate research service like
Hoovers, Thomasnet or Lead411. All this takes work of
course, but it’s this level of work that can separate a job
offer from the also-rans.

Summary

In short, your job search is just that - Your Job Search.
Take control and drive the process yourself. Don’t play by
the “rules” of others, putting your career in the hands of
search industry bureaucrats. Put yourself in the driver’s
seat and make their phone ring with a follow-up call each
and every time you send a resumé or introductory letter.

Rosy labor report belies job seekers

Monica Brown has 15 years of marketing and sales experience, nearly half as a manager, trainer or team leader. Today, she’s waiting tables.

For two months, the Alameda resident has risen at 6 a.m. each weekday and squeezed in at least three hours scanning job sites, filling out applications and tweaking her resume before rushing into work. But she has heard little beyond automated responses.

“I don’t know why it is so freaking difficult to get somebody to open the door,” said Brown, 34, who moved from Kansas City, Mo., a little more than a year ago.

She said this on Dec. 8, the same day the U.S. Labor Department reported the 39th straight month of job growth, an unemployment rate that ticked down a half-point from the prior year and average hourly earnings growth of 4.1 percent.

The East Bay job market is tighter still, with unemployment at 3.7 percent in October, below the threshold considered “full employment.”

But the term belies the reality that Brown and many others face. Employment experts say it’s largely a tale of two job markets. The most highly qualified, with impeccable credentials and a Rolodex of relationships, can easily snag jobs and demand high salaries and perks.

For those with red flags on their resume, or a shallow network, just landing a corporate interview remains a challenge. They may be employed as far as the Labor Department is concerned, but often, they’re not doing jobs that reflect their experience, training or ambitions.

“When your expertise isn’t perfectly suited to the positions that are available, you then move down from the ‘A’ category to the ‘B’ category,” said Joel Garfinkle, an executive coach and founder of Oakland-based DreamJobCoaching.com. He said that many of the resumes posted on job sites such as CareerBuilder.com or Craigslist.org may even fall into a ‘C’ category.

“Is the job market improving so that the ‘Cs’ will get more nibbles?” he said. “Yes, but that’s not happening as much as people might think.”

There are two basic issues in play, experts say. First, unemployment statistics don’t accurately reflect the job situation. Second, even if there are more jobs out there, they’re not necessarily “good jobs” — the ones a college-educated or highly-experienced worker wants.

A report last year by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive research firm, found the economy now produces 25 percent to 30 percent fewer good jobs than it did 25 years ago. The Washington, D.C., group defines this as paying about $32,000 a year with employer-paid health insurance and a pension.

A series of macroeconomic trends during the last quarter century account for the shift, said John Schmitt, senior economist for the CEPR. Those include a stagnant minimum wage, declining unionization rates, offshoring and deregulation.

“The net effect has been to decrease workers’ bargaining power,” he said. “We produce more, we work more hours, and yet … there’s apparently no progress in terms of wages, health insurance and pensions for the vast majority.”

Separately, the unemployment rate doesn’t paint a complete picture. While unemployment continues to tick down, the employment rate has lagged. That’s because many people simply are dropping out of the market and no longer being counted as unemployed.

In fact, about 1.4 million people were “marginally attached” to the labor force in November, meaning they had not searched for work in the four weeks before the survey, the Labor Department said. Of the total, 349,000 were classified as “discouraged workers,” those who were not looking because they believed no jobs were available.

Job statistics also don’t reflect the self-employed or contract workers who may wish to find a full-time job but can’t, or the highly-educated or skilled who have settled for lower-end jobs like Brown.

“Looking at the overall unemployment rate and even the rate of growth in average wages may not reflect the experiences of a large portion of the workforce,” said Arindrajit Dube, a UC Berkeley economist.

Workers have little control over the broad forces reshaping the marketplace, but they can improve their job hunting in several ways, Garfinkle said.

One of the most common mistakes that job seekers make, for instance, is focusing almost exclusively on Internet searches and applications. There are 1.33 jobs posted online for every 100 job seekers, according to the CEPR, creating long odds for any worker.

The vast majority of jobs are secured through networking, so a smart job seeker should focus there, Garfinkle said. Attend as many networking events as possible and ask everyone, from past colleagues to the mail carrier, for leads.

Resume shortcomings can be more difficult to solve. Those that sound the loudest alarm bells include a lack of credible or known companies, gaps or job-jumping and little or irrelevant job experience.

Micah Fisher-Kirshner, 25, is grappling with this last problem. While many of his undergraduate classmates ventured directly into the workforce, Fisher-Kirshner decided to earn an advanced degree. He graduated in June with a master’s degree in Pacific International Affairs from UC San Diego.

In the past six months, he has landed promising interviews with Google Inc., Lam Research Corp. and Red Bricks Media. But no offers followed, as job offers tended to go to those with longer resumes. Fisher-Kirshner continues to live with his parents in Fremont.

“The job market has been great for those who already have job experience,” he said. “But the starting entry level that would work for me, that doesn’t seem to be so good.”

Brown’s Achilles’ heel, meanwhile, is job-jumping. She had the unfortunate experience of working for two companies that laid her off amid downsizing in less than a year. She tends to get more responses when she leaves off the dates, but the question always comes up in the interview, she said.

The only offers she has received were for 100 percent commission positions, where she wouldn’t earn a penny until she closes a sale and would be on her own for health insurance.

So for now Brown’s a waitress. Her boss yells when she doesn’t wipe a table properly and dings the $20 she earns an hour, with tips, when she messes up an order.

“(It) is the most demeaning thing I’ve done,” she said. “This is what my life has boiled down to.”

Baby boomers key to jobs outlook: staffing execs

The aging Baby Boomer generation is key to the U.S. employment outlook over the next few years, as 60-somethings either retire or choose to work shorter hours, staffing executives say.

Employers are increasingly concerned about filling positions and are turning to older workers to train the next generation of leaders.

As a result, many Baby Boomers, or those born in the years immediately following World War Two, will transition from permanent to temporary positions, driving long-term demand for companies that provide recruitment and other staffing services.

Such a worker is “probably 55 to 60 years old and wants to work a little bit, and the employer needs his skills,” said Roy Krause, Chief Executive of Spherion Corp. “They may not need them 60 hours a week, but they need them for certain projects.”

Spherion clients are starting to see this demographic shift as a major human resources issue, Krause said. The CEO said he recently met a Fortune 50 client who was “extremely worried” about a lack of skills in mid-management, and was looking for ideas on how to bring workers back for short-term projects.

“We’re predicting it’s going to happen on a national scale,” Krause said about the shift from permanent to temporary jobs. “You have to be prepared for it over the next two to three years.”

Jonas Prising, who heads North American operations at Manpower Inc., said demographics is a key long-term issue for employers. “Over the next five years, it will be an increasingly obvious element in the labor pool,” he said.

Certain sectors can expect higher-than-average wage gains, Prising said, including sectors that are service-led, or dependent on professional skills, continuing recent trends.

The U.S. economy added a higher-than-expected 132,000 workers outside the farm sector last month, with all the new jobs in service industries.

The November jobs report indicated steady demand for workers, despite a slightly higher unemployment rate, Manpower’s Prising said.

“It’s been pretty steady for a while. It seems like employers are careful in their hiring intentions but they’re not engaging in mass layoffs,” he said. “They’re very particular about not hiring talent unless it fills their need or criteria at the time.”
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Executive and Mid Management Resume Tips

Time for a career change? You’ve been thinking about it for some time now, and time is what little you have. Take heart! You have stumbled on the right page at the right time. Deborah James has some pointers for you in the following article. Get your notepad ready. (BTW: check out their blog, http://resumegal.typepad.com/.)

Today’s marketplace is tough! Even the best and brightest need a powerful resume to achieve career success. With the unemployment rate dropping and the labor market tightening, that means JOBS are opening up. Now is the time to get your resume in tip-top shape.

Executive recruiters and HR professionals typically scan the first page of your resume on the first go-around. That’s why your resume needs to read like a newspaper headline, highlighting your brand, value, qualifications, and achievements. Express how you fit into the organization’s future.

The suggestions below really work and are sure to improve your marketability and success landing interviews. You are unique, and your resume needs to be unique too.

Here are 10 tips that will help you create a winning resume.

* Career Focus: Start with a career focus / title at the top of your resume under your letterhead. You want this title to stand out. Focused resumes are powerful job search tools. It’s a well-known fact that hiring managers and recruiters want applicants who know where they can best fit into an organization. Objectives statements are out of style these days.
* Professional Profile: Write your profile / branding message in paragraph or bulleted format. This is your sales pitch — a concise synopsis that tells employers who you are, why you are unique, and what you have to offer, and compels them to read further.
* Areas of Expertise / Core Competencies: This section contains top business, leadership, or tangible / intangible craft-related skills and is comprised of keywords / industry jargon.
* Advanced Degrees: If you have a Masters or above, place your educational credentials to the top half of your resume to improve your marketability.
* Key Performance Indicators: Highlight 4 - 5 of your STRONGEST career accomplishments on the first page. This is a great way to pull a success story that might appear on page two or three and bring it to the reader’s attention during their first scan. Achievements communicate success and numbers sell. Employers want candidates who can identify problems and challenges and offer solutions. Select accomplishments that showcase your track record of success resolving similar challenges.
* Employment Summary: Make sure you include a brief description of each employer and then follow with a scope of responsibility to include the number of direct reports you provide leadership to, type and amount of budget oversight, and title of the person you report(ed) to. Don’t forget to mention your mission – they hired you for a reason.

Bullet point your most relevant accomplishments. You don’t need to tell everything. Focus on your important contributions, and be sure to summarize the challenge, action, and result of your initiatives.Note: If you are having problems coming up with your accomplishment statements, ask yourself the following:

* If the person interviewing you asks what the bottom-line impact of what you did was, and how it affected the organization, how would you reply in 30 seconds?
* Think of what it was you did for the organization, and what it meant to the company. What steps did you take to make it happen?
* What would NOT have happened had you not done your job the way you did?
* Education, Professional Memberships / Affiliations, and Certifications: Include relevant information only. Note #4 above for advanced degree placement.
* Verbiage: Avoid saying “responsible for” and never use “I” or “my” in a resume. Don’t use helping verbs (be, is, are, was) and limit the use of articles (a, an, the).
* Length: If you have a solid background, don’t be concerned with length. You have a story to tell, and squeezing your entire career history on one or two pages just won’t work. One-page resumes are killers; however, for networking purposes they are perfect.
* Formatting: Make your resume easy to read, pleasing to the eye and designed to generate interviews. No pictures please, and leave some white space. Once content is in place, it’s all about presentation. First impressions count. Use good paper and a laser printer.

Resume writing isn’t for everyone. The most brilliant of minds can have difficulty writing about themselves. Don’t rack your brain toiling over your resume. If you find it difficult, hire a professional writing service to team with you.

What recruiters look for

This isn’t going to be a “how to write a resume” blog. There are books, web sites and seminars dedicated to the subject. Rather, I’d like to put you in the mind set of a recruiter as I would look at a resume. Here is my advice on what will get recruiters (and hiring managers) to review your resume and subsequently call you for an interview.

* Your resume should be about what you’ve done that can benefit your potential employer, not just a list of tasks or responsibilities. For example, created applications using JAVA that enabled company to track data more efficiently.
* Make sure you include your accomplishments, i.e. achieve President’s Club in 2005.
* Use quantifiable information if possible, i.e. achieved 110% of quota for 2006 or completed project on time and under budget.
* List all skills as they apply to a specific jobs. Recruiters are mainly scanning your resume looking for them, so
* Don’t be too wordy. Make your point and use bullets, not paragraphs.
* Finally, if it’s relevant, put it on your resume. If it’s not, leave it off.

This is certainly not a be all and end all of resume writing. There are many different perspectives, and I’m sure many will differ. However, those of us that have to review multitudes of resumes need them to be as reader-friendly as possible. I hope this helps. Anyone looking for additional information on my perspective of writing resumes can visit witorsch.com. I welcome a good dialogue on this subject.