Tag: Tips

YES! Your Resume’s File Name DOES Matter

May 26th, 2010

Resumes are digital now. That’s good for everybody–easy to share, easy to search, easy to save, easy on the trees.  It’s all good. But in an attempt for job seekers to keep their resume files organized, people are forgetting that other people read not only the content, but the file name you give your sweet little piece of literary masterwork*. Be warned. Some resumes may get a bad-rap from the beginning because of a slip-up in the file name.

imageMy recommendation is a file name that actually sells you a little bit. For example, if you’re going for a project manager position and your name is Joe Cool, try out a file name like: “Resume–Joe_Cool–Talented_Project_Manager.pdf” and just see if you don’t get more bites on that little nugget of visual eye-candy of a hook!

Some real-world examples of either bad file names or pet-peeves of recruiters (ok, of me):

  • resume.doc – Really? I am a recruiter. Do you think I may, possibly, already have a file named that already somewhere on my system? I will have to rename your resume in order to save it (or rename some other file).  You may risk just getting deleted if you’re not a standout candidate.
  • 2009 resume.doc – This is worse than the previous one. Not only are you absent of creativity, you also haven’t updated your resume since last year.  Believe it or not, I have seen years in resume file-names dating back three years.
  • 2010 resume.doc – This one tells me that you look for a job at least annually.  This one is your current years’ attempt at a new gig.  I should tell facilities to not spend a lot on your office’s name-plate. You won’t be around long.
  • Micorsoft Resume.doc – If you’re applying for a job at a company (say, Microsoft), and you use that company name in the resume file name, please spell it right!
  • Apple Resume.doc — If you’re applying for a job at a company (say, Microsoft), please get the company name right!
  • anything.docx – “docx” is the new file format used in Microsoft Office 2007 or later. Some people don’t have that version of office and may not read your resume… or it may come out formatted very differently than you intended!
  • anything.doc – In fact, not every company uses Microsoft Word. You’d be much better off saving your resume as a PDF file, which is nearly universal in both availability to view and formatting fidelity.  Use something like PDFCreator (free) to “print” any document to a PDF file.
  • Joe_2010.05.0113.doc – You’re either seriously OCD organized, a librarian or an operating system. I don’t know what that says about you, but be aware.
  • Resume10_v3.doc – This doesn’t really matter to me what version your resume is, other than for some reason you keep changing it.  I don’t care, but you did lose an opportunity to share something about you in your file-name that might have made you a little more memorable.

*Please, please do not actually try and make your resume anything resembling a literary masterwork.

Popularity: 5% [?]

12 Ways to Make a Bad First Impression

April 14th, 2010

Liz Seasholtz at WetFeet.com gives 12 really smart ways to fail your first impression in a job interview, and how you could avoid them or turn them around (if possible)

In the book You Are the Message, media executive Roger Ailes wrote that you only have seven seconds to make a first impression. With a job on the line in an interview, the pressure to immediately impress is even more intense. No wonder we get flustered.

Here’s the 12 ways to under-whelm that she mentions.  What are yours?
(click through for her good advice for each)

  1. Show up sick.
  2. You have a black eye (or other injury)
  3. You have a nose-ring (unless it’s the right culture for that)
  4. You’re sweating.
  5. You’re underdressed.
  6. You’re late.
  7. You’re early.
  8. You misuse your lobby-time.
  9. Your handshake isn’t up to par.
  10. You’re bad at small-talk.
  11. You haven’t done your research.
  12. You have a personal tick.

Popularity: 2% [?]

4 Things To Never EVER Put On Your Resume

October 27th, 2009

cover_letter_resumeI know things are becoming more and more open these days, and there is a lot of information about you that is simply searchable online, but there are still certain things a resume is good for, and other things that are just not crucial, especially when you’re just being introduced to a company.

Still, I occasionally receive resumes with some of these items on them or included in the cover letter.  They are not necessary, and can hurt your chances of getting hired.  Still, not having them included on your resume shouldn’t affect you one bit.

  1. Your Picture
    Your resume is not facebook (though some may say facebook is becoming your resume). Leave out your photograph for at least two reasons:
    • First, it is illegal for companies (in the US) to hire you based on your race or sex, age, etc. Having your photograph on your resume puts the company you’re applying to in an awkward spot. If they hire you, was it because of your race? If they did not hire you, was it because of your sex? Are you too old? Some companies will refuse to consider resumes with images because of the liability, which means you just got deleted from the possibility of landing the job.
    • Second: Humans make very quick judgements about things they may not be consciously thinking of. Do you want to have your appearance considered for the job (for better or worse) before you’re even interviewed? Isn’t dressing right for your interview stressful enough? Let your qualifications and intelligence speak for you, not your “buddy pic”. NOTE: If you are in a field where your physical image is part of the job, then, obviously, this is moot, but you knew that going in, I hope.
  2. Your birthdate or age.
    I am surprised how much I am seeing this lately, and usually from younger applicants (I know they are “young” because they tell me how old they are). I am guessing this is from a lack of experience, but this is both a very private piece of information (in this age of identity theft) and companies can not hire you (or not hire you) based on your age, and you throwing it out there just makes recruiters (and their attorneys) squeamish. Leave it off there.

    If we see you graduated this year and your last job was an internship, we’ll get the picture–you’re entry-level. We don’t send out birthday cards until after you’re on the payroll.

  3. Your social security number or other ID number (such as a resident alien ID).
    I see this frequently from individuals wishing to prove their citizenship or ability to work in the US. Maybe this is appropriate in other countries, but in the United States, simply stating “Authorized to work in the US for any employer” is sufficient.

    Please don’t give thieves a chance to steal your identity, either. If you included your birthdate as well, you should call your credit card companies RIGHT NOW.

  4. Your references.
    This one is a matter of respect as well as privacy of those people you list. It is fully appropriate to disclose that you have professional references (the other kind of references don’t really do anything anyway) and you will provide them when it makes sense. However, revealing your references should be done somewhere in the interview process, usually when the company is about to make a hiring decision. Read: After the 2nd round.

    I should note here that it is appropriate for you to call your references and let them know you have released their phone number to a certain company who may be calling. It’s only polite and, remember, your relationship with your reference is much more important in the long-run than your relationship with the ACME Bean Counter company who may be calling them.

In a word, this example from Not Hired is a pretty good description of what not to do:

Popularity: 11% [?]

Calendar: Blogging for Business Conference Monday

October 18th, 2007

The Blogging for Business conference will be next Monday. Click below to see the Rocky Mountain Voices vidcast with Matt Reinbold and Brad Baldwin

B4B

Popularity: 27% [?]

hCard Embedded in New Email Signature

August 31st, 2007

<GEEK: BEGIN>

I updated my work email signature and felt a little saucy and embedded my hCard information right into the HTML. (Yes, the Unix users out there who only read plain-text emails won’t see it).

hCard is a microformat, a way to encode certain pieces of human-readable information with machine-readable meta-data to allow computers and other devices to recognize (and thereby smartly use) otherwise plain, lifeless text.

<GEEK: END />

Popularity: 17% [?]

Finalizing Edits to Word Documents

July 6th, 2007

One great feature of Microsoft Word and other word processors is the ability for multiple authors to make changes while tracking them all. In Word, this is called “Track Changes” and is turned on by clicking the command under the Tools menu.

BUT, once you’ve finished making changes, it is confusing how to make the edits go away so the edits don’t show anymore.

This is especially important in a resume… you don’t want the edits showing up somehow when you email your resume over to that great new opportunity!

To Finalize or Finish your document after editing, you want to find the “Accept Change” button on the “Track Changes” toolbar that pops up when you enable edit tracking (see picture)

Accept Changes button in Microsoft Word(click to enlarge)

Then, when you click the small down arrow to the right of the button, the hover menu will show up. You want to choose “Accept All Changes” (see picture)

Accept ALL Changes in Document button in Microsoft Word(click to enlarge)

Once you’ve done that, SAVE the file to make sure the edits are fixed. Better yet, save the document as an Adobe PDF file. Personally, I use the free, open source PDF Creator program (passed along to me by the Software For Starving Students organization)

Good luck!

Popularity: 18% [?]

My First iMix: Summertime Mix July 2007

June 19th, 2007

  Summertime Mix July 2007 Playlist Notes: I don’t think you can find a set of songs so perfect for top-down cruisin’Well, iTunes version 6 or greater lets you click a playlist in your iTunes program and submit an iMix of the songs in there to be contained in the iTunes store.

Here’s my first compilation. Right now, get within earshot of me and one of the following songs is playing!

Click to see this iMix in the iTunes store

Bubbly   Colbie Caillat
Points of Authority   Linkin Park
The Reason   Hoobastank
Upside Down   Jack Johnson
Small Town   John Mellencamp
Remind Me (Radio Edit)   Royksopp
Galvanize   The Chemical Brothers
American Woman   Lenny Kravitz
Ooh La La   Goldfrapp
What Heaven Sees In You   Mindy Gledhill
Remember the Promise   Brett Raymond
Live Like You Believe   Jenny Phillips
God Don’t Give Up On Us   Becky Garrett

Popularity: 11% [?]

Add Horsepower to Your Marketing Communications

June 8th, 2007

Steve Spence tossed me this link to check out, and I agree that Utah business communications consulting powerhouse Twelve Horses recently launched a new blog, sharing some great tips, hints and ideas for effective total-integration marketing and communications strategies, like this post:

Marketing By Accident

Marketing by accident I cant tell you how many time I have talked to companies about various aspects of their marketing strategies, and had them say, We havent really started doing [that kind] of marketing yet. It might be email, it might be a solid web site, it might be blogs, or social marketing, or any number of other flavors.

I think of this as Marketing By Accident. If someone wants to know about you or your product, and they do a search online only to find a crappy website, or no site at all, dont think for a moment that you are not doing web marketing. Make no mistake about it, you have definitely sent a message about your brand. Everything we do, or dont do is marketing. If you send an email and it is poorly written, that is your email marketing. If you dont comment on industry blogs, and have no blog of your own then you are doing blogging as part of your marketing strategy. Your blog just reads: we really dont get it.

Nothing is more valuable than your brand. Control your brand. Dont market by accident.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Manage Your Career for LIFE – Promotion Ends Monday April 9

April 3rd, 2007

Lifetime Career Management Tool: $99 through Monday 4/9

I don’t hide the fact that I like Jibber Jobber’s career-management tools. It’s about time that job-seekers have access to the same contact-management tools and resources that recruiters and companies have. I personally know the owner, Jason Alba, and I think his work is excellent. Furthermore, I like that he developed the tool out of a real need (his own job search) rather than some entrepreneurial seizure about how to get rich off others.

I have recommended this tool for anybody interested in managing their career (psst: nobody will do it for you), but for the next few days, Jason has made it SUPREMELY EASY to join up and get started.

First of all, you can always join up for FREE and use many of the tools. But, to really kick-start your career-management into high gear, you should become a premium member… and until Monday, April 9th, it’s just $99 to get premium access for LIFE ($396.00 off the regular price).

Ninety-Nine Bucks?

Check out the tool. Try it out free and, if you want, upgrade to the premier career toolset by Monday for the rest of your life, for less than the cost of a nice evening on the town.

Popularity: 14% [?]

To blog or not to blog?

March 7th, 2007

Correlated links for today:

These two are gurus of threading blogging into your life without being too overzealous about it. Take advantage of their opinions. Or don’t. Your call.

Oh, and from this comment, I can see that twitter is gaining more Utah users! newspapergrl, Phil801, LauraMoncur, PaulWilson, moustache… are there others? Thanks to jeffbarr for introducing me

Popularity: 7% [?]