Are you looking for a job? Sending out your resume everywhere and not getting responses? Is it the economy or your resume? Let’s look at the resume one more time and try to understand what the problem is.
Presenting the most common mistakes job hunters make when writing their resumes:
1. Leaving out the job objective. What direction are you moving in? What career goals do you want to achieve? You describe it in your job objective. The job objective is a brief introduction to your resume that establishes your employment goals. It needs to be specific enough to identify the types of jobs you have the right skills and qualifications for. Including your objective not only helps you understand your own goals, but also gives employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there.
Examples:
“To obtain a customer service position at a large company and utilize the skills I have obtained through my previous work experience.”
“Highly motivated, enthusiastic retail sales manager with exceptional proven performance will strive for your sales goals. Employee supervision and retail sales operations experience. Record-setting sales leader with excellent coaching skills and ability to boost employee morale.”
2. Your resume as a history of your past. It’s not just about your past jobs! It’s about your accomplishments at those jobs. What you are capable of, how you achieved your capability, in what different ways do you apply your skills and how the skills you have will be beneficial to the employer. Remove everything that starts with “responsibilities included” and replace it with on-the-job accomplishments. Employers are not interested in what activities you performed on a daily basis - they are interested in how well you performed those activities.
3. Not including PAR (Problem-Action-Results). This is how you impress an employer. First you state the problem that existed in your previous job, then you describe what you did about it, and finally you point out the beneficial results.
Examples:
“Reduced head count by 50 percent while improving planning service levels by restructuring organization of planning department and eliminating one layer of management.”
“Automated employee records and medical claims functions, reducing staff size by 40 percent and improving processing time savings $160,000 per year.”
4. Not paying attention to keywords. Keywords are important components of a resume because prospective employers use a list of keywords and keyword phrases to search resume databases for potential employees. To strengthen your odds, you need every potential keyword working for you. Make sure to add all your industry buzzwords as well as your biggest soft skills. To define keywords that apply to your job target, look at job postings and employment ads for similar jobs, and list the skills, qualifications, technical or product knowledge and industry jargon. Did you know that some of the highest searched keywords today: “problem-solving,” “leadership” and “oral and written communication.” Keywords can also be single words, such as Word, or short phrases, such as “Document Preparation.”
5. Making the unusual resume layout/design. A professional resume layout is critical to your job searching success. Keep it simple and easy to read, use black color and a standard font such as Arial, Geneva, or Times New Roman, utilize bullet points and make it one or two pages. The design of your resume must highlight the most important information about your work experience, skills and education. Do not overflow your resume with big words or endless text; leave spaces and blank lines between each section.
Remember, an average resume is read in approximately 7 seconds. If your information is organized in long paragraphs that are difficult to read quickly, they are most likely not going to be read at all.
Right now, take out your resume. Look at it one more time. Could it use some more work? You will be pleasantly surprised at what a few changes can do for your future!
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
Presenting the most common mistakes job hunters make when writing their resumes:
1. Leaving out the job objective. What direction are you moving in? What career goals do you want to achieve? You describe it in your job objective. The job objective is a brief introduction to your resume that establishes your employment goals. It needs to be specific enough to identify the types of jobs you have the right skills and qualifications for. Including your objective not only helps you understand your own goals, but also gives employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there.
Examples:
“To obtain a customer service position at a large company and utilize the skills I have obtained through my previous work experience.”
“Highly motivated, enthusiastic retail sales manager with exceptional proven performance will strive for your sales goals. Employee supervision and retail sales operations experience. Record-setting sales leader with excellent coaching skills and ability to boost employee morale.”
2. Your resume as a history of your past. It’s not just about your past jobs! It’s about your accomplishments at those jobs. What you are capable of, how you achieved your capability, in what different ways do you apply your skills and how the skills you have will be beneficial to the employer. Remove everything that starts with “responsibilities included” and replace it with on-the-job accomplishments. Employers are not interested in what activities you performed on a daily basis - they are interested in how well you performed those activities.
3. Not including PAR (Problem-Action-Results). This is how you impress an employer. First you state the problem that existed in your previous job, then you describe what you did about it, and finally you point out the beneficial results.
Examples:
“Reduced head count by 50 percent while improving planning service levels by restructuring organization of planning department and eliminating one layer of management.”
“Automated employee records and medical claims functions, reducing staff size by 40 percent and improving processing time savings $160,000 per year.”
4. Not paying attention to keywords. Keywords are important components of a resume because prospective employers use a list of keywords and keyword phrases to search resume databases for potential employees. To strengthen your odds, you need every potential keyword working for you. Make sure to add all your industry buzzwords as well as your biggest soft skills. To define keywords that apply to your job target, look at job postings and employment ads for similar jobs, and list the skills, qualifications, technical or product knowledge and industry jargon. Did you know that some of the highest searched keywords today: “problem-solving,” “leadership” and “oral and written communication.” Keywords can also be single words, such as Word, or short phrases, such as “Document Preparation.”
5. Making the unusual resume layout/design. A professional resume layout is critical to your job searching success. Keep it simple and easy to read, use black color and a standard font such as Arial, Geneva, or Times New Roman, utilize bullet points and make it one or two pages. The design of your resume must highlight the most important information about your work experience, skills and education. Do not overflow your resume with big words or endless text; leave spaces and blank lines between each section.
Remember, an average resume is read in approximately 7 seconds. If your information is organized in long paragraphs that are difficult to read quickly, they are most likely not going to be read at all.
Right now, take out your resume. Look at it one more time. Could it use some more work? You will be pleasantly surprised at what a few changes can do for your future!
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
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