What do employers want to know?
From an employer’s point of view, the hiring process always begins with: “We have a problem.” The successful candidate responds with: “I understand your problem and I’m the right person to help you solve your problem.” The fundamental question this exchange poses is:...
What NOT to include on your resume
Since a resume is not an affidavit, you don’t have to include every aspect of your career or every job you’ve held, particularly if you have a career spanning 20 or more years. For many positions, focusing on the last 10 years and emphasizing relevant/related...
The truth about technology resumes
The technical resumes I see are most often written from a “trees” perspective, and they can work for technical specialist roles. They are not effective, however, in moving careers forward. Winning interviews for higher status, higher compensation roles requires a...
How do you compete?
The approach most job seekers take after learning that recruiters do “keyword” searches on resumes submitted online, is to focus on job functions in the hope that a brief description of what they do will cover all the possibilities. Say an employer receives 100...
Be wary of resume templates
If you are using a software template to create your own resume, there are some serious drawbacks that you need to be aware of. Here are some of the more serious ones: 1) type in text blocks is invisible to the applicant tracking systems (ATS) that most employers use...
How strategy impacts resume writing
Since a resume is considered a marketing tool, strategy becomes critical. Think about the glossy brochures you see in your local car dealer’s sales office. These are carefully targeted to the demographic for which an automaker has designed a specific car model. Luxury...
How to convert failure into interview “gold”
One of the things I enjoy most in my work is discovering what recruiters look for in the candidates they interview who rise to the top. A recent blog post by Ben Martinez of Ramp Talent reveals that “one of the most overlooked questions in a job interview is finding...
How to succeed in job search
Sometime ago I had the opportunity to work with two top IT executives from the same employer; a female boss and her male subordinate. I interviewed her first and was interested to find that she couched all her achievements in soft skills – developing people,...
Executive-level resume or not?
Accomplished executives have a lasting impact on the companies they lead. They change how business is done by making decisions, saving time and money, and improving operations. They hold positions of increasing influence and authority in the companies they manage and...