Wednesday, February 24, 2010

10 Resume Errors That Will Land You in the Trash

I opened my inbox this morning and saw an e-mail from my dear hubby on a subject that's very relevant and crucial for me at this point of time - noooo NOT handbags (I was secretly hoping that it was about handbags though) but resume!

By the way, a few friends asked me on my decision to go back to work after such a long break. Firstly, I would like to make it clear that when I resigned in mid of 2008, I never said that I was going to retire for good, I always maintained that I'm going for a long break.

I can't help but feel that it's a waste of good education to retire so early in life especially when my parents still need me to support them financially. But most importantly, I am not fit to spend too much time at home, it's turning me crazy with capital C!!! I'm going to give it another 5 years top and then perhaps I'll retire for good. Or if my hubby suddenly hit a jackpot and could afford to support my parents, buy me an LV/Gucci/Prada dan yang sewaktu dengannya every month and take me on overseas vacations (by overseas I mean places that takes at least 10hours journey by flight!) every other month, I'll retire sooner hehehe... (note: the key here is afford to buy me an LV EVERY month).

I say, enough is never enough. One would never stop craving for more and more and more...

Now back to resume. I just wanna share with you here 10 tips of writing a good resume (in case you'd ever need one):

1. Don’t show peacock feathers. We all want to stand out, but don’t use weird fonts or embed images in your resume. It makes your resume look strange (not in a good way) and might not even render the way you expect on someone else’s PC.

2. Omit the references. Including references on the resume itself says that you needed it for page filler, or you just don’t understand how the system works. References should only be provided upon request.

3. Don’t write in complete sentences. And don’t, for the love of God, include full paragraphs. Write in bullets and short, impactful sentence fragments that tell your story with a minimum of reading.

4. Don’t omit the numbers. Quantify your accomplishments.

5. Don’t list your responsibilities. No one cares what your last job’s requirements were. In fact, including them sends the message that you don’t understand that your job is to provide value through accomplishments.

6. Don’t include an objective. These were recommended once, long ago, but now they’re totally passé. Objectives tend to sound insincere, are hard to map to specific roles at each company you apply to, and limit your options.

7. Spell check. It goes without saying that your resume should be completely spell checked, free of grammatical errors, and not include any unexpected references to zebras.

8. Don’t list your Yahoo or sparklemotion e-mail address. As I discussed before, keep your e-mail address professional.
[Oh dear...does glokalmama sound professional? I hope it is!]

9. Don’t include your picture. Not only can this come off totally unprofessional, but it poises the employer for legal exposure since the picture reveals details about your sex, age, and ethnicity. They don’t want any part of that kind of pain and will toss you in the trash.

10. Don’t get too personal. Don’t include information about your personal interests or hobbies unless it’s relevant to the role.

Source: Bnet. The place to go for management.

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