A Little Trick To Improving Your Resume

I was recently involved in a headhunting program organized by the local (Singapore) authorities to conduct interviews with a group of PMETs (Professional, Managers, Engineers & Technicians) last Thursday, 30th April 2009. 

As I was discussing with one of this senior manager that was being retrenched recently on how can he improves on his resume, we came up with this interesting idea of putting down a list of reference books that he have read, or currently reading it, to be included inside your resume as a means to build rapport with the hiring manager.

Though this little trick may not give you significant improvement in getting yourself into an interview, but I guess there's no harm putting it down to give the hiring manager a slight nudge to consider meeting up with you.

If you ever encounter success through such means, feel free to drop me a email or comment to give other jobseekers a feel of this little trick!

To Your Success,

Allan Heng

5 Words You Should Never Write In Your Resume

Just read an interesting article by Lindsay Capobianco. This is the extraction on the article. 

Human Resources professionals are inundated with resumes on a daily basis. Now, more than ever before, job seekers must learn to make their resumes stand out. One of the simplest and more effective ways to do this is by using power words and phrases. These words add muscle to your resume statements and exhibit intelligence. Search online for resume power words and you will be overwhelmed by the amount of websites that claim to 'provide' the complete list of resume power words.

Some power word sites list several words as power words that are NOT power words at all. Your resume can land up in the reject pile if you use the wrong phraseology.

Five words you should never use on your resume are:

A lot - This is probably the most obvious in the list. The problem with saying 'a lot' is that the phrase is entirely too vague. 'A lot' probably means something different to you from what the phrase means to me. There is no value in the phrase 'a lot.' One girl saying, "I eat a lot of chocolate," could mean something entirely different from another girl making the same statement. How much is 'a lot?'

Instead of saying, "I did XYZ a lot of the time," you could say, "I did XYZ 16 hours per work week." The more specifications you add to your resume, the better your chances are of getting an interview.

Creative - Should someone who boasts of being creative actually have to come right out and say they are creative? Probably not. The best way to show creativity is by accentuating accomplishments or skills you have that emphasize your creativity.

Flexible - Flexible is so overused that the word has lost all power. Flexible does not impress anyone. Flex that muscle on top of your head and come up with another power word that gets the same idea across.

If you are applying for a job where physical flexibility is critical (i.e. ballerina or yoga master) feel free to leave this word on your resume.

Interesting - Interesting as a power word is not interesting enough to grab or keep the attention of a human resources executive. Using stronger power words will create the idea that you are interesting and companies will beinterested in calling you for an interview. Anyone truly interesting will never come right out and say that they are!

It - Using 'it' in place of actually telling what 'it' means confuses most readers.

Want another reason to cut 'it' out?

You automatically appear more intelligent.

Using power words can boost the effectiveness of your resume.

Extracted from Article by Lindsay Capobianco.

How To Increase Your Chances Of Interviews

By now, I need not say more on how bad and negative the global economy is right now. Retrenchment are no longer something uncommon. And look around you, most likely you find someone who has just been retrenched. Or maybe you've already been one of the victim of retrenchment.

What are some of the things that you can do when the eventuality falls upon you? You naturally want to look for a new job. And that means writing your resume.

My suggestion is that instead of writing it when you need it, update your resume now when you still can afford the time.

To increase the chances of you landing yourself into an interview, your resume is the critical element. A resume will be the first thing that an interviewer used to judge you. So here's a few tips to help you to write a better resume:

1. What type of job are you seeking

Never make the mistake of having a general resume and send to every and any job postings / adverts. You'll only increase the chances of landing your resume into the dustbin.

Write down a list of job that you're seeking first. Different jobs have different job requirements and skill sets. So the first and foremost task is to list down 2-5 different jobs before you write your resume.

2. Understand the job requirement

After you list down the types of jobs you're seeking, the next step is to list down the type of job requirements and skill sets. This will set the tone and overall content when you're writing your resumes. The requirements should be both technical or specialized skills, and the soft skills that is require to translate your technical knowledge into practical actions.

Technical requirement are like softwares requirements (MS Office, AutoCad, SAP, etc.), specific engineering processes, SAP payroll, full sets of accounts, HR compensation and benefits, programming language (C#, C++, Java) etc. These requirements are essnetial for a staff to perform his/her role that is assigned to him/her.

Softskills are like project management, leadership, program management, Research & Development, etc. These skills are the main skills that translate your techniacl skills into execution, actions and results.

This step is one of the most critical as most recruiters will only spend less than 2 minutes to browse through your resume, and they'll always tend to search for keywords and the general contents, the words that you used. And these requirements will form the keywords for your resume.

3. Writing your resume according to the specific job requirements

When writing your resume, stay focus on the job requirements and phraze your sentences based on the keywords that have been generated earlier (see item 2).

For instance, if you're writing a resume for the position of Software Developer, the job requirement should be on the types of programming language you're familiar with, and the past programs that you've written. This position are more technical and you should therefore put in more technical jargons.

But if you're seeking a Software Project Manager role, then you should emphasize more on project management skills, with just the essential technical jargons in place.

4. Rephrazing your working experiences

As per item 3, rephraze your working experience to show more of the required skill sets, both techncal and softskills. If you think a particular experiences may not be that relevant, but you still want to put it it, make sure it is acting as a supporting role, so summarizing it will be fne.

Always put your latest working experience at the top instead of at the bottom, and list it according to chronological orders. Ususally recruiters only look at your last 5 years of wroking experiences, so make sure it's written with a lot of relevant keywords to capture their attention.

5. Writing your summary

The summary inside a resume should be placed at the start of the document, but it's best that you write it last after you've written all the above mentioned items.

The Summary is like a teaser, to attract the recruiter to continue to read on. It shouldn't be more than half a page. Inside the summary, fill it up with as many keywords as you can. This encourages them to read on to find out more.

To Your Success,
Allan Heng
Read more about Writing a Good Resume, and How To Ace In Interviews.

The Cover Letter Is The Sales Teaser

Why is a cover letter the most important element in your resume? just imagine that you're the HR Recruiter in a large MNC, and you're required to review & filter hundreds of resumes in a day. Can you afford the time to screen through all resumes in details? Absoultely no efficient at all!

Most recruiters will screen the potential candidates first thing is through the cover letter before they decide whether to go indepths into your resumes. So writing a good resume is not only about the details, but more importantly your cover letter.

Think of your resume as the sales copy of a product or service. The more benefits and specifications the better it is to see how good tjhis product / service is. And your cover letter is the teaser. The teaser does nothing but to attract potential buyer to read more into the sales copy.

I hope I've made it pretty simple on the role of the cover letter. Writing a good resume is not going to help you increase your job search interview chance if nobody wants to read it.

To Your Success,
Allan Heng

5 Pitfalls of Writing a Good Resume

The followings are some of the pitfalls that you should avoid when writing a good resume:

1. Too Lengthy
The reviewer (usually a recruiter or the HR practitioner) will most probably be screening through hundreds of resumes within a day, and will not have a lot of time reading the details. If your resume is too lengthy (more than 5 pages) and/or your cover letter is more than a page, chances are your resume will be deleted away.

2. All About Yourself Only
Writing a good resume is not about who you are, and what you do. Instead add it more pointers on how your experiences can be of value to the company, especially on your transferable skills and accomplishments. Focus on what you can do for the company through your experiences and accomplishments than just merely stating it. You maybe were managing a project of different nature. So you can simply stated that your project management skills will allow you to take on ah-hoc related projects, etc.

3. Spelling & Grammatical Errors
Some companies may have little tolerance on such mistakes. So make sure your proofread it again and again, and get a third party to do another round of proofread. This is the worse pitfall, and also the easiest mistake to make.

4. The Wrong Type Of Font (Resume Formatting)
Do not use fanciful fonts. A safe bet will be using Times New Roman or Arial. It is easy to read. And make sure your paragraphs are sufficient spaced apart. If it is too cramped, the reviewer will be discouraged to read on. Remember, you are writing a good resume, not a fanciful resume.

5. Contact Information Wrongly Placed
Putting the contact information on the front page will allow the reviewer to have access to your contact number easier. That is the most important aspect. Your sole purpose of writing a good resume is to attract them to contact you. Putting your contact information at the wrong place will discourage them to contact you.
Only put your picture if you think that will enhance your chances, especially if your job requires meeting up with customers. A pleasant appearance will definitely be an advantage. However, if you do not have a proper picture, it will also be fine.

Writing a good resume is not difficult. If you avoid the above mentioned pitfalls, it will surely increase the chances of getting interviews.

To Your Success,
Allan Heng

7 Powerful Tips on Writing Good Resumes

The following are tips on writing a good resumes that all employers and recruiters will love to see:

1. Resume Format
If you are a fresh graduate with limited working experiences, put your academic accomplishments first, especially if you have good grades. If you have sufficient working experiences (2 years or more), you should put your working experiences before your academic accomplishments.

2. Contact Information
It is important to put your contact information, preferably on top of your resume to allow the recruiter and/or HR personnel to contact you. If you have a decent picture, put it up. This will give you a slight edge. Otherwise do not put any picture.

3. Highlight Key Points
After reading the job descriptions of your desired job, highlight key points that either matches or enhance the job description using a different font colour. This will allow the recruiter / HR personnel to spot it faster and easier.

4. Job Responsibilities vs Accomplishment
Writing a good resume through mere detailed job responsibilities is not sufficient. It merely tells others what you have been doing, and not how good you are. Putting some accomplishment after your job responsibilities details like the extra projects that you have undertaken and how that contribute to the company, will allow the reviewer to estimate your capabilities.

5. Know Your Audience
Your resume is written for 2 types of reviewer : The HR practitioner, and the hiring manager. Both types of reviewer are usually looking for different things in a resume. Writing a good resume means that you will need to cater in these 2 types of reviewers.

6. Limit To Not More Than 5 Pages
Do not write your resumes more than 5 pages as the reviewer will find it too lengthy, and be discouraged by it. Instead a good resume will be around 3 pages. So write the essential points. You can elaborate it more during the interview.

7. Cover Letter
The cover letter is the most important aspect of a good resume. Make sure the cover letter is within 1 page, with the main paragraph occupying not more than 2/3 of the page. The cover letter is a teaser, to attract the reviewer to read more in the resume, so no details.

Writing a good resume is critical as it is the first impression that the reviewer gets. I wish you all the best in your job hunting and hope you will get your desired job as soon as possible!

To Your Success,
Allan Heng