I held out for a long time before signing up for TiVo / Digital Video Recording (DVR), but now I don’t think I can live without it. I save a lot of time fast-forwarding through commercials and stupid parts of TV shows.

The ability to skip segments that don’t interest me is similar to a hiring manager’s ability to skip resume sections — or bypass a resume completely. Here are a six tips to avoid this fate:

1. Be relevant. If the employer is looking to fill a specific job opening and your resume is all over the place with no clear objective, you will be skipped.

2. Avoid fluff. If you’re fluffing up your resume with clichés or bad lingo that doesn’t tell the hiring manager much about your abilities, you will be skipped.

3. Tell the truth. Hiring managers are on to the more than 50% of people who lie on their resumes. If you’re jacking up your qualifications and seem too good to be true, there’s a good chance you will be skipped.

4. Be brief. Monumental resumes that go on and on can be cumbersome to read. Avoid being skipped by keeping your resume short and to the point.

5. Engage your reader. Is your resume stuck in a bygone era with a self-centered objective, a focus on job duties, and a “references available upon request” line to end with a bang? If so, modernize your resume or you will be skipped.

6. Proofread. Typo after typo will get your resume skipped faster than anything. “Next!”

Attention spans are short, and resumes are plentiful. If you take the time to polish your resume, you will increase your chance of landing in the “save” pile.

All the best,

Kim Isaacs

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We received a call this morning from someone looking for a sample resume for a recreational coordinator. She was aggravated because she searched all of our resume samples and couldn’t find one for her career. Our client services director told her that the samples are meant to illustrate our work and shouldn’t be copied. She responded with, “I see, so if I were a technology or an admin person I would have a sample to copy.” She thought it was unfair that her field wasn’t represented in our samples gallery.

I’m writing about this not because I’m surprised by her attitude, but because I’m not surprised at all. We frequently get calls and emails asking for free samples. If you are looking for free resume samples on the internet or have a document adapted from a sample you found online, here are a few problems:

• Chances are the sample is copyright protected and copying excerpts would be considered copyright infringement.
• The sample reflects the job seeker’s credentials and was strategically developed for that person, and you would need a different strategy to best portray your unique qualifications.
• There’s a good chance that many others copied the same sample you did. I can’t tell you how many resumes I’ve reviewed and I’ve thought, “This is familiar, wait a second…I wrote this!” I’ve heard many resumes writers express the same frustration. If resume writers are noticing the similarities, then employers are, too. Not a good way to stand out from the crowd.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use sample resumes for ideas and inspiration, but flat-out copying is not good for your career or reputation.

Best wishes,

Kim Isaacs

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