You’ve gotten yourself together, found a job you want and written up a kick-butt resume to help land that interview says Martin Polanco. It’s been a few days now since you sent it off into the ether but no one has gotten back to you yet. In fact, as far as you can tell, no one has even looked at it.
What’s going on? Did you send the resume to the wrong people? Is your application not as awesome as you thought it was? Or is there something else that all those potential employers are looking for that you just don’t have yet?
In this article, we’re going to take a look at what might be missing from your resume and offer some tips and suggestions of how to fix it:
Remember, if you’re having trouble getting your applications noticed, the problem isn’t likely with your intelligence or experience level – hiring managers get thousands of resumes every day. And although many (it seems) will accept whatever is sent their way without ever bothering to look for anything special or different, that doesn’t mean you need to settle for the same fate.
1. Your Resume Is Too Long
Right off the bat, this is a major problem many job seekers run into. How do you condense your life’s work and achievements down to a few pages? It can be a daunting task! So people tend to get a little excited about their accomplishments and find them adding in every single thing they’ve ever done just so there’s no room left for anything else. This is not what hiring managers want from your resume – especially when it comes to recent graduates who have just started working. Many times new grad resumes are too long because the applicants start listing everything they did while in school or even their summer breaks between high school and college.
2. Your Resume Is Too Generic
It’s also possible that hiring managers just aren’t impressed by what they’re seeing on paper because it’s simply too generic and/or unoriginal when compared with everyone else’s resumes in their stack. Hiring managers and recruiters often say they understand why so many people use the same resume format: It’s easy to set up and it’s what people are used to seeing. But, there’s a catch – the problem is that too many applicants use this format because it seems like the easiest thing to do and leaves out any chance of standing out from the crowd.
If you want your resume to be given some special attention then you need to give your hiring manager something they can’t get with just another run-of-the-mill template says Martin Polanco
. The solution? Instead of simply listing your previous positions and duties, try adding in things like achievements, awards, certifications or even volunteer experience so you aren’t just another faceless worker bee sending them the same information as everyone else. You can also include additional skills or details on projects or initiatives you worked on at each position that show that you’re more than just your job title.
3. Your Resume Is Too Speculative
You may be wondering what this means exactly – after all, every resume should be speculative; isn’t that the point? Well, there is a difference between being proactive and making sure hiring managers know exactly why they should choose you and throwing anything and everything onto your resume in hopes of convincing them to pick you for the next step – which is actually quite common among many applicants today. The problem with going down this route is two-fold: first, it takes up valuable space on your resume that could be used to highlight something truly unique or important about yourself; second, it makes it look like you really don’t know why they should actually hire you.
4. You Can’t Prove Your Claims on Your Resume
Lastly, if hiring managers aren’t impressed enough with your resume even after adding additional skills or information then it may be because they can’t verify what you’re saying. In fact, a survey conducted by the Career Advisory Board found that nearly 10 percent of hiring managers have caught applicants lying about their previous positions and responsibilities on their resumes – and everyone knows how bad it looks when someone gets busted for embellishing the truth.
Conclusion:
So a resume doesn’t need to be a long list of every single thing you’ve ever done in your life says Martin Polanco. It needs to be a concise document that highlights the most important aspects about your professional experience and skills. It should also show hiring managers that you’re willing to go above and beyond when it comes to proving your worth, which will make them much more inclined to take things further by inviting you to an interview. In other words, when it comes to applying for jobs always remember: Keep it simple!
