| Creating
a professional-looking resume. |
 For most jobs on JobsInLogistics.com, the employers or
recruiters receive anywhere from 20 to 200
resumes, depending on the types of positions. Your
resume reflects your professionalism. A
poor resume with typos, grammatical mistakes are immediately
deleted or cross-docked
to the shredder. A professional appearance and
the ability to quickly view the highlights of
your qualifications will make you stand
out from
the competition. Some typical resume
mistakes include:
| 1. |
Dishonesty
and Exaggeration
The first rule of any resume is to be
honest. Do not create an
imaginary degree. Instead, list any
training or educational forums you may
have attended. Do
not exaggerate your qualifications, achievements or
knowledge of systems. Just be honest. |
| 2. |
Undue
Modesty
For many professionals, the
hardest part of writing
a resume is saying nice things
about themselves. Accordingly, they tend
to downplay their credentials and ass-u-me the recruiter
will either read between the lines or ask
the relevant questions in an interview. Wrong. You won't make
the interview and they won't ask. Make
sure your talents and significant
achievements are clearly displayed from
get-go. |
| 3. |
Too Much
Information
Restrict your resume to one
page for entry level, two
pages for management and a maximum
of three pages for executive positions.
This does not mean you need to reduce the
font and create long paragraphs. Keep
all points as succinct as possible with lots of
white space on a well formatted document.
Recruiters will not read long paragraphs
and do not need to know every aspect of
your life. |
| 4. |
Amateurish
Resume Format
You can't judge a
book by looking at the cover. But when you
have hundreds of books to
review, this adage no
longer applies. The initial
appearance of your resume sets the tone
for the recruiter. It must be attractive
and well laid out for easy speed reading.
Consider the format you
would use to make a presentation to the senior
management group of your company. It is
not a long drawn out, wordy report, but
rather a succinct, point form series of
slides that summarize all the pertinent
issues. Your resume
should be modeled on the same criteria
yet provide enough content to portray
your professional abilities. |
| 5. |
Overly
Wordy Paragraphs
Too many resumes resemble
the prologue to an
obscure business book, with wordy
prose and long paragraphs. The authors
are attempting to list every attribute and
minor achievement within the recommended
two pages.
It is difficult to read, and GUESS
WHAT: Nobody
will ever read it! |
| 6. |
Exhaustively
listing every responsibility
Many resumes go into great
depth on the candidates'
responsibilities. Some even copy the
responsibility directly from the Human
Resources handbook of Job descriptions. So
what if you had all those
responsibilities? Did you do a good job at
running the operation? The last person
who had your job also had the same
responsibilities and got fired, perhaps. Summarize
the responsibilities in as few sentences
as possible, then
show your achievements. This is what
the recruiters are looking for! |
| 7. |
USING
CAPITALS THROUGHOUT YOUR RESUME
THIS IS CALLED
SHOUTING! NOBODY LIKES TO BE SHOUTED AT. IT ALSO
MAKES YOUR RESUME HARDER TO READ, HENCE
EASIER NOT TO READ. |
| 8. |
Stressing
your "30 years experience" in
logistics
Be proud that you
have this tenure and all the
experience, skills and cunning to go with
it. However, rightly or
wrongly, in the real world, some
recruiters will pass you over for a
younger candidate. This does not mean that
you should hide the experience, just avoid
leading off with this statement. Let the
recruiter deduce your vast experience
after being dazzled by your unique
qualifications. Be subtle. Remember
the old adage:
"Old
age and treachery will
soon overcome youth
and skill." |
| 9. |
Posting
your resume "anonymously" with
your name and address in it
Some job seekers prefer to
post their resumes on job sites
anonymously. It is amazing how many people
who post their resumes anonymously, due to haste
and carelessness, include
their name, address and telephone number
within the resume. This is often
due to filling in all the registration
data anonymously, then copy and pasting
their resume into the required box.
Alternatively, some anonymous seekers
successfully post their anonymous resumes
on the boards, but expose
their names with their e-mail address (ie, John.P.Smith@corp.bigcompany.com). These
are easy mistakes to make. You
can get a free alternate E-mail address
at Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, etc. In
summary, if you wish to
remain anonymous, review, and if
necessary, edit your resume on the board
to make sure you have successfully
eliminated an audit trail! |
| 10. |
Providing
irrelevant personal information
Avoid unnecessary
personal information. It is not
necessary to provide information on
family matters, age, gender, race,
hobbies, external interests, etc. Stick
to relevant business information.
Also, don’t
waste space on references,
unless of course the person is world
famous, such as Colin Powell or Donald
Trump. Recruiters will ask for references
after they’ve contacted you.
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