Recently in Resumes Category

Anonymous writes:

I was fired from my last position after only 4 months. I have 4 years of good experience prior to this. I do not want my last employer contacted for a reference. Do I have to include the job on my resume? And what about on an application? Can a prospective employer run a background check using your social security number or by other means that would turn up the omitted job?


The Career Doctor responds:

A resume is a marketing document, not a complete history of the applicant. You should on your resume include only items that will put you in the most favorable light for the position you are applying.

So, no, you do NOT need to put this job on your resume. I would not put it on my job application either, but that is a little trickier because some applications do ask for a complete work history. As for background checks, sure, employers can discover your full work history… but, again, a resume is not a full work history.

Remember, though, if you have this four-month gap on your resume, at least one interviewer is going to ask you why you have this gap and what have you been doing since your last job. Now, the situation becomes trickier. Of course, if you have been doing something else during this time, such as going to school, volunteering, consulting, etc., then you can simply talk about that. If you don’t, then you need to have an explanation about how the job was not the right fit (which is also why you did not put it on your resume).

Also, before you ditch this job, make sure you don’t have valuable experiences that would enhance your resume — even if your tenure at the job was so short.

Finally, being fired can be a traumatic experience, so you may not be thinking too clearly. Your ego may be bruised. It’s only natural - and those feelings will subside; the key for you is to not let those feeling cloud your judgment.

Hang in there! You’ll rebound and get a new job soon!

And if you are bothered by being fired, read this article: Getting Fired: An Opportunity for Change and Growth.

Pat writes:

I desperately need help with my resume. I am not getting interviews. I have tried working with two different resume professionals, and they just don’t seem to get the type of resume I need. They just send me lots of bulleted statistics instead of polished prose. Please help.


The Career Doctor responds:

Here’s a simple test you can do at home. Answer this question: are you a resume expert? If yes, then you don’t need to hire a resume expert to write your resume do you? If no, then why are you wasting so much time and money disagreeing with the resume experts?

Resumes do need to tell a story — one that convinces the person screening the resumes that yours is worthy enough to have you interview for the position — but there are other ways to tell a story than long paragraphs full of information that no one is ever going to read.

A resume is a marketing document designed to first grab the attention of the reader and second convey enough information to get you the interview. Thus, long paragraphs with lots of wonderfully polished prose are going to get you nowhere. The resume will appear too dense for most readers (thus flunking the first test). And speaking in generalities rather than specific accomplishments will convey the message that you have nothing to offer (thus flunking the second test).

The only good news for you is that many people think they are experts at resume-writing. Most are not. If you are actively in a job search and sending out resumes and getting no responses, I would seriously examine your resume. You can try and fix it yourself by researching how to write a strong resume, or you can pay an expert to do it for you (and then actually heed his/her advice).

Find all the tools you need to develop, write, and polish your resume in this section of Quintessential Careers: Resume and CV Resources for Job-Seekers.

Maria writes:

I had been job-hunting without much success when a recruiter at a job fair told me he thought my resume was really bad. I was shocked! I thought I had a pretty darn good resume. What do I need to write and improve my resume?


The Career Doctor responds:

You didn’t attach your resume, so I don’t know for sure what the specific problem is with your resume, but I have seen enough bad resumes to know some of the most common problems. And for a recruiter to tell you that your resume was bad means that it must be really bad. I’m not trying to be overly harsh, but to add a douse of realism because I find job-seekers often ask for advice on improving their resume when they secretly love it and plan no changes.

So… here are my all-purposes fixes for resumes.

First, your resume has to have a focus. Every job-seeker needs to be a specialist, a specialist that fits the needs of the prospective employer perfectly. Sometimes a job objective or summary of qualifications can give you the edge you are seeking.

Second, your resume must showcase your accomplishments. Employers like specifics. They don’t want to know you saved your former employer money; they want to know exactly how much money you saved. They want to know the exact size of the staff you managed, the amount you increased revenues, the level of customer satisfaction you delivered.

Third, there is no such thing as one resume. Gone is a one-size-fits-all resume. Every resume you send out should be different from all the others. You need to use specific keywords and phrases that fit each employer.

Fourth, your resume has to look appealing, welcoming. Yes, it’s superficial, but a plain resume (or worse, from a template) screams plain job-seeker. Take the initiative to design your own resume style… or hire a professional resume-writer who can do it for you.

For more information, check out these articles on Quintessential Careers:

Many more articles, resources, and tools can be found in the Resume Resources section of Quintessential Careers and in the Resume and Cover Letters Tips Blog of Quintessential Resumes & Cover Letters.

Mike writes:

No too long ago, I used one of your samples for resume and cover letter writing. I must say, they really helped me.


The Career Doctor responds:

OK. So technically there is no question here, but I wanted to address this issue because I had been recently interviewed on the subject of job-seekers borrowing too heavily from samples found on job-search Websites and books. And by the way, I am not saying that Mike did anything wrong; I am assuming he used the samples correctly.

Why do career professionals provide samples? I know I do so as a learning tool. I want you to be able to see what a good resume, cover letter, thank-you letter, etc., looks like. I have seen so much poorly written job-seeker correspondence, that I thought it important for you to see good examples.

But I do not expect job-seekers to copy phrases or sentences word-for-word
in academic circles, we call that plagiarism, and if I were a hiring manager, I would call it a reason not to interview or hire you. Borrowing someone else s work brings into question your ethics — and work ethic.

So, please use the samples you find as guidelines for what your resume or cover letter should look like and sound like, but do not lift whole chunks and use them as your own. And be sure to read the accompanying articles that describe in detail how to develop your job-search documents.

One final point. Someone raised the question of the difference between borrowing a sample resume versus hiring a professional to write the resume for you. The difference is one is stealing someone else’ s work (that may not even apply to you) and the other is paying a professional to develop a document specifically for you.

For those interested in samples, check out the many sample job-search materials we have in this section of Quintessential Careers: Job-Hunting Samples and Examples.

Keeping Resume Confidential

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Anonymous writes:

I don’t think its smart to have my resume for all to review, how I can I post my resume and keep it confidential?


The Career Doctor responds:

There certainly is validity to wanting to be discreet about job-hunting when you are currently employed — you wouldn’t want your current employer to do a search for a position and get your resume from one of these job sites.

The good news is that many job boards now offer you a confidentiality option — thus your resume is still out there getting viewed, but you control who actually knows it is your resume. There are a few other job sites that even allow you to block your resume from going to certain companies, thus allowing no chance that your current employer will see your resume. You can search through a list of The Top 10 Job Web Sites.

And one final warning. Please remember that job-hunting on the Net should only comprise a small portion of your overall job-hunt — a little larger for people in technical and computer fields. You’ll do much better taking advantage of networking and other more traditional job-search techniques, but I also understand the value of the Web in a passive job search — putting your resume online and seeing what kind of responses you get, even when you are fairly happy with your current position.

Glenis writes:

I read your blog regularly, but recently it has become of more interest to me because my son is job-hunting. He has been a financial-aid counselor at two universities, having moved to take the position at the last one because it was a career advancement. Unfortunately his position was eliminated due to budget cuts.

After being unemployed for a 6 months, he decided to take whatever employment he could get just to help pay the bills, which happened to be at minimal pay. He has not included this employment history on his resume because he feels it would not look good. He has interviewed with 2-3 universities but so far no offer of employment.

Do you think the lack of employment information for the last year is affecting his chances of being hired?


The Career Doctor responds:

I hope by the time you are reading this column that your son has a new job in his career field, but if not, let me make a few observations.

I think there is a possibility of three things happening here that your son needs to address.

First, the stigma of being fired. We can call it something prettier — his job was eliminated — but the bottom line is that he was forced to leave his place of employment. He needs to focus on this issue and make sure he is totally over the trauma of the experience — especially since he was let go through no fault of his own. He obviously has valuable skills since he was able to move forward in his career.

Second, he needs to deal with his resume — and the reality he is living. A lot of displaced job-seekers in this current economy have been forced to take survival jobs so that they don t end up homeless and bankrupt. Most prospective employers would rather see an applicant that has been doing something productive — even if outside his or her field — than a large gap on the resume. Of course, if he has been doing any kind of consulting or volunteer work in his field, he should put that on his resume.

Third, perfect interviewing skills. If he has gotten a few interviews, then at least some of the colleges are not bothered by the gap on his resume enough to not interview him, so if he is not having success in the interview, then he is either not interviewing well or not following-up his interviews. He may want to conduct a mock interview with a career professional to judge the quality of his interviewing skills.

I suggest he read, Getting Fired: An Opportunity for Change and Growth, published on Quintessential Careers.

He may also want to read this article on Quintessential Careers: The Pros and Cons of Taking a Survival Job. What Should You Do?

Shawn writes:

I have worked for Wal-Mart for the past three years. Last year I was promoted to department manager. Around that time I also started college studying software programming.
About nine months after I started the department-manager position, I voluntarily stepped down to concentrate more on my school work. The thing is, I have a job interview coming up in my desired field that I have been going to school for. What I was wondering was, if they ask why I stepped down, what should I say? I don’t want it to seem as if I am not willing to “go up the corporate ladder” within the company. I am willing to do so, it just wasn’t in my career path to be a manager in a retail company.


The Career Doctor responds:

It’s funny, because I don’t see it as much of a problem for the interview as I do on your resume. If you already have at least one interview lined up, then I assume you’ve handled it properly on your resume.

In normal situations, a step backward could easily be perceived by prospective employers as being a major red flag. Many might see your situation and assume you are either lacking the skills or the drive to be successful.

However, you can totally spin your situation into a win-win. Here’s what you have going for you: First, you highlight your time-management skills by showcasing how you managed to work full-time and attend college. Second, you can showcase your loyalty to the company by voluntarily stepping down from the manager position for their best interest — since you knew you could not do the job justice and attend college. Third, you can discuss how retail was simply a tool to help pay for college (while also gaining valuable experience) and that what you are studying in college is preparing you for your future career.

Just don’t go negative. Don’t trash retail or the company. Instead, talk about some of your key accomplishments, as well as the transferable skills you have developed while working there. Show how the combination of your experience and education make you the ideal candidate for the position.

Reena writes:

I got my PhD degree in microbiology a year ago. Since I am an international scholar, I had to wait for my immigration papers to get processed for my permanent-resident status (that I got through marriage to an American citizen) for a year. I was not legally allowed to work (earn any money) for a year. Now that I have got my permanent-resident status I have started sending out job applications, and I keep getting asked what work I did for a year since I got my PhD. I did do some volunteer work off and on during my year off, and I also did a lot of traveling. Do I need to explain my year off in the applications that I send out? How do I explain it? I am just afraid that potential employers will not understand this explanation since none of them had to go through this themselves (some of them are really rude when they demand an explanation).


The Career Doctor responds:

While yours is a very specific question, I include it in the blog because there are some lessons here that all job-seekers should learn.

Employers want to hire productive employees, and so any unexplained gaps on a resume or vitae send out a large caution flag to hiring managers. As a job-seeker, your goal is to show that you were productive during any and all gaps — pursing further education or credentials, volunteering or freelancing, in some way staying active in your career field.

In your situation, newly minted PhDs are supposed to be at one of their most productive peaks, so appearing to take a year off of research would be very worrisome to prospective employers who want to hire a research workhorse. And those that don’t go to work right after the degree often to some post-doctoral work.

I would avoid the whole immigration issue — mainly because employers never want to hear complications… they simply want workers who will show and work.

So, I think you do need to show that you were somehow working during that year… perhaps through the volunteering, perhaps through some pending research or publications.

Tamala writes:

I’m e-mailing you to find out if going to a professional resume writer is worth the time and money. Right now I really don’t have the funds, but I am desperate to find a job that I will be happy doing and making at least $35-40K a year.


The Career Doctor responds:

You need to look at your job-search as an investment in your future. You can do a haphazard job-search and maybe find another job, or you can really put a lot of effort into it and find a great job and great career move.

The same holds with each tool of your job-search, and your resume is an extremely important job-search tool. You need to make the decision to invest a lot of time and energy to make it the best resume for you — or — you need to hire an expert to do it for you. Either way, it’s an investment of time or money; but either way, the payoffs should be big.

If you have the time and inclination, I suggest you read up on resume writing. You can find some good resources online and in your local library. Most job-seekers should have the ability to write a solid resume.

You have one other option besides hiring someone to write your resume. You can also get your resume critiqued by a professional resume writer — usually free or for a very modest fee. You can then make the changes yourself or hire the expert to do it for you.

You can also find quite a lot of resume-writing advice and strategies in the Resume Resources section of Quintessential Careers.

Linda writes:

My husband is retiring from the service. He has made his way up the ladder, from an enlisted personnel to an officer. He is in the engineering field. The problem is most of the minimum requirements for positions he is applying for require a bachelor’s degree. He is approximately 20 credit hours away from this, and still actively in school. What are some suggestions on verbiage for the cover letter and resume to address this?


The Career Doctor responds:

First, kudos to your husband, both for the service to our country, but also for working on furthering his education in preparation for work in the civilian sector.

Your husband has three things working for him right now. First, many employers are actively seek transitioning military veterans because of the extensive experience and training they receive while in the service. Second, engineering is an occupation back in demand. Third, he is close to completing his degree.

Here’s how you address his situation on these key documents.

On the resume. The goal of a resume is to secure a job interview. I would start with a summary of qualifications section, outlining his three or four key qualities that make him the perfect candidate for the job he is seeking. One of those bullets should be his college education, the others should focus on his experience. Since he is actively working on his education, I would list education next, and when you list the degree he is receiving, put the date you expect him to be done with it. Then list his experience. I would also have a section on his advancement from enlisted personnel to officer.

On the cover letter. Remember the key task of the cover letter is to sell the hiring manager just enough so that he or she will review the resume. You want to start of strongly identifying the key strengths — and ideally tie those directly to what the employer is looking for in a job candidate. In the second paragraph, I would highlight some of the specific accomplishments of the work experience, along with the number of years in the field. In the third paragraph, I would mention the near-completed degree, and the specific date when it’s expected to be completed.

Note: some employers will substitute years of experience for an incomplete education. For example, college grad and five years experience, or some college and eight years of experience.

Learn more both in the resume resources and the military transition sections of Quintessential Careers.

Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., the Career Doctor


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About The Career Doctor Blog

The Career Doctor Blog provides intelligent and level-headed solutions to job-seeker questions. Updated daily with a new career, college, or job-related question - coupled with a thoughtful response from nationally-recognized career expert Dr. Randall Hansen - The Career Doctor. Have a question that has you stumped? Feel free to email your question, but please know that because of the large volume of emails Dr. Hansen receives that a personal response is often not possible... and that it may take some time for your question to appear in the Career Doctor Blog.
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