6 Things To Leave Off Your Resume

Listen up, people! You are killing your chances of landing a job with your resumé that spells out every detail of your life. A resume isn’t a cover letter, it isn’t an interview, and it isn’t an application. It is a professional document that gives concise details of your experience. No amount of fluff is going to give you that experience an recruiter is seeking and it can actually be hiding your experience if you do have it.

Here are 5 things to sweep clean from your Resumé:

1. Personal or Private Information: Give your name, address, email, phone number (don’t list your number at your current job), and add nothing more. Personal information like your hobbies or activities are meaningless to a recruiter, so leave those out.

2. An Objective: No matter what resume templates say, leave the objective off your resume. The recruiter knows that your objective is to GET THE JOB.  Plus, the recruiter doesn’t want to see what you want, because it’s all about what they want at this stage.

3. Short-Term Work Experience: Keeping your resume short should be your primo priority. One thing that recruiters and employers look for is stability in a client. We don’t want to see that you worked at a company for only 6 months because it’s only going to make us wonder why you left. Are you unreliable and flaky? Just keep those jobs off of your resume.  

4. Irrelevant Work Experience: You’re applying for a financial risk analyst position, but you want to include that you were a lifeguard in college? It’s irrelevant and will only add length to your resume. You only want to include your most recent work experience or experience that is directly related to the position you’re interested in.

5. Subjective Descriptors: Your resumé is the place for you to list your professional experience and accomplishments. Writing that you are a ‘superior communicator’, or that you have ‘great leadership skills’ don’t mean anything to a recruiter or an employer. We are going to ignore anything subjective you say about yourself, so instead use that space to talk about your professional accomplishments.

6. Not Actual Accomplishments:  Anything that does not show your professional worth is garbage on your resumé and taking up valuable space. If you decreased company costs by 20%,  that is a resumé worthy accomplishment. Unfortunately that company golf league championship you won doesn’t count.

If you just keep the word “professional” in the back of your head when re-doing your resumé, you will be ahead of thousands of other people applying for jobs.

Cover Letter Conundrum

Hate to break this to you, but your cover letter stinks. It’s not your eloquence, or your experience, it’s the whole idea of a cover letter to begin with. Recruiters and hiring managers see thousands of resumes and do not have the time to read your page long description of your hopes and dreams. This is a tough lesson to learn, but it’s an important one: KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Today recruiters and hiring managers use resume and cover letter screening tools in addition to reading them. What these tools do is look for keywords in your resume to match up with what they are searching for. Only some screening tools read cover letters and 80% of recruiters and hiring managers skip to resumes without bothering with cover letters.

However, do not skip the cover letter. Some recruiters and hiring managers won’t look at a resumé if it doesn’t have a cover letter. It’s a tricky beast to tame, but you can do it if you follow these expert cover letter writing tips!

• Salutation: Skip the whole ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ BS. What that salutation shows is that you were too lazy to find out the hiring manager’s name. If you need to, call the company and ask for a name. If you can’t be bothered, or you can’t find it out, skip it all together and get to the point.
• Short & Sweet: Plan on having saying everything you have to say in one paragraph. Like we said, recruiters have zero time so make it easier for them.
•  Name it: Make sure you mention the name of the company in the first sentences of your letter and why you want to work there. Keep it truthful and sincere because recruiters and hiring managers are like sincerity bloodhounds and will sniff out a lie in a flash.
• Mobile Friendly: The fantastic recruiters at Search Solution Group do work even after hours and outside of the office. Making your cover letter mobile friendly ( meaning short and neatly organized) gives your cover letter a higher chance of actually being read. No one wants to have to zoom in and scroll to read anything, much less a cover letter.
• Typos:  Read your cover letter and resumé a million times before hitting send. If you have terrible grammar and a sordid past with typos, have someone trustworthy read it for you.
• Be Eye-Catching: After a cover letter has been deemed worthy by a screening tool, the recruiter still wants to be convinced why yours is the one to pick. Being straightforward and sincere are good like we said, but taking it a step further and asking a good intelligent question is another way to get a recruiter to call you. However, as much as you want to ask,  it can’t be a question like, ‘how much travel is there?’ or ‘what’s the pay?’.
• Refer To Your Resume: By making a quick reference to your resume in on of your few sentences of your cover letter, it makes the recruiter subconsciously look at your resumé which brings you a step closer to being called!
• Sign Your Name: If this is a paper cover letter, you better sign it at the bottom. If it is an online cover letter, type your name. It’s simple, but a surprising amount of people forget to put their name on the letter.

Typos.. grrrrr.

Once you get far enough to become a candidate for a job with our recruiters at Search Solution Group, you will get even more advice for your resumé and how to present yourself best on paper. We know that you have Top Talent and our recruiters will make you even better!

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Like us on Facebook, and Follow us on Twitter!

The State Of Our Nation’s Jobs

As the indecision war wages between the government parties focused on pointing fingers and waving away blame, hard-working people are losing money, and some are losing their jobs.

As thousands of US citizens are deemed ‘nonessential’ to the function of their company and agencies, unemployment rates are skyrocketing. Not only are government employees in D.C. feeling the effects of the shutdown, people here in North Carolina are feeling the icy sting of unemployment.  And it’s not just government employees either. Companies that rely on government contract jobs, have been letting their employees go right and left. Even if both factions of the U.S. government settle a budget, it’s doubtful that government contracts will be awards frequently anymore.

The U.S. has been in an economic crisis officially since December 2007 and for some strange reason people are just starting to become aware of the recession. This is just a warning, but it would be in your best interest to update your resume, check your references, re-evaluate the security of your career, and contact the recruiters at Search Solution Group before it’s too late!

If you feel as though you may be laid off, planning and preparing before hand will give you a plan of action. If unemployed, having goals will help to keep you focused on becoming employed again. If unemployed, take time to get in touch with a recruiter. You never know if there is a position you’d be perfect for unless you search!

Additionally, now that you have the time, learn something, read something, or go some place new. You don’t have to spend money to do any of these. Library books, networking events, and blogging sites are free. There are plenty of things you can do to stay positive and keep growing each day.

If you are looking for a job, please take a look at the jobs posted on our website. Our recruiters are constantly looking for the perfect candidate to fill our positions, and it could be you we’re looking for!

Follow this link to find our open positions:  http://ssgresume.com/index.php/top-talent-candidates/search-all-positions-in-finance-hr-executive.html

 

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Like us on Facebook, and Follow us on Twitter.

You Put WHAT on Your Resume?

So look, there are some serious crazies out there in the world and sometimes as a recruiting firm, Search Solution Group gets to see some crazy resumes. A resumé is supposed to be a concise yet detailed description of career achievements and skills that apply to the position in question. We don’t want to see that you played football in high school or that you have three daughters and a pet pig.

From the mouths of some of the best Executive Recruiters, these are some great tips to build an impressive resume.

1. Signs of stability are the number one thing that our recruiters look for. When we place a candidate with a company, we want for that person to be committed to the job and not flit around companies from year to year. Non-consistent job history is a turn-off for a recruiter.
2. TYPOS! No.  Go through your resumé 12 times before sending it. Read it out loud to listen for grammar mistakes.  This doesn’t just pertain to spelling or grammar. Having the wrong dates, spacing issues, and text in different fonts are similar typos to watch for. If there is one thing that will get your resume off of a recruiters desk faster than a cheetah on fire, it’s typos.
3. Having a relevant objective to the position will win you worlds of credit. It’s all too often that a stated objective on a resume is either not relevant, applies to a previous job application, or completely doesn’t exist. We want to know why you are applying for this job from the first second of looking at the resumé.
4. State your job title and the name of the company where you performed that job.
5. Education. All we want is the institution, the year, and the degree achieved. A person once submitted a description of their homeschooling experience to our SSG recruiters. It was odd.
6. DO remember to include any sort of professional accolades, community service experience, or professional improvement courses you’ve taken. Everyone loves to see a candidate who strives to improve himself outside of the workplace.

Our recruiters at Search Solution Group are experts at building resumes. If you are looking for a great team of recruiters to work with, contact us! 

A Chance Encounter

I want to take a break from the Baseball field and pay some respect to two friends who are walking down the aisle this weekend and about to take the “plunge” together.

It was about 3 years or so ago when I was at a Bobcats game here in Charlotte. At that time the Bobcats were bad, not nearly as bad as they were last year or as bad as they will probably be this year. I was having a good time with a client in the bar area when we were approached by a pretty blonde ladycat cheerleader in a nice black evening dress. After my client had a long and fairly obnoxious conversation with her about her dating status, I tried to smooth things over by talking about her boyfriend who she continued to bring up. As it turns out he was from the Buffalo, NY area,  played hockey and was an attorney. I CAN ALWAYS USE AN ATTORNEY ON MY SIDE!

So, I passed my business card off to the very nice ladycat in hopes that her boyfriend would call and join our lack luster hockey team here in Charlotte.  Sure enough 2 weeks later he called, and we laughed about the business card incident.

HR and recruiting is so much like that story.  Every day I make calls introducing myself to complete strangers, who I hope to build a relationship with and everyday my phone rings with new candidates hoping that we will find them a fit for a job based on a quick conversation and then an interview. The game of life and succeeding is such a tricky road. That story reminds me every day to give everyone who calls a chance and the benefit of the doubt.  I am so grateful not just to my two friends in that story but the hundreds of people who have given me a chance. I am not sure if I am going to be able to tie this into work this week, but maybe just life. Maybe the next time someone asks you to pass a business card along or say HI to someone for you, you will do it. All of us in HR  are forced to be and gathers of info and sometime it is just plain exhausting. But when something good comes out of it and you were part of it, there is no better feeling!!!

You never know what is going to happen by just saying HI or taking a chance on a complete stranger.  That was one of the best days of my life. I made two amazing friends, who I continue to learn with, laugh with and grow a wee bit older with.

You are so Perfect – What Kind of Candidate do you think you are?

Here I go again, bursting your bubble and telling you stuff you don’t want to hear. However, open your eyes and ears because I am speaking the truth! I know it hurts , but it’s the reality of the world we live in. I made this mistake when I was 18 or maybe even 23 years old. But really, if you graduated from college and have been working for a few years, you should not be making this crucial mistake. It’s to the point when I hear it or see it in an email I cringe!! It’s as bad as running your ugly gross nails across a chalkboard.

STOP I repeat STOP telling me and anyone else you are perfect for a job! Because you are not Perfect and nobody is. You might be good or the best candidate for the job today, or a solid fit. Sadly, you might just be good enough for what we need now and we will deal with it later fit. You might even be a good temporary fit or in most cases not a good fit at all. BUT you are never a perfect fit, it just doesn’t happen.

So, tell me your point of contact or your potential new boss that your skills match up well and the culture seems to fit you very well. Say you are excited to be interviewing for this position because you love the industry or the location is close to your home or favorite restaurant.  Say anything, but PERFECT. It’s the biggest turn off to see a seasoned professional, especially an HR professional send me an email and say how he/she is a perfect fit for “said job”. If you have to tell me you are a perfect fit and I cannot not tell that you are qualified for the job by looking at your CV then guess what, you are trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. It just won’t work.

I am telling this to you to help you. If you disagree, let me hear it……..

My Top Twenty Things I Like To Boo!

1. The word obviously

2. Bad Tee shots

3. Mis-spelings on resumes 🙂

4. When my co-workers are sick

5. Dorito Breath

6. Not being able to find my keys

7. Bees, wasps, or anything else that flies and can sting

8. People who talk over me

9. Toes

10. Bad job history (tough to hide it on a resume)

11. Stepping in poop

12. Crabby HR people

13. Allergies

14. Cal Ripken(inside joke)

15. Reality TV Dance shows…why???

16. Bad waiters/waitresses

17. Things that taste like coffee including coffee

18. Bank of America employees at the Center City Banking Center

19. Internal Corporate Recruiters who do not get it

20.YOU, if you do not add a comment!!!

HOCKEY IS THE GREATEST SPORT in the WORLD

What a fantastic game 7!! What a great series, only thing better would have been if the Buffalo Sabres had won it all, but we can all dream!!

 I want to focus on a new relationship I recently made with a VP of HR of a HUGE well-known public Company. This is one of those moments in business/sales or just life that if I don’t start it off right I could lose my credibility or just come off weak, inexperienced or not up to the task. Maybe how the Hockey world perceived the Boston Bruins as they were taking on the Best Team in the NHL this year. The Bruins started off losing the first 2 games of the series and certainly had their backs against the wall, but they did not quit they were not intimated they believed in themselves and their teammates!!

 So, this is my life as a recruiter and a business owner. Especially a small boutique business owner. Day in and day out my team and I fight to survive, this isn’t a 7 game series, this has been going on for about 10 years. Many of you know what I mean, the constant battle of having to prove yourself and make another sales call after getting rejected for the 100th time that week. But all it takes is one person or one company to make a difference and give you hope. Kind of like making a great GLOVE SAVE or stopping a break away! For the Bruins you can argue the team did it, but us former GOALIES, know it was Tim Thomas!! He stood on his head for the entire playoffs and especially in the Finals and helped his teammates win the CUP. Thomas was more than good, he was consistently good, that is the key to success. We all have great days in business, but avoiding bad days is important. Fighting off the laziness or maybe it’s the flu or the annoying co-worker or the client who just won’t stop pestering you for a discount. Staying positive, building on the good that you have created and riding the hot net minder (Co-worker) to the promise land.

 My initial conversation with the VP went well, but as a business owner/neurotic perfectionist I always wonder. The second conversation was even better after reading a few emails, then the third conversation was about to take place. Somehow we start talking about his youth and find out that not only is he a former hockey player, but a fellow Goalie! Arguably the Most EXCLUSIVE FRATERNITY in the WORLD, where only the crazy are invited. My point of telling you this is because I did not expect it. It was a surprise and a bright spot in my day and week. These things happen, relationships are built other places than the golf course or over drinks. They can be built from your past, even if there is an age difference or geographic differences. I try to find topics of conversation with clients and candidates, but none are easier than talking Hockey with a fellow net minder! The path to playing in the NHL is different from the path I took to start and grow a recruiting business. It is certainly a different path than the Corporate VP takes to rise to their level of success, but what isn’t different is the commitment. The late nights, the travel, the reading and studying, that little extra effort that we take to be the best of the best each day is what separates us and the Tim Thomas’ of the World.

 “Goalies never stop being goalies. We are tough, aren’t afraid to get bruised and always want to be the best for our Team. You don’t need ice to be a goalie.”

A Good ATS is like Good Buffalo, NY Food‏

About 10 years ago when I started Search Solution Group I was using small, medium and large size notebooks to track everything I did. Heck, my computer monitor weighed as much as me and was probably bigger. Times sure have changed in a hurry. I could never read my own hand writing, my father to this day still makes fun of me because of my hand writing, however he wasn’t complaining  about it when I signed for his Christmas present last year. That is a whole other story.

I was having success growing a recruiting business and decided the next logical step was to purchase an ATS (Applicant Tracking System). It was a complete disaster!!  I went thru that first one very quickly and could not stand it. The next ATS lasted me about five years till we started to grow and get busier and things were getting more complicated and my ATS was not able to keep up. It was boring, non functional, non interactive and not progressive. I was becoming my ATS and it was not allowing me to grow and be a  better recruiter.

So, we went on the hunt for a new ATS and just like my old computer monitor things changed. The systems were quicker, smarter, easier to access and doing the things I dreamed of. I had no idea!! I was learning quickly, but becoming very overwhelmed. We narrowed the choice down and finally had two finalists. Both were great, so much better than what we were currently using. I even got to meet a fellow alumni of the Prestigious High School(ha) I attended in Buffalo, NY. He was one of the competing salesmen and my unofficial inspiration for this weeks blog. I thought it was a no brainer, I would go with my heart and choose the guy who is from Buffalo and who went to my old High School. But then a funny thing happened…..

I realized that I am a business owner and I need to take the emotion out of my business decisions and listen to my team and make the best choice for the business. It was a big growing up moment. Telling someone NO is not easy. I don’t like to do it. But I think it was an important lesson for me to learn. As I reflect back to those days, that single decision would affect me and help me mature as a person and business owner!

Discovering how important technology is to my business was an eye-opening experience. I also learned that even when you leave Buffalo, Mighty Taco still has the best taco’s!!

If I can ever help anyone with their ATS decisions please call or email me. I am not sure I picked the best ATS that day, but the experience was life changing. I would love to refer you to my friend.

Learning from a Dr. Seuss Client

Good News I survived the end of the World and will live to find more jobs