The 3 big mythts about resume writing
Have you ever noticed that there’s a lot of funny thinking regarding creating resumes? I’m sure you have heard that resumes are only supposed to be a certain length. Did you also hear that you should include your Social Security Number and your eye color in your resume?

In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, I hope you’ll indulge me in listing a few more of my favorite bits of resume misinformation.

1, Myth: Include an objective in a resume.

Truth: Objectives are useless.

Here is a typical objective, one that HR personnel see on resumes all the time:

“Customer Service Representative position allowing me to fully utilize my skills and attributes and providing professional advancement opportunities.”

What did this objective tell a hiring person? The above objective communicated basically nothing but for the sake of this case study here are a few points:

A, The person is looking for a Customer Service position. (No problem with that.)

B, The individual’s priority seems to be his/her professional advancement within the organization. (Oops, that’s not the way to treat a potential employer. That’s not what the company wants to hear. They want to hear how you will BENEFIT THEM, not yourself.)

C, The candidate didn’t specify skills and attributes thus didn’t give any glimpse into what he/she can do for the company. (Not good because employers want specifics.)

D, Self-oriented instead of employer oriented. (Not good at all.)

Let’s translate the same objective into a power statement.

“Award-winning, highly accomplished and motivated Customer Service professional with proven track record of rapport-building, resourceful problem-solving and communication skills.”

What did this tell a hiring professional? The power statement communicated that:

A, The person is a competent, distinguished (award-winning) Customer Service professional who has excellent working knowledge of his/her trade. (Good.)

B, Has a proven track record of relevant attributes. (Good.)

C, The reader can get a glimpse into how the person could benefit the company as a result of mentioning specific skills and abilities that are necessary to do that particular job well. (Very good.)

D, The power statement is employer-oriented, not focused on self.

2, Myth: Resume should not be longer than 1 page.

Truth: The length of the resume doesn’t matter as long as you have a powerful resume. This is not to say that your resume should exceed 3 pages.

But..

There are NO rules as to the lengths of resumes. There are only preferences of hiring

To simply put it: some human resources professionals prefer a one-page resume while others would rather see a two-page document.

There is an exception though: hiring professionals like to see three to four pages resumes IF the person is a senior level executive.

Why is that?

Because they like to see the senior executive’s career progression step-by-step.

3, Myth: Posting your resume on all the job boards on the Internet will eventually get you a job.

Truth: Yeah right.

Maybe in a thousand years.

Forget the Internet in your job search. It’s ineffective to post your jobs to Internet job boards like Monster.com. Monster.com’s success rate is a pathetic 1.7%. You are wasting your time.

A couple of years ago it was much easier to find a job via the Internet. Today, the job boards are flooded with potential candidates looking for jobs. In fact, it has been reported by Pew Internet & American Life (http://www.pewinternet.org) that more than 4 million Americans look online for job information on a typical day!

Also, consider that less than a quarter of available jobs are advertised anywhere, let alone on the Internet. Companies just don’t want to pay the huge fees associated with posting jobs on Internet job boards. And few of the jobs you see posted on the Internet are real job opportunities. Many are scams and MLM opportunities.

Another concern is how these job boards handle your personal information. There are rumors that Monster.com will not remove your information even after you have removed your resume from their site and that they sell your personal information to AOL. (As I mentioned: these are rumors. The truth is still out there…but… I wouldn’t be surprised.)

Bottom line: if you are still adamant about posting your resume online, first check the confidentiality policy of each job board site and be cautious. Also, don’t use your real name, fictionalize your address and phone number. Create a free e-mail account, like yahoo or hotmail where employers can contact you.

So, what should you be focusing in instead of the Internet if you want to conduct an effective job search?

Company-targeted, focused job search with good old-fashioned direct marketing techniques. And: network, network, network. The combination of these will yield the greatest results – even in today’s economy. Good luck!

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