Resumes

Articles for new/recent graduates about how to get a job.

Warning For The Hypersensitive And The Faint Of Heart

When I talk about resumes and cover letters, I’m opinionated and direct, and I’ll always tell you exactly what I think. That’s my own characterization of myself, anyway. Others have called me rude, insensitive, arrogant, and other, more R-rated terms. But usually the people who knock me are students who have never had a full-time …

Warning For The Hypersensitive And The Faint Of Heart Read More »

The Resume: Your Best Foot Forward

This is the single most important concept of this site, and I repeat it several hundred times (seems like, anyway) throughout the pages. This seems obvious, but honestly, most people don’t really understand this until it’s pointed out to them. Ask someone what their resume is, and the answer goes something like, “it’s the thing …

The Resume: Your Best Foot Forward Read More »

The Internet Has Changed Everything About The Way You’ll Get Your First Job

In Fact, It’s Made It A Lot More Difficult. How? Because everyone and his mom has access to millions of job listings. Used to be, if you lived in Iowa and saw a job opening, you could be pretty sure that you were only going to be competing with other Iowans for that job. But …

The Internet Has Changed Everything About The Way You’ll Get Your First Job Read More »

Fraternities And Sororities

Everything I said about personal interests also goes for social Greek organizations, and also most service fraternities. Yes, but: Aren’t fraternities and sororities great for networking after college is over – including job-market networking? Yes, they’re definitely great for networking. And I must confess that I never joined a fraternity, so I don’t have personal …

Fraternities And Sororities Read More »

More Great Advice No One’s Given You

Use a real email address. Do not spend hours putting together a great resume and then ruin your professional image by putting down phatbootyshaka@aol.com or demonicoverlord420@yahoo.com. Or even goyankees@, andyaknowdis@msn.com. Sign up for a new Yahoo! or Hotmail address that is firstname.lastname, firstname_lastname, etc. Use it for all job-related correspondence. Piggy Forgetful, use graphic and …

More Great Advice No One’s Given You Read More »

References Available Upon Request

This runs neck-and-neck with the Objective as the most annoying, ubiquitous, aggravating mistake on resumes today, both for new as well as experienced job-seekers. Why is it such a big deal? First let’s recall some important things that we’ve already learned: You’re competing with hundreds of other people for this job, and the employer already …

References Available Upon Request Read More »

”Yes, I Invented Post-It Notes” Or To Pad, Or Not To Pad?

With all that talk about the thousands of new competitors you’re going to have for every job thanks to the Internet, you’re probably already thinking about padding your resume. After all, I’ve been railing and railing on you about putting your best foot forward in this one concise page, right? So when the competition is …

”Yes, I Invented Post-It Notes” Or To Pad, Or Not To Pad? Read More »

Padding Principle 1: Don’t Include Skills You Don’t Have

It bears repeating: a surprising many people think that padding your resume means making stuff up out of thin air. They think that if they just pack enough BS into their resume, then they’ll look like a major big shot to whom companies will want to make a big job offer right away. But that’s …

Padding Principle 1: Don’t Include Skills You Don’t Have Read More »

Padding Principle 2: If You’ve Held Multiple Positions At The Same Company, Use The Best One

You may have started out in the mail room in 2003 and moved up to receptionist in 2004 and up to personnel manager in 2005, but you don’t need to give details about every single step you’ve made in order to get where you are. More important than the mundane details of your ascent are …

Padding Principle 2: If You’ve Held Multiple Positions At The Same Company, Use The Best One Read More »

Padding Principle 3: If The Company On Your Resume No Longer Exists, Then You’ve Got More Leeway When Padding

This is especially useful for those of you who were working, or at least in college, during the heyday of the Internet. If you worked in an industry that was even close to being associated with the Internet, chances are you did some work for a company that doesn’t exist today. That was a real …

Padding Principle 3: If The Company On Your Resume No Longer Exists, Then You’ve Got More Leeway When Padding Read More »

Padding Principle 4: Use Powerful, Active Words To Describe Your Duties.

This isn’t only a principle of padding; it’s a principle of good resume writing and, for that matter, all good writing. But I mean to take it a step further here in our padding section to remind you that even seemingly frivolous or even fun things you’ve done on the job can be described as …

Padding Principle 4: Use Powerful, Active Words To Describe Your Duties. Read More »

3 Ways To Screw Up A Web Resume

1) Link to everything you possibly can, regardless of importance. Why list Palookaville State University in your “Education” section of your web resume without hyperlinking it to the PSU home page? Sure, it has absolutely no relevance or useful information for your employer, but why let that stop you? Same goes for any companies you’ve …

3 Ways To Screw Up A Web Resume Read More »

Cover Letters

It seems like every job opening out there requires you to send a cover letter with your resume, doesn’t it? This is not because cover letters are terribly insightful; they aren’t. In fact, it’s very rare that anyone ever reads them very carefully, and most often, they’re simply detached from the resume and tossed into …

Cover Letters Read More »

Google The Person You’re Writing To, And Try To Dig Up Something Interesting About Him/Her

Not scandalous interesting – just something about where the person went to school, last was employed, or something like that. In your letter, work your new knowledge into the letter. You don’t have to be subtle about it – they won’t think you’re a stalker. This is the kind of thing you’re supposed to do …

Google The Person You’re Writing To, And Try To Dig Up Something Interesting About Him/Her Read More »

Scroll to Top