You have probably read many “how to” articles that provide tips for jobseekers. One tip that almost always makes the list is to have a professional email address. Unfortunately, I was looking through resumes today and found one person who may not have read any of those articles. His email address: rednecktrucker@domain.com Next.
Continue ReadingYou Must Have…
Red flags should go up if those words appear in a cover letter. These sentences are from a recent graduate’s cover letter for a sales position: Please do not contact me if the position is commission based, or involves cold-calling. Also your company must have a valid website that can help me to identify what your company does. I will be following his clear orders and not contacting him.
Continue ReadingFunny Resume Title
I had to share this one: Offshore Employee – No Accent. Excellent. Memorable.
Continue ReadingWatch The Writing
I would not hire a single salesperson without first seeing a writing sample of some sort from them. The information age has made writing a priority skill in communicating with prospects. This cover letter sentence makes me lose my faith in proofreading: I relocated down south due to my wifes job and the maeket for my construction managment was not very good so I ventured in to new firlds. There are different levels of errors within cover letters and resumes. This example would fall in the “very bad” error pile.
Continue ReadingCover Letter Comedy
I’m all for standing out, but this line at the beginning of a cover letter is a swing and a miss. If you can get me excited about your business, I’ll bring the magic. I’d settle for a sales rep who brings the qualifying.
Continue ReadingVideo Resume Reticence
I’m a fan of the video resume concept for sales positions. Salespeople have to interact with clients in a manner that best represents your company. The video resume provides a glimpse into this presentation ability. Yet, according to RecruitingTrends.com, the majority of companies are not accepting these forms of resumes (emphasis mine): Indeed, just one in four (24%) senior executives polled claim that their companies accept video resumes from candidates reveals the survey, developed by Robert Half International, a staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance and conducted by an independent research firm. When asked whether their company accepts video resumes from job seekers, 58% of responding executives state… Read More
Continue ReadingDictionaries Save Cover Letters
Killian’s Cover Letters from Hell are out again with some highly entertaining fare. This one does it for me: I’m looking for work because even though my company was profitable last year, this year they are expecting a large defecate.
Continue ReadingDegrees=Dollars
This is from the Career News newsletter (sorry, no link): According to the U.S. Census Bureau the difference in lifetime earnings between a high school diploma and bachelor’s degree is a million dollars. Add on a master’s degree and you can expect to earn an additional half a million dollars in earnings. Those with professional degrees earn much more – about 4.4 million dollars during their working life. Jennifer Day, Chief of the Education and Social Stratification Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau says, “In 1999, average annual earnings ranged from $19,000 for high school dropouts, to $26,000 for high school graduates, $45,000 for college graduates and $99,000 for the… Read More
Continue ReadingI May Know This Person
From the title of a resume posted online: receptionist,homemaker,health aide,sales ass,youth counselor,or daycare aide I know I have worked with many a sales ass. In the resume, this person lists a job from years ago in which they worked the retail cash register at a drug store. I particularly enjoyed their description of that work: SALES ASSOCIATE:RECEIVE CASH FROM CUSTOMRES IN PAYMENT FOR GOODS.PROCESS SALES TRANSCATIONS AND ISSUE RECEIPTS. “Issue receipts” just kills me.
Continue ReadingThe Highest-Level Verb
It isn’t always clear what the exact number is, but more than 50% of jobseekers lie on embellish their resume. Forbes offers up an article titled Overachievement Without Achievement that contains a picture of Milli Vanilli. How perfect is that? The article quotes 53% as the number of people who lie on embellish their resume. But check this out: Some college students are encouraged to embellish items on their résumés. “They are taught to use the highest-level verb,” says Nancy Davis, a psychology professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. For instance, an intern who ran copies of an instruction manual might say he “created” the manual on his… Read More
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