I’ve run into this resume issue many times and have realized I may be missing the boat here. When I look at a resume, here is what I believe I can learn:

-Work History - Obviously, where they have worked, positions they have held, successes they have achieved, how long they have earned a paycheck in an industry. Oh, and it is probably embellished. And next-to-impossible to completely verify.

-Education - I can find out where they attended college, what degrees they earned and whether they graduated magna or summa cum laude. And this is the section that contains the most falsehoods on any given resume. The information must be verified.

-Organization of Thoughts - I like to see how the candidate presents their employment information. Structure is well-defined here. They may have paid for resume-writing services so I cannot assume it is their creation.

I suppose if I wanted to be snarky, I could mention that I can learn their contact information too. But what else?

By now, you probably get my point. A hiring manager can assume many aspects of a candidate from their resume. But the actual data that you collect to support your assumptions about that person is minimal. And that is the trap of overreaching on pre-interview decisions based primarily on an applicant’s resume.

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From my junk mail:

Stop writing cover letters the hard way. _____________ helps you quickly and easily crank out a killer cover letter that is guaranteed-to keep your phone ringing. With just a click-of-a-button, fill in the blanks and in just 3.5 minutes out pops a brilliantly worded and perfectly crafted cover letter - 100% customized for you.

I think “customized for you” needs further clarification. We are receiving a handful of cover letters with the exact same wording in each of them.

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From a resume received by a VP of HR:

Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.

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The thought of using social networking sites as part of a candidate background check has been debated greatly in recent months. I have to confess, I am of two minds on the topic.

Foxnews.com offers up an interesting story titled Job Hunters Hire Pros to Clean Up Online Profiles. Some CareerBuilder.com stats are provided within the story:

A study of 1,150 hiring managers by Careerbuilder.com found 26 percent of managers admitted to using search engines such as Google and 12 percent of managers said they used social networking sites like Facebook.com in their hiring process.

…

Of the 12 percent who checked social networking sites, 63 percent declined to hire an applicant based on what they found, citing lying about qualifications and criminal behavior as two of the top disqualifiers.

So there is an obvious opportunity here and now the companies are attempting to fill it.

For $10 a month, ReputationDefender.com will search your name everywhere €” even “beyond Google” €” including password-protected sites, and give a report of their findings.

For about $30 a month, clients can have them do a clean-up, which involves ensuring all links to, for example, a college kegstand on Facebook.com or a disparaging blog entry from a former partner, will not appear during an online search.

“More than half of my clients use us just to search and don’t even ask us to clean anything up,” the company’s chief executive and founder Michael Fertik, 28, told Reuters.

Yeah, 28 year-old founder. I think he is going to be successful with this one. In the end, I think I lean more towards using the social network sites for background checks due to this:

The Careerbuilder.com study found 64 percent of hiring mangers had their hiring decision confirmed by information found online and 40 percent of managers said their decision was solidified by seeing that a candidate was “well rounded” and showed a wide range of interests.”

Discretion is a desirable trait in any candidate.

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Have you ever been flummoxed by some bizarre resumes you have received in response to a clearly written ad? We receive them frequently. And often we explain these scenarios to our customers. In case you ever wondered, I received a promotional email today that revealed much:

You can use <product> to instantly search all major job sites (at the same time) for jobs you like. Next, review the jobs it found and put a check mark next to your favorites. Then, press a single button to send your resume & cover letter to ALL the jobs you checked. It’s that easy! You can apply to 1 or 1000 jobs all at once, depending on what you find.

Consider it the spam approach to job hunting. You know, sometimes less is more.

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I’m not sure this is the most compelling statement regarding your own skills on an email cover:

I am better at network management than anybody I’ve ever met

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From a resume cover letter I found online:

I have been sending emails to job postings to customer service/sales positions on <job board> now for awhile and I cant figure out why it is that I dont get any replies back. Im colleges educated from a 4 year liberal arts institution…

As a fellow liberal arts-educated person, I do have sympathy for this person’s plight.  I think a good first step would be punctuation and proof-reading.

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I have a weakness for poorly-written cover letters and have enjoyed Cover Letters From Hell from Killian & Co.  Their latest newsletter has a new twist - candidate responses to rejection letters.  Ah, new territory to expand my enjoyment.  This is the one that had me rolling:

Dear Madam,

Here in the body and mind of [Name], we express ourselves thoroughly and as accurately as possible. We highly regard integrity and honesty and as such, only pursue those actions that are aligned with those qualities. Thus, we have found some inconsistencies in your response and we feel compelled to respond…

You say that you only ‘are able to’ pursue professional, senior talent with a high level of skill and management experience…

Does that sound like someone who needs help finding a job? Are you insane?

Yeah, let me go work my way up and become a high-powered executive professional, then I’ll come to your no-name company and see if you can’t find me some work.

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One guy closes with this line:

P.S. - I haven’t taken a sick day in years - I don’t get sick.

I don’t know why, but that line caught my attention and made me laugh.  Not a bad technique to stand out in a crowd.

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CareerBuilder offers up the 5 most common candidate lies in this article.  They bring up a good point in that 85% of all companies perform some type of candidate verification.  Surprisingly, candidates continue to embellish or falsify their information.

The top 5 lies:

Exaggerating Dates of Past Employment
…as many as 35 percent of all resumes include discrepancies related to previous employment

Falsifying the Degree or Credential Earned
With roughly a 20 percent discrepancy rate in information provided by candidates regarding their education qualifications, it’s important that companies understand the variety of ways applicants lie to claim unearned degrees.
Even if a candidate has earned a legitimate degree, the applicant may lie about what they majored in to enhance their qualifications for a specific job €“ claiming a degree in engineering rather than in history, for example.

Inflating Salary History or Title Held
It is a best practice to always contact previous employers to confirm job titles. Obtaining salary history is also an important step. In some cases, employers will provide it. However, other times, they will not, and the hiring company can instead ask a candidate to provide a W-2 form to confirm salary.

Concealing a Criminal Record
Roughly 11 percent of all background checks return with a criminal record. The most common way candidates with a criminal background attempt to avoid detection is by changing details, such as their date of birth or spelling of their name.

Hiding a Drug Habit
48 percent of Americans admit to having used an illegal drug in their lifetime, so conducting a proper drug test should be a standard step in any screening program.

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