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发帖数: 8232 | 1 The Biggest Mistakes I See on Resumes, Part 2: Your top 8 questions
Laszlo BockInfluencer
SVP, People Operations at Google
Jan 26, 2015 168,970Views 1,016Likes 275CommentsShare on
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I was blown away that my first article got over 2 million views. I've always
been passionate about helping people find good jobs. But my advice in "The
Biggest Mistakes I See on Resumes" was just a starting point: the basic
stuff we all need to nail to get to that interview. (And remember, the ONLY
purpose of a resume is to get you that interview!)
Among the 3,500+ comments, eight questions came up again and again. Since
these posts are my 20% time project I can’t respond to each person. But so
many people are facing the same issues that I want to address the biggest
ones.
One caveat: these are my opinions, not official company policy. My
qualifications are that I've personally reviewed more than 20,000 resumes,
coached hundreds of high school and college students, veterans, and people
of every age on how to get a job, and lead a recruiting machine that has
seen over 20 million applications. But there's still a bunch of stuff I don'
t know, so take what I write with a grain of salt.
Now, on to your questions:
1. Should I have keywords and jargon on my resume?
Yes, alas, but put them in their own section. A major part of why we have
unemployment - and why finding a job is so hard - is because resumes are
awful at conveying who you really are and companies stink at screening
resumes . Too many companies rely on clumsy software products that sort and
filter resumes based on keywords. And too many recruiters do the same thing,
looking for fancy schools or company names instead of at what you actually
did. (Google applications are screened by real, live people.) Crummy as that
is, it's reality. So for now, if you're in a technical field, have a
section where you list all your programming languages. If you're in other
professions, you may want to extract the buzzwords from the job posting and
have a "skills" section (doesn't matter what you call it) where you can park
your laundry list of jargon. Don't waste space on verbs. Just have a list.
Save your compelling writing for the bullet points under each job.
Lifehacker has some other good suggestions for getting past the machines.
And I'm optimistic that somewhere out there someone is building a MUCH
better system for inferring who you really are and understanding what
employers really need.
2. Should I pay someone to write my resume?
Nope. See my post here on how to write a resume that will get you noticed.
Even better, find someone like you who already has the job you want. If you'
re a veteran, find someone from your service who works in the job and
company you want. If you're a student, find an alumna/-us who has your dream
job (your career center will have resume books you can mine). Emulate their
resume. (Notice I didn't say "copy" ... big difference!) Look at how they
described their experiences and accomplishments. They wrote things in a way
that got noticed. They got it right. Do what they did. Don't waste your
money on something you can get for free.
3. Should I include organizations where I worked more than 20 years ago?
You don't need to. For a competent hiring manager, your early experience isn
't relevant. No one cares that I worked at an Olive Garden 20+ years ago. So
on my resume I can pick some arbitrary cut-off point, have a "Prior
experience" section, and summarize that I worked at a range of jobs in
restaurants, non-profits, and manufacturing.
4. Do resumes predict performance?
I haven't seen anything to suggest they do. Resumes are a very poor
information source. Work sample tests are actually the best predictor of
performance, followed by tests of cognitive ability, which are best assessed
using structured interviews. I’ve got three chapters explaining how you
can become a world class interviewer in my book WORK RULES!, coming out in
April, if you’re interested in learning more.
5. The best people don't always have the best resumes. Excluding someone
because of a typo is stupid and you're a horrible person for doing that.
Ok, (a) that's not a question. And (b), I confess that I do occasionally
overlook an error, for example if the person writing the resume isn't a
native English speaker. But (c), from the recruiter's perspective, if they
have a choice between two equally impressive resumes, I think we can agree
that the one that says "professional booger" instead of "blogger" is
probably not going to get a call.
6. Shouldn't HR departments and recruiters work harder to find the best
people? Why put the blame on the job seeker?
I want everyone to have the best possible chance of landing their dream job.
That means controlling the parts of the application process you can. You
can control every single word on your resume. You can't control the quality
of the person reading it. But I will tell you that at recruiting firms they
only get paid for filling jobs, so they do look hard at applications. What
they see is in your control.
7. I'm a mom (or dad) coming back into the workforce after time off with my
child. How do I explain the time off?
Don't apologize and don't hide. Put down that you took time off for your
family. If you volunteered or did part-time work, list that too, but own
your decision. Parents who have left the workforce and are coming back in
are one of the biggest untapped sources of talent for recruiters. We get
that at Google, and more and more other companies are starting to see it too.
8. Hey! You had a typo in your post!
Yes, but I promise you my resume is pristine! ;)
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