What are the top 3 resume misconceptions I hear?

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Like many other professionals who have spent years in the career marketing industry, I have seen many, many resumes.  Here’s my Top 3 misconceptions that will help you change the course of your career search.

1. → Confusion about how long a resume should be.

I covered this in detail with the post, “Should you drop value from your resume to shrink to one page?” but the one page myth persists. It is a myth. Your resume could be a one page resume if you have very little experience. But for most people, even students, they should have a two page resume and will end up cutting out value if they try to squish it to one page. I have worked with many talented students who have a vast array of accomplishments that bring value to their future roles in business.

By the same token, putting everything in but the kitchen sink is a bad idea too. Though there can be exceptions, most resumes should be no more than two pages. Using addendums like a Project Profile (great for construction management or other fields with specific projects) or the Critical Leadership Initiative or another focused addendum will let you have the additional information handy without cluttering your resume.

2. → Lack of accomplishments

The duties versus accomplishments issue is a constant issue for people writing their own resumes. While the next employer wants to know what you can do, you need to formulate those points in the form of qualified accomplishments, not a list of duties.

For example:

• Decreased payroll costs through implementation of a new performance-based compensation structure, resulting in cost savings of 25%.
• Promoted to Merrill location (highest volume store) from Tomahawk location (lowest volume store) as a direct result of customer relationships and strategies used to grow sales.
• As member of the Supply Chain Management group, increased contract purchases by 45% in one year, resulting in decreased overall costs in purchasing.
• Revolutionized area convenience store operations as the first convenience store and restaurant in the area to implement computerized register systems, CRINDS, and professional driver amenities.

3. → Lack of focus

As I said in “The secret to job search results isn’t volume,” you need to focus a job search to be effective. If you are not targeting your resume or you are pushing out tons of resumes, you will most likely not succeed. The secret to success is targeting the resume and the job search as well as using effective job search or career marketing strategies to hit the target by networking.

When my clients work with me, they find their results improve rapidly and I love getting YAY reports like this one: