Ask this if your resume gets negative feedback

Who did you ask if you got negative feedback? What is their perspective? Sometimes job seekers ask people in their friend circle and some of those people may be well qualified to review a resume. Other times they are not.

Negative feedback on your resume?

1. Who is giving the feedback and what are their qualifications?
2. What population and viewpoint do these people represent?
3. Is there value in their suggestions?
4. Where did they get their rules?
5. When did they last look for a job?
6. How current are they on current resume practices?

Even when people work with a professional there can be people who find fault with the resume, I tell my clients to test drive their resume with friends but use a filter to understand their point of view. The above questions can be a starting point to see if you are getting good responses.

Negative Feedback a client received

“Just an FYI.  I have sent out a few resumes and have shown mine to a few friends.  Everyone seems to like it.  I feel it shows style without being over the top. I applied for a position and received the below note back from the recruiter.  Apparently, not everyone feels the same way I do.”

You applied for a President job at our website today and the recruiter working on the assignment is very impressed. She does not like the format of your resume and asked me to “please have him take off all the unnecessary “art” work and lines, etc., then send it back to me.  I’ll call him after I receive it.”

There was no “artwork” but there was a design to enhance his content and there was color. I told him to consider reformatting for this instance and I would be happy to do it for him but this may be an isolated incident since he had already tested the resume with others.

Consider the source

Then I got this email from the client:

I spoke with the recruiter yesterday, Emily.  Retired, 75 years old.  Still has 3 accounts she works with only because she has had them since 1980.  Based upon this one opinion, I think I will keep things status quo, unless I hear from others.

This client is a very wise man. He understood that her perspective may not be the one to base the rest of his job search choices on or change his resume to meet her goals.

The moral – always use current resume practices and when sharing your resume with others filter their responses.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net