Tag Archives: resume

Tweets, not résumés, to get a job?

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This is an interesting article in usatoday this weekend. Apparently this company is looking for employees with ‘online personalities’ regardless of what they can do. While I think the article is a bit extreme I do see this becoming a trend. Whether we like it or not, an abundance of followers on social media platforms equals credibility. If you’re planning on boosting your social engagement on a platform like Instagram, you can easily buy Instagram followers here. However I just was having a discussion this weekend with a colleague and we were discussing how ‘recommendations’ within social media sites like linkedin were not very valuable as people who did not know either of us had recommended us and added skills to our profile in hopes that we would do the same to theirs. Here is a quote from the article:

“The paper résumé is dead,” says Vala Afshar, chief marketing officer at the tech firm Enterasys Networks that is in the process of hiring a six-figure, senior social media strategist based on tweets. Afshar refuses to even look at résumés. “The Web is your résumé. Social networks are your mass references.”

Beginning Monday, job prospects can begin tweeting for the job, which he hopes to fill by April. “I believe the very best talent isn’t even looking for work,” Afshar says. “They’re mobile and socially connected and too busy changing the world.”

Think of it as a 140-character job interview. Even the folks at Twitter are a bit surprised. “I don’t think we’ve heard of that before actually,” says spokeswoman Alexandra Valasek in an e-mail.”

“It didn’t matter to me what they’re like in an interview setting,” Biebert says. “All that mattered was their online personality.”

What do you think?

Resume writing tips for the recent college graduate

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Do NOT have an objective. You just graduated and are not that career focused just yet.

Keep the resume simple – NO colors or images; simple structure

Education should be first followed by work experience

1-2 pages in length

Tell me what you did at your job AND be specific. Don’t say things like ‘managed a group and came up a solution that helped the save money’ – How many people did you manage? How much money was saved? You need to be specific. Tell me exactly what you did there. These should be written as achievements – what did you accomplish.

Do NOT list acronyms. People do NOT know what ADEGERTD is.

Speak is past tense for jobs you are no longer at. Present tense for jobs you are currently working at.

List your GPA if it was above 3.0

Keep thing consistent – like titles, dates, positions, number of bullets per item

Spell check

Grammar check

Ask someone to read your resume – do they understand every single thing?

Use 12 pt font.

Do NOT write in paragraph format. Please use bullets and keep them simple.

Action verbs should begin each bullet point. For instance – Managed a group, Delivered training, etc.

Show me your best – your resume is designed to get you a job so sell yourself

Use job titles that are meaningful and describe what you actually did.

List most relevant/important jobs first

Look at the jobs you are applying to. Are you using similar terminology?

List computer software that you know – near end of resume

Do not list hobbies unless you need to take up space

Do not leave space, use the entire page if you are going to use 2 pages. Do NOT make it 1.5 pages.