6 tricks to quickly improve your resume

Use these six tips to improve your resume.

Not getting the response to your resume that you hoped?

These six tricks can make the difference between your resume getting put in the discard pile and you getting an interview. 

My old company speaks badly of me. What should I do?

Job Seeker Q and A



Q. My old company speaks badly of me when contacted by potential employers. What should I do?

A. My response:

15 ways to de-age your resume

De-age your resume!

Follow these tips to de-age your resume so recruiters will focus on your qualifications and not your age.

Change your resume for a top salary

The difference between achieving the high or low end of the salary range offered can be as simple as altering your resume. Different resume templates project different first impressions to your potential employer. If your resume is rushed and unfocused, you could be selling yourself short when it comes to negotiating a higher salary.

How to change your resume for a top salary

Are you selling yourself short? Use power words!

I worked with a talented guy who I thought would never leave the company we worked for … not because he didn't want to leave … he did. I thought he would never leave because he sold himself so short in his resume, no one would hire him.

He didn't want to overstate his qualifications, so instead he painted a picture to prospective employers that he wasn't as good as he really was.

I encouraged him to use power words in his resume and to take ownership of his many successes.

Here is how you can do the same:

Are wimpy words hurting your resume?

Pump up your resume with power words.

I worked with a talented guy who I thought would never leave the company where we worked … not because he didn’t want to leave … he did. I thought he would never leave because he sold himself so short in his resume, no one would hire him.

In a valiant attempt to not overstate his qualifications, he instead painted a picture to prospective employers that he wasn’t as good as he really was.

To improve his chances of being hired elsewhere, I encouraged him to use power words and quantitative results in his resume and to boldly state what he did and why it mattered. You can do the same. Here's how:

How to fix the lamest line on your resume

Can you figure out what the biggest waste-of-time line is on your resume?
It’s “References available upon request.”

Why is the line lame?

Why you shouldn't overdo the bullets in your resume

Avoid over doing the bullets in your resume.

One of the most common problems I see in resumes is the misuse of bullets.

I've seen entire resumes that are nothing but a series of bullets. How inviting! It’s inviting all right – inviting the recruiter to toss it in the reject pile. When I see a resume that looks like this, I see a person without personality. I see a person who doesn't know how to tell his or her story. And for the most part, I see a person who isn't getting job interviews.

Another misuse of bullets is using them for all content after the job title, whether it’s a job duty or an accomplishment. This just confuses the reader. What’s more, it allows a negative thought to enter the mind of the reader.

How to use bullets properly in resumes

Challenge your resume to the half page test

Fold your resume in half horizontally. Is it easy to
tell what job you seek in the top half of page 1?
If not, improve it!

Let’s face it: Looking for a job sucks. There’s all that time you spend writing your resume and cover letter, submitting them online, networking into the company and then, if you’re lucky, interviewing numerous times with the same company over a three-month period. Perhaps at that point you’re a finalist. Or perhaps the company recruiter has stopped responding to your e-mails and phone calls.

As the headline screamed on an opinion piece by Thomas Friedman published in the July 17, 2011, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Nostalgia aside, today is not your parents’ job market.”

Ya’ think? It’s not even the job market WE knew!

So, with all the hurdles you have to jump over just to get an interview, don’t stumble by producing a resume that is too difficult to read and that gives recruiters or hiring managers a reason to toss yours aside for the next applicant’s.

What the heck is a plain text resume and when should I use it?

Consider creating a plain text resume to simplify
applying for jobs online.

Have you ever had the frustrating experience of trying to paste your resume text into an online application form only to have the system mess up your text by removing all of your carefully executed bolding, centering, italics, etc.? Fortunately there is a way to avoid this problem. Here's how:

8 ways to land a job without a degree (or the right degree)

Even with the wrong or no degree, 
you can land a great position.

Several job seekers I know face the same challenge: They don’t have a college degree and believe it is hurting their job prospects.

Other job seekers are worried that they have the wrong degree or too low of a degree to get a job at companies that target people with specific or higher degrees. Here are tips to overcome these obstacles.

50 fast, free fixes to improve your job chances. Part 1: Resumes

Don’t get discouraged by the lack of response to your job applications … get busy! Improve your chances with these fast and free fixes you can implement today.

How to get your resume to rise to the top

You CAN outmaneuver online
application systems!

Ever feel like you are sending your resume into a pit of no return when you apply for a job on an online site?

I've found a great way to get your resume noticed by the hiring manager after you apply online. It involves using LinkedIn, so if you aren’t registered there yet, establish a profile on it as soon as possible. Then invite all of your friends and colleague to connect with you there. 

The more LinkedIn connections you have, the greater access you will have to an extended network of your 1st degree connections and all of your connections’ 1st and 2nd degree connections.

Once you are on LinkedIn, use the search box to try to learn the hiring manager's name. Use the various filters, such as All Filters, Location or Current Companies to fine-tune your search. 

Contact these people through one of these means:

• If they are a 2nd degree connection (if one the people is a friend of one of your 1st degree LinkedIn connections), visit the person's profile and then click the arrow next to the Send InMail button. Then click “Get introduced" and follow the prompts. This will allow a friend of yours to send your message to the person. Alternatively, you can send a regular email with your resume to your friend and ask him/her to forward your resume to his/her connection and put in a good word for you.
• Send the person a LinkedIn “InMail” (this requires a monthly LinkedIn upgrade cost)
• Try to find the person's email address on Google by putting the person's name, company name and the word "email" in the search box and seeing if his/her contact information comes up in the search findings. (Their contact information might be in a directory, for example).
• If you can't find the person's email address online, but the job requires you to apply by emailing (for example) Bob Brown at bbrown@blank.com, you now know the construction of email addresses at that company. So if you learn the hiring manager is Becky (Rebecca) Thatcher at the same company, you know that her email address is probably bthatcher@blank.com or rthatcher@blank.com. Use that knowledge to send her a personal email and attach your resume.

Type the person's name, company name and the word "email" into the search box.

Of course another option is to try calling the company's main switchboard and asking for the name and email address of the director of the such and such department.

Taking these approaches has worked well for me because they show potential employers that I am proactive and resourceful. Personal approaches also appeal to recipients’ egos because they know I sought them out specifically. 

So start emailing key people after you apply online ... after all, it could help land a job that you will love.

How do you ensure your resume rises to the top when you apply for a job online? Share your comments. If I can be of help to you, let me know. -- Kathy

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Look to WiserU
WiserU provides LinkedIn training and services and career training and services for individuals and organizations that can transform your future or grow your business. Visit WiserU.com to learn more.

• Businesses arrange for WiserU to maximize their use of LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and fundraising through training and services. Learn more 
• The unemployed and miserably employed hire WiserU for career training, coaching, interview preparation, and LinkedIn profile and resume creation services. Learn more at wiseru.com/services/
• Subscribe to WiserUTips.com for weekly LinkedIn and career tips!

How to change your resume for each opening

Change your resume for every opening
to improve your job prospects.

A recruiting friend gave me a great tip when she told me to change my resume every time I apply for a position. 

Why? 

She said recruiters often use keyword search software to select the best candidates from hundreds of resumes submitted for one opening. She explained that if your resume doesn’t include the keywords recruiters are seeking, it could very well end up in the reject pile.

For example, recruiters might look for the following words if they are hiring an administrative assistant:

• Typing 90 wpm
• Dictation
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Reception
• Phone Support

Or they might look for these words when seeking an accountant:

• Tax Accounting
• Reconciliations
• General Ledger
• Profit and Loss Statements

Tips for Impressing the Keyword Search Software

• Revise your resume to include keywords in the job description for each opening. So for example, if the job description says, “Coordinate the development of podcasts and blogs,” your resume better include launching podcasts and blogs (if you have that experience, of course!)
• Update your general resume with the most frequently used keywords so you won’t have to revise it as much each time you apply for a job. 
• Also (briefly) weave the most important keywords into your cover letter.

What ideas or comments do you have about keyword search? Share your comments and let me know if I can be of help to you via the Contact tab.

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Look to WiserU
WiserU provides LinkedIn training and services and career training and services for individuals and organizations that can transform your future or grow your business. Visit WiserU.com to learn more.

• Businesses arrange for WiserU to maximize their use of LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and fundraising through training and services. Learn more 
• The unemployed and miserably employed hire WiserU for career training, coaching, interview preparation, and LinkedIn profile and resume creation services. Learn more at wiseru.com/services/
• Subscribe to WiserUTips.com for weekly LinkedIn and career tips!

Are you selling yourself short? Use power words in your messaging!

Use power words in your resume!

I worked with a really talented guy who I thought would never leave the company we worked for … not because he didn’t want to leave … he did. 

I thought he would never leave because he sold himself so short in his resume, no one would hire him.

Learn from his mistakes

Check your job application messages before you hit send!

Error-free job application
materials are a MUST!

My friends and I at Enterprise Rent-A-Car always got a big laugh about a cover letter that a recruiting department friend said he had received from an eager job seeker. It said in part, “I am very interested in your Account Executive position at Kentucky Fried Chicken.” 

Obviously the job seeker had used the same cover letter for both companies and had neglected to change the company name. And while he gave the recruiter a good laugh, he didn’t land the Enterprise job because he had not been careful with his messaging to the company.

Writing cover letters and resumes is hard and exacting work! And re-entering the same information into some of those maddening online job forms can lead to typos, poor formatting, and other problems ... that are entirely fixable if you are careful.

To avoid costly mistakes in your job-search messaging:

• Proof your copy every time. Pay particularly close attention to any last minute changes.
• Make sure you have correctly typed the contact person’s name and title.
• Run spell check.
• Have someone read your correspondence.
• Make sure have attached the documents you intended to attach. (Don’t you hate when you forget that?)

Improve your grammar and punctuation by visiting the many free sites dedicated to help you do just that. GrammarQuizzes.com offers an excellent, free grammar quiz that you can take and retake until you can answer all of the questions correctly.

Proof your materials … after all … a well-done resume and cover letter can help you land a job that you will love.

What ideas do you have about this subject? Share your comments! -- Kathy

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Look to WiserU
WiserU provides LinkedIn training and services and career training and services for individuals and organizations that can transform your future or grow your business. Visit WiserU.com to learn more.

• Businesses arrange for WiserU to maximize their use of LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and fundraising through training and services. Learn more 
• The unemployed and miserably employed hire WiserU for career training, coaching, interview preparation, and LinkedIn profile and resume creation services. Learn more at wiseru.com/services/
• Subscribe to WiserUTips.com for weekly LinkedIn and career tips!