How NOT to Write a Resume - 7 Common Mistakes People Make On Their Resume

[@AceFondu]

"generic fluff" on a resume is funny, but also funny are the "generic fluff" littered in every single job posting I've ever seen.

[@brockkareem9219]

i know Im asking the wrong place but does someone know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid lost the password. I appreciate any tips you can give me.

[@brockkareem9219]

@Cash Bennett Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and im trying it out now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

[@solabonafide]

Exactly. So they can just make the job up as they go.

[@starting5524]

That is insanely accurate lol

[@Satchel456]

Like the fact that every single posting says they want a "team player" and proficiency with Microsoft Office 😂

[@akenyanwoman]

I once helped someone from a North African country with their resume and they were very nervous about including their skills and accomplishments because apparently, there, you NEVER want to come off as more competent than the boss 😂 So unlike in the US where you have to play up your experience, there, you have to downplay what you know to come off as nonthreatening. Weird!

[@77HeIsLove_woot]

It's that way in the u.s. also.

[@nolaclarke253]

I work for HR and I am always blown away by our judgement of others when most corporations are highly disfunctional at best. I like to see people who can handle anything thrown at them because employment is never what it seems. That comes from the actual interview so I don't want to judge based on words. Most people use generic templates.Grammar and clarity are important.

[@hanajak]

What he calls fluff - I'm a teamplayer; I have great interpersonal skills' The job posting - 'looking for a teamplayer with great interpersonal skills' 🤣

[@TheCodenamebreaker]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@alan_davis]

True, but you're misreading the requirement: if the job ad says they are looking for "a team player" you answer that not by saying "I'm a team player" (anyone can do that!) but by giving good examples proving how/why you're a team player.

[@banyasbeansofficial6484]

@@alan_davis Exactly. Show. Don’t tell.

[@TheodoreChin-ih7xz]

@@alan_davis doesn't matter how good your reasons are if your application gets automatically filtered out because it didn't include the exact phrase "I'm a team player"

[@newagain9964]

@@TheodoreChin-ih7xzfax. Keyword matching for ATS is not fluff. U don’t have to use the whole sentence. But TEAM must be in there. At least 1-2

[@supersasquatch]

Also, it's really annoying to apply to those company websites that forces you to retype all your stuff in their mold. Even some 'easy apply' are corrupted and still require that lazy garbage.

[@giovanni-cx5fb]

Agree! If you're going to make every task a pain in my ass for no good reason, then unless you're gonna pay me considerably more than other companies, I'm passing on you as a candidate.

[@supersasquatch]

@@giovanni-cx5fb They just made time sheets x20 more bureaucratic where they micro everything for everyone. Thank God I recently declined to renew my 200k/year consulting job there, not even knowing this was in the pipeline.

[@DJ11213]

I HATE THAT FUCKING SHIT‼️‼️‼️‼️

[@shawnmotley1898]

How about when you upload your resume and still have to fill out a 30--40 minute application (not populated)?

[@solabonafide]

Yes! So annoying having to copy and paste everything from a PDF…

[@JSolar590]

What if your job is a task-oriented job? Maybe you don't have any accomplishments because the job does not lend itself to accomplishments

[@jayko-mayko2285]

That's what I was thinking. My job was manual labor and it's the same repetitive job every single day. Nothing changes, policies haven't changed once in my 6 years there. I wasn't in a position to provide any feedback or suggestions on how to improve anything... so...

[@phu5005]

Survival is the accomplishment.

[@justinblair9661]

No one ever has the answer for that. But it is easier to just say "list your accomplishments". It's a Catch-22; you can be damn good at what you do, but you get labelled a "doer" and not an "achiever".

[@SeeNickView]

I've been thinking about this recently. Economic activities involve some sort of ongoing service (task-oriented), some sort of resulting product (achievement-oriented), and some do both. I would argue that a majority involve both. If you've been providing a service for a long time, maybe think about the total volume or throughput that goes through you. If you provide food service, that could mean the amount of dishes that go out on a daily basis, the size of the menu, the size of the kitchen team that you work with, or if you're a host, the rate of patrons you sit in a given night. If you provide a service as a component of a larger assembly process, you might mention, again, total throughput or even the total amount of time it's been since your specific activity fell out of tolerance (i.e. error rate). As a contractor in the past, I've seen people tout their percentage billable time. If you're not charging a company on overhead, then that's inherently attractive.

[@brirocks]

Administrative Assistant/Secretarial jobs come to my mind.

[@jptech57]

If employers are looking for particular keywords to search for in resumes, and they don't necessarily apply to you, you can always add them in the margins in white font so that they can't be seen. That way the computer program will pick them up and your resume will be manually read rather than being automatically rejected.

[@briannguyen6248]

Brilliant!

[@slaternapier1640]

as a student in computers and their communications/programming...you're onto something here hehe, fully support the hustle

[@justinblair9661]

That might get stopped. This used to be a practice with websites; people would stuff all kinds of irrelevant keywords and phrases in margins. It helped that page rank high in Google Search, even for irrelevant results. Google caught on and increased the "intelligence" of their web crawlers (called "spiders"), which killed the tactic. It wouldn't be a surprise to see that come to HR software.

[@alexpalermo7570]

From what I remember that’s already the case- I think the latest versions of some ATS software can sniff that out and make it an automatic no

[@danieldan6940]

Thats the best shit Ive read here.Respect

[@liveyouryoga]

I really like the idea of story arcs rather than simply listing daily tasks. That makes it a lot easier to keep your resume concise. What if one of the story arcs didn’t have a happy ending? I mentioned this in another video. Advocacy or supporting a disabled elderly person to advocate for herself as the example. I did a lot for and with this person but I didn’t win! 😢 Psychologically, I am still affected. I am also still not working.

[@lluewhyn]

One thing to keep in mind when applying or interviewing is that people hiring (whether they realize it or not) aren't so much looking to see if what you've done is impressive, but rather taking a base-line assumption that your application meets their needs and then seeing if there's anything on your resume or the interview that will disprove that assumption. So, many will be looking for red flags as opposed to indicators that you are a qualified candidate, to disqualify you as opposed to qualify you..

[@blain5827]

Keep it simple, write the resume to match the posting. Be honest but match your qualifications and experience to the specific duties and responsibilities listed in the posting. Mimicking their needs is the easiest way to be identified as their solution.

[@MegaMongrol]

Job Posting: Seeking experienced candidate in X, Y, and Z. Candidate's resume: I have several years of experience doing X, Y, and Z. Recruiter: X, Y, and Z are tasks. I don't care about that...Next!

[@simonfernandes6809]

Skills based CV has worked very well for me - it depends on the sector you work in (I work in healthcare as a therapist). Point 3 in this video is absolutely 100% accurate.

[@samf.s.7731]

If you're an RN in a highly specialized field, for instance, then of course!

[@giovanni-cx5fb]

I tend to skip this kind of videos because they are either full of motivational nonsense or way too cut-and-dry, as if resumes were a one-size-fits-all kind of thing but I thing you cut to the chase very well and made a lot of sense. I would definitely hire you as HR lol

[@positivepenny5477]

Jokes on you, I'm not a team player and have no interpersonal skills.

[@giovanni-cx5fb]

Put it on your resume! It will definitely get SOME form of attention lol

[@cryptolicious3738]

hahaha

[@johnapple6646]

on a scale of 1 to 10, how unemployed are you?

[@BrendenDrivesMeCrazy]

Just lie and get the interview. I'm done screwing with word fluff to get some dumb corporation to notice my white ass.

[@michaelt3172]

Then become one

[@md65000]

I disagree with all that business about "How you improved a process or affected the bottom line". When I'm reviewing resumes I want to see that you can do the job I'm trying to fill--period. I don't give a crqp about how much money you think you saved your dept when you did such-and-such.

[@Earwaxfire909]

Depends upon the job. Scientist here, I have a 4-5 page resume. I focus on what the company needs. I describe my contributions to each accomplishment and make a list of company specific critical skills.

[@saveddijon]

Font tip: use only fonts that are built-in to PDF. Typically Times/Courier/Helvetica. Anything else could be licensed, with restrictions. I once received a resume that looked fine on-screen, but the font that was used was licensed for display-only, printing not permitted. So I print it out and get thousands of little boxes on the paper in place of the letters...

[@achimsinn6189]

I'd go one further and would recommend to always print out the resume and look at it before sending it as PDF. Sometimes texts that look good on screen are terrible when printed out. Also when using colours one should make sure that the printout is fine in black and white as well as many companies don'T print out stuff in colour to save money.

[@samf.s.7731]

Yeah, usually custom made templates are like that. You'd have to flatten them if you want them sent out, abd the ATS won't let you submit them that way.

[@newagain9964]

Bruh. No one is printing resumes.

[@Destroyer_13]

"I don't want to know how old you are" Phones the high school you said you graduated at and asks them what year you graduated.

[@tbeller80]

My favorite is when these guys advise you to not say what year you graduated on your resume, but then the application lists graduation date as a mandatory entry.

[@55Reever]

I was an assistant operations manager for a data storage company. One day I got tired of hearing my boss complain about having to review resume's so I opened my big mouth and said something to the effect, it can't be that bad. He dropped a stack of resume's on my desk and said go for it. To this day I can't believe what people will send to a company as a "resume".

[@rty1955]

First off, i have spoken to MANY recruiters and they all say they same thing: if your over 55 your chances are very low at obtaining a position, yet these people have amazing skills! A lot of them bring excellent work ethics, and they bring good value to a job. As a CIO I place ads myself and skip the HR nonsense because they just dont understand what I look for in a candidate. I have interviewed both young and older candidates as well. I look for work ethics, how you think, your hobbies, what you do in your off hours or down time. I want someone who is passionate about what they want to do for a living. You may be an entry level coder, but have a thirst to learn more. You may be older and willing to teach some things you know to others. I want to know how you will contribute to the team and the company. You can teach just about ANYONE to code but i want someone who can think beyond code

[@akenyanwoman]

You're the kind of person that an over 55 person in the job market will be looking for, someone willing to think outside the box. Not every position will be the right fit for an older worker, but these folks should not be looking for any ol' position.

[@rty1955]

@@akenyanwoman this is true, but HR people just want to pigeon hole people. They really have no clue as to what the position entails or the problems they meed solved. They actually reject applicant based on age as thier insurance premiums may be Higher etc. Or they THINK the person may ask for too much money or think that if a better position comes along, they will leave. Hint: that will happen with EACH employee.HR does not seem to get that. Some employees will jump ship just to get a "title" HR done not look beyond what they "think" the job is. Instead of looking at a resume with vast amount of experience and think "how can we get this guy?" HR will reject the resume and think "oh this person will want more than we are offering", which is the WRONG way to think. Since HR is not allowed to ask age or your birthday, they they now determine age now by asking: "what year did u graduate high school?,. How obvious! The screening software automatically rejects the resume. A human does not even read them anymore. Its so sad. So you have to rely on connections to get a job

[@ClarenceEwing]

What does it matter to you what someone's hobbies are or what they do in their off hours / down time? That seems like a textbook way to bias yourself against qualified candidates.

[@slaternapier1640]

having a decade in retail management and being involved in the hiring process..those employers are looking for "responded to customer in timely.." fluff. Also, having experience in sales, they look for "improved bottom line, reduced expenses.." my point, some fields look for fluff, others don't. so know who to "fluff"

[@marclabelle4253]

I would love to see this revisited now that employers are more reliant on large language models to screen resumes before recruiters even see them. I had a former coworker get an automated rejection less than 5 min after submitting his resume, so it's clear a machine parsed and rejected it.

[@Rejistania]

I get it: Make a resume that has robotic arms to grab the HR person.

[@pongangelo2048]

Oops... I made a mistake, my resume points gun instead of grabbing.

[@pongangelo2048]

Oops... I made a mistake, my resume points gun instead of grabbing.

[@mrmurdx8956]

Also several employeers dont really know how to publish a position nor does it ever seem to make a whole lot of sense when your reading it.

[@potatogamerfiber]

Or they clearly just copy/pasted old position description. It's 2021, an office position shouldn't have "must have experience using computers and word docs."

[@slaternapier1640]

@@potatogamerfiber those same postings are also listed as "entry level"..."requiring half a decade working experience in this exact specific title with a 200wpm type speed...college preferred, but not required.."

[@theresagomez2605]

I hate reading job descriptions that don't make sense. It's frustratingly common.

[@didafm]

In construction writing what "tasks" you've done is definately recommended.

[@merryanndobbs]

Why is volunteer work so undervalued? Employers seem to think that people only volunteer because they can't get paid for the work.

[@seinfan9]

Because it doesn't have much of a correlation to many job roles. It probably makes sense to leave that stuff on there for some sort of humanitarian charity work or a position as a social worker to demonstrate a "caring side" of sorts, but it has practically no relevance in most cases.

Volunteer work is altruism, you don't do it to take credit for it. So if you write that in the resume it sounds like you just volunteered to put it in there.

[@stanislaskowalski7461]

It's also very difficult to estimate the level of skills, commitment and responsibility in the volunteer work. Most people just give a hand a few hours a month on very basic tasks. If you just distribute fliers in the street or cook soup for the poor's, that's fine. But it isn't very useful for your employers. And most charities aren't too picky about competencies. They value goodwill over efficiency. Even worse, it can be counterproductive if the employer think that you're a self-righteous, virtue-signaling guy. Don't show off when you do charity. Of course, there are exceptions.

[@selenasimmons6653]

@@stanislaskowalski7461 good synopsis. It's a requirement for high schoolers to do volunteer work..b.c it is, the value, meaning, and quality of it has just sunken to lows not really worth mentioning really

[@stanislaskowalski7461]

@@selenasimmons6653 I think mandatory volunteer work, besides being an oxymoron, is a pretty American thing. Not all high schools make that mistake. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying. It's good to encourage the youth to volunteer for a cause. And it isn't so difficult. But the role of the school is to instill wisdom as well. And skills. There are so many harmful charities.

[@jwinter6105]

I've worked at a staffing agency for the last 7 months and am amazed at some of the resumes we receive. Notable ones include: 1) a woman who started out with the fact that she is a Capricorn and Capricorns are diligent, persistent, etc., 2) a 10+-page resume, 3) a young guy who swore in the first paragraph (I am willing to work my a$$ off). 4) Someone who simply put their contact info, followed by the sentence "I need a job". (That was their resume). LOL.

[@marywenzel3199]

I work in a public library and we have been looking for an addition to our children’s department. We got a resume from a recently relocated Hooters waitress who thought she’d be a fantastic fit for the job. Presumably because we do not have a Hooters in my community.

[@samf.s.7731]

And they're all probably decent good people who get mentally tired of this bull... I gotta find that Capricorn woman because I'm a Taurus and chances are we will become good friends.

[@matthewsheppard7050]

Sounds like you are conceited.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

wow just wow!

[@haute03]

@@marywenzel3199 Honestly, that server probably is a good fit considering she has significant service experience. Also, have you been to a Hooters? Those women can handle anything at this point lol. Checking out books to children probably sounds like the dream to her.

[@SupremeInvigilator]

I want my potential employer to work for it, that's why I use the font Wingdings.

[@angelbowen9107]

😂😂😂

[@thinktank8286]

Can you explain HR software use by recruiters? Do people read resumes or just a computer doing queries? If "fluff" is so bad, then why do so many job descriptions seem to have "fluff" in them? Statements akin to what was mentioned in the video or about the company snack options on a Tuesday! :)

[@amareu3133]

Exactly what I was thinking. Fluff language and generic terms are all over job descriptions, and that's whats used in ATS, so if you submit original thinking the robots will not pick your resume.

[@DarkScreamGames]

In my experience, the automated part comes in after you're in the door and you start the skills/placement assessments, etc. The resumes coming in pretty much just went to a recruiting manager's inbox and filtered out thru there.

[@lluewhyn]

@@amareu3133 You can count those as flags against the person doing the posting just like they would do the same to people posting their resumes. 2-way street.

[@houssembenabdallah6599]

3:15 what if I don't have accomplishments in my career? because I was recruited to do tasks basically.

[@houssembenabdallah6599]

@limelight81 Thank you very much for the advice 😊 That's how my resume looks like and I did get some interviews but not from quality jobs.

[@picklerix6162]

I interviewed one firmware developer who put on his resume that he wrote all of his code in assembly language and refused to write C code. I explained to him that he should remove “refuse to write C” section from his resume because most firmware is written in C/C++. The candidate was clearly skilled at his profession but he was not hired due to his sociopathic behavior.

[@MagnumCarta]

I bet he was ARM'd and dangerous. RISC-y choice with that one!

[@ASAPRocky619]

Why don't you show us an example instead of being ambiguous? Why is it so hard just lay it out show us a resume of someone you would hire.

[@GooberLoofer420]

Because this is only a sales pitch to get you to purchase his class about Résumé’s, classic

[@carolefraze5972]

Thank you a million times thank you. I was applying for jobs I knew I was well qualified for and not getting ANY calls back and I was very frustrated about to pay a company to redo my resume! UNNECESSARY you saved me money so I subscribed and I’ll be taking your boot camp and revising my OWN resume!!!!! Your video is priceless!!!!!

[@JosephKulisics]

I'd add some observations. I used to work at a recruitment advertising agency as an IT person, and during my time at the company, I wrote a resume collection system. The company gathered resumes from different sources and published them in a book to distribute to clients looking for people to hire. While working on the system and testing its document handling, I looked at thousands of resumes, and I was struck by how bad most resumes looked and read. As a result of my experience, I tell people several things. * DO NOT make grammatical or spelling errors in the resume. Mistakes stand out like a sore thumb. Your resume should have perfect grammar and spelling. There's an understated power to a resume that doesn't have any obvious faults. People will be struck just by how it stands out for lacking any obvious faults. * DO NOT write, format, and edit at the same time. The word processor introduced the practice, and when people do all three at the same time, they typically do not do any of them well. Write your content, edit it, walk away for a time and proofread for mistakes, have someone else proofread it for mistakes, and finally, spend time to format it and make it look nice. Loop back to editing as needed. DO NOT change content like single words to change formatting. * Send your resume in a format like PDF. If you send the resume as an MS-Word document, the format could change when the resume is viewed by a user with a different version of MS-Word or different system fonts as might be the case when the user uses a different platform. I've seen resumes that looked like perfect two-page resumes in MS-Word on Windows reflow text to have one widowed line on a third page when viewed on a Macintosh. If you generate a PDF, you should be able to control the generation to get the PDF output to embed the fonts and get a consistent look no matter the platform or software used to view the resume.

[@AbidurRahman327]

Spell check exists, so there is no excuse for spelling and grammatical errors.

[@bellaluce7088]

​@@AbidurRahman327 As a former professional editor, I used to assume errors in writing were either carelessness or lack of knowledge. After meeting a truly brilliant writer with dyslexia I'm now allergic to those assumptions. Spell check doesn't catch everything, and the human brain is excellent at overlooking glitches and seeing what we *think* should be there. (Reassuring for anyone who accidentally sends a resume with a typo. ; - ) Best tip: edit for style and substance, then spell check and polish 'til it seems perfect, then WAIT as long as you can before doing a final proofreading pass, then wait and proofread AGAIN. (And ideally ask people you know to help.) Fresh eyes are key for overriding our brains' preference for content over pedantry.

[@kikitauer]

I come from Czech republic, EU and we have quite the common practice to just erase any work experience from your CV that isn't relevant. I did quite a lot of job hopping especially when I was young but my CV doesn't really show that. No one ever asked me about the gaps in my CV although I would be happy to explain them.

[@theresagomez2605]

In the US, if you have gaps in your employment it is assumed you did nothing for that period of time. Most likely, you will not get a chance to explain. It's frustrating. They only want what's relevant to the role, but they also want every detail of your life.

[@kikitauer]

@@theresagomez2605 It seems really impractical to me because I really had a number of jobs especially when I was younger. My resume would be very long then, at least 3-4 pages. In my country this would be called a portfolio and you would more likely put it on your webpage or something. It's interesting how things can be different in different countries.

[@talibanairport1544]

@@theresagomez2605 Just extend the periods of time worked. Stitch it all together nicely.

[@krystofcisar469]

Thats odd. Im also czech and worked various jobs for lot of different employers. But neary every recruiter was very excited to hear aboout my gaps becuase it looked like i was doing nothing for 1 or 1/2 year :D

[@kikitauer]

@@krystofcisar469 I have several gaps in my resume, one of them more than 5 years. No one ever asked me about it. I changed jobs a lot and if I was to put everything in the CV, it would be way too long. I just write "relevant experience" and it is plenty enough. Maybe it is an industry thing? I worked in media and now I am in IT.

[@Thargelios]

Included marketing funnel diagrams in my CV (cover letter though). Get's me calls, because it speaks more than a written word can. So I'd say, YMMV?

[@talknight2]

In my field, the shortage of workers is so severe that if there is an opening (and there very often is) where you want to work and you have the proper diplomas, you almost automatically get called in for an interview and only when you get there the prospective boss will quickly review your resumee. I'm graduating at the moment and my job interviews so far have been 5-10 minutes of the manager explaining the job to me and asking why I got interested in the particular specialization, then passing me off to someone else to give me a tour of the place. On the flip side, I've seen some hilariously (and upsettingly) incompetent workers get a pass because there's nobody to replace them)...

[@a1337turtle]

What industry is this in?

[@jaredlash5002]

I almost lost out on an internship because I had a resume longer than a single page. (The internship was during graduate school and I had a career prior to graduate school.) The recruiter had faxed the resume to the hiring manager but only sent through the first page.

[@JUMALATION1]

I have had the same design on my resume since mid-00's :D It's getting kind of hard to update nowadays since MS Word has updated like 8 times and the formatting is getting extremely hard to edit properly without weird page breaks and stuff. I have gotten praise about the design tho so I guess my resume somewhat stands out.

[@JUMALATION1]

This is almost scary: I have been watching this channel so much lately (I am getting laid off in a couple of weeks and mentally preparing for it) that I forgot I already commented here prior to this.

[@MannyLoxx2010]

I've had 30-40 bullet points per job, before, a few years ago. lol.

[@NeoSoulCrew]

I would love to follow this advice but I know my resume is being read by a machine first so I need to add fluff to meet the requirements. If recruiters werent so lazy then we could keep our resume to the point.

[@ALifeAfterLayoff]

Sorry but this is completely inaccurate.

[@chrism9017]

@@ALifeAfterLayoff Interesting. I had to read 200 resumes for software development roles and they were stuffed with keywords. Bullet point after bullet point each having dozens of technology terms. Terrible to read but it was clear they *thought* they had to do this. I only had to do this once so maybe I just got "lucky". No comparison to your 20 years of experience.

[@cmcull987]

@@ALifeAfterLayoff The fact that recruiters have only seconds to review a resume disturbs a lot of potentially good candidates. Or maybe some recruiters are simply not able to read deeply or have competence in subject.

[@LadyNerdyLegalPants]

Im a graphic designer, but I also have done office management work. When looking for work I took off the unrelated positions. However this makes me have time gaps in my employment... How would you recommend fixing this??

[@Ephesians5-14]

Yes! Like when I graduate with my history degree I don't know if the waitressing job I had ten years ago should be on there but before that I was a stay at home mother so... I would have like one real job on my resume

[@pettix3298]

I'm no expert but I think jobs that are not related to the job position are still interesting because you probably also improved your soft skills, like managing or you improved your social skills

[@heidiheidi0]

i would include everything, but not write a description on each thing.

[@Fantastic_Timez]

They might not be as unrelated as you think. They can form part of your transferable skills that would still apply to other positions.

[@fire297]

Use freelance experience to bridge the employment gaps (doesn't have to be actual experience, just lie about it). It would be very time consuming for HR to either prove or disprove your claim, and if successful, they'll call you to clarify, and receiving that call can be considered a win that'll bring you closer to the job. If they want to see your freelance work, just show them your previous work and say it's freelance, though that's very unlikely to happen. Modern, LinkedIn era HR is obsessed with appearances. Show excitement and devotion to your craft via the tone of your voice during the interview and you're already standing out from the larger pool of applicants. Good luck!

[@belgaratt]

What strategies do you recommend for applicants whose past few years' experience is low level and/or not relevant to the target role? Should you list the relevant but old experience first or stick to chronological order?

[@krystofcisar469]

Just lie a little bit :D

[@mebaugh1]

As a former 25 year Dir. Talent and Org. Development (who worked in HR all that time) I appreciate your compact, practical tips and guidance. Truly on-point! Great job!

[@ALifeAfterLayoff]

Much appreciated!

[@dhenderson1810]

You think candidates spend a lot of time on their resume, yet you only take five seconds of your time to even look at it.

[@ClarenceEwing]

If a resume is badly written, why should the recruiter spend any more time on it? The fact is, recruiters get thousands of resumes to look at. The best ones get the most attention. You need to make sure yours is one of the best.

[@dhenderson1810]

@@ClarenceEwing But you don't even look at many of them. You could have the most beautifully worded, resume with great experience and a lot of education, but if keywords are left out, it doesn't get past your stupid machine which only churns out resumes with key words in it. It really depends how important finding the best candidate is. If including keywords is the most important thing, then that is who you end up with. The problem with a resume and an interview is that people can lie in them. You can't tell if someone will be constantly late, unreliable or cause trouble with the staff. How can you guarantee the 100% perfect candidate? If you don't want to read hundreds of resumes to find the perfect candidate, then you decrease your chances of finding the perfect candidate. I wait for the day employees struggle to get candidates and have to not be so picky as to what keywords a resume has in it.

[@dhenderson1810]

The fact is, you are asking the candidate to invest their time and effort into working for you, yet you can't invest five minutes of your time reading their resume. How long would it take, really? You get 100 candidates. You take five minutes to read each resume (most resumes are one page long, so it shouldn't even take that long. It should take a week at the most,. You can even read them sitting on the toilet, when you are on the treadmill etc. If you need someone straight away, then you can't afford to be picky. If you don't, the recruiting team should be able to read every resume within one week. The next week is interviews. So it should take two weeks at most. It depends on how important it is to you. You can always make time for things you value. Maybe drop exercising for one day, and use that time to read resumes. Heck, you want us to put in hard work. Wouldn't hurt if you put in some trying to get the best candidate for your business, not just the ones who use keywords to pop a machine.

[@raccoonstudios4458]

As an exception to the 2 page rule. Science and engineering roles typically have publications and patents that need to be listed, my publications and patents themselves take up more than a page. As a hiring manager this section is critical.

[@heidiheidi0]

Which industry is this in? That might be the case for academic CVs but not for a company job. Or am I mistaken?

[@seinfan9]

I don't even understand why that is important unless it's in some sort of academic or R&D environment. I can assure you that in most engineering fields, listing all that out is pointless.

[@picklerix6162]

You’re funny, Trash Panda.

[@Kevin-uc3ir]

Go home smattass

[@newagain9964]

These kinds of vids are meant for +80% of the population.

[@eyesopen5469]

Most Recruiters have no idea what the "actual job" entails other than the bullet format of expectations. Especially third-party companies contracted to hire employees for another company or business!

[@Felix_EN]

Crazy how the CV culture differs in the US and in europe, at least in scandinavia. I'm taking these 'mistakes' with a grain of salt at least

[@nickpavia9021]

I'm American, and a lot of the advice that he gives in this video is outdated.

[@merritt2014]

​@@nickpavia9021 It's not outdated but it's seemingly more tailored towards professional jobs like corporate and engineering. In those fields, 100% follow everything he said in this video. But in maybe like a creative field, there's way more room for adding fluff, overdesigning resumes, having pictures, etc.

[@MannyLoxx2010]

In tech and engineering, 3 to 5 page resumes are normal. He gives great advise, in general.

[@brookeallen7931]

If I ever feel the need to add extra stuff to my resume, I just add any extra information onto a separate document and end up writing my cover letter. I got hired a few months ago at my current job and the guy who did the recruiting said he rarely sees cover letters anymore. So that was a bonus point.

[@newagain9964]

No employer should be asking for a cover letter anymore.

[@cmcull987]

Generic fluff--Yes, I agree. But that language about being both a team player and being able to work independently are often on job descriptions. If those words are not on my resume, it won't get pass the electronic word matching software to get my resume to a recruiter even though many positions obviously require both working well on a team and working independently as needed when clearly my past job accomplishments demonstrated both.

[@ClarenceEwing]

But does your resume explain HOW you are a team player, with examples and accomplishments? If you just write "I'm a team player" to get the word on the page, that's not going to help you.

[@cmcull987]

@@ClarenceEwing I see your point. Under every job description were accomplishments. I was told by a recruiter to list my individual accomplishments. Maybe I should add to my resume, "Our team did...." or, "Our organization...."

[@ButterflyBree]

I'm currently applying for a VA Administration job opportunity. Do you have any videos on how to tailor your federal resume and cover letter? If not, will you please make a video of suggestions. Thank you for sharing your extensive knowledge! I appreciate you.

[@OldWorldMethod]

What if you have 17 years doing the same thing, but the experience for the job you're applying was 26 years ago?

[@seantellsit1431]

depends. Is that experience still relevant today? Example: Sales for Boeing to build aircraft probably hasn't changed a lot over the past 25 years. However, if you're applying to be an engineer for electrical systems, then I'd say lots of electrical system / technology changes have happened in the last decade and that experience from 25 years ago isn't relevant.

[@OldWorldMethod]

@@seantellsit1431 It's just customer service. lol

[@seantellsit1431]

@@OldWorldMethod lolz, then no. Customer service happens everyday. If you can't show customer service in a job recently... there's a problem.

[@OldWorldMethod]

@@seantellsit1431 Working in education for 17 years can be considered customer service? Okay, then it's not a problem. I can just write on my resume that for 17 years I've been in education, customer service! Thanks!

[@seantellsit1431]

@@OldWorldMethod Anything relate to to customer service... just do you really want agism to play.

[@seantellsit1431]

What are your thoughts on how this applies to IT/Technology candidates in regards to tasks/accomplishments. In some aspects, if your resume doesn't have key words that are required for the role, that resume doesn't even get picked up, even if they have a bunch of accomplishments.

[@ALifeAfterLayoff]

Without a properly optimized resume, I likely won’t even see you if there’s 100’s of applications.

[@seantellsit1431]

@@ALifeAfterLayoff Can you be more specific about 'optimized'?

[@justinblair9661]

@@seantellsit1431 keyword-stuffing. It's an old tactic with websites. If you want a web page to rank for "dog walking", you should have that exact phrase littered throughout. Some go overboard, using it so much it becomes annoying, killing UX. Others sneak them in with font colors that match the background of the margins (Google's engineers evolved their software to pick up on this tactic, though). The best do it a decent amount, but make it work organically, so it feels natural. That's what they mean by "optimized": the software has specific things- keywords- in resumes they're looking for. If they're looking for a SysAdmin with Linux experience, for example, you might try to fit "SysAdmin" and "Linux" into your resume as much as possible. But be wary- if they say "SysAdmin" and "Linux", use those words. If you say "System Administrator" and "Red Hat" (or "Debian", "Ubuntu", "Kali", etc), there's a chance the software won't recognize those words, even though they're either the same thing (SysAdmin), or just different flavors of Linux. Try to match the words in the job description to your resume.

[@nathanknight6042]

@@seantellsit1431 Dont bother with this guy. Here's his cycle of response to your query: "optimize by not adding fluff"... "dont add fluff to optimize" ... 🙄

[@Hanagigi]

As an overseas viewer, yes we do put photos on resumes as well as hobbies.

[@glen1555]

I received one C.V. as a hiring manager where the guy spent nearly half a page explaining about his hobby. Instead of just putting freshwater fishing, and leaving it at that, he went into great detail about his particular variant of fishing.

[@heidiheidi0]

In Norway too! Sometimes you even put whether you are married and how many kids you have.

[@Lukkaboc]

@@heidiheidi0 In the US, asking marital status or parental status is usually illegal.

[@samwallaceart288]

So photos are usually left off résumés in the states?

[@potatogamerfiber]

@@samwallaceart288 yes. Laws against potential discrimination have harsh punishments. Photos make it easier for someone to argue they were discriminated against, so photos are a big no no

[@dhenderson1810]

I would like to be a recruiter so that I too can play God with people's livelihoods.

[@dawnbreak3r]

i'm a fresher in mechanical engineering . graduated in Aug 2021. No other accomplishment. From this video , I'm convinced i wont be getting any job soon ! . My resume is blank .

[@MagnumCarta]

I do understand the perspective of the employer being intimidated by MASSIVE amounts of bullet points but at the same time I have tried to reduce down my bullet points to just between 3-5, highlight achievements I made in automating processes to make things easier for a team, how I mentored junior staff and acted as a point of escalation when technicians ran into issues, etc. and have on occasion been told by so called "resume experts" that I'm not putting in enough info to explain what I did for 4 years. So its damned if you do put in too many bullet points, damned if you don't. Oh and before any human eyes even look at the resume, its got to be parsed and picked by the ATS because some of those will sort which resumes to look at first.

[@seinfan9]

Applying for engineering position Skills: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point, Windows Calculator

[@MasterMayhem78]

Don’t forget Minesweeper and Solitaire

[@TruthAndMoreTruth]

Who still even used resumes? In my experience, a history of longevity is not an asset. Job hopping is not good, but neither is 10-15 years with the same company. I've seen job listing that request photos. Not sure how they got away with it.

[@adamthrussell7466]

@Adam Thrussell Bryan Thank you for the information. Big M 1981 Marathon Frankston to Melbourne Town Hall

[@KaiSosceles]

What do you think about doing something like "3 years" instead of "2007-2010" for dates on resumes? I figure this is saving folks some math, but wondering if the actual dates mean something?

[@DietricWilliams]

Just so that I'm clear. Recruiters DON'T want to see a photo but will run to LinkedIn to check our profile, which has a photo? Candidates should NOT put "fluff" items in their resume such as "team-player" when the JD states the HM is looking for a "team player"? And DON'T use an address, just the city and zip but recruiters use filters within the ATS to eliminate candidates who may live XX miles away from where the job is located? It's a full time job just looking for a full time job. But I guess we've got to play the game with the cards that are being dealt. It's sad and hilarious at the same time. 😥 😂

[@ursulasmith6402]

Don't the recruiters scan resumes through a machine or scanner? I can't imagine any human today read resumes.

[@nickpavia9021]

The whole "scanning for keywords" thing is a myth. It's almost always an actual human in HR sorting through them.

[@MasterMayhem78]

@@nickpavia9021 HR are not human.

[@ungarlinski7965]

What to do if my roles only included tasks and no accomplishments? Like shelving books at a city library?

[@ClarenceEwing]

Count the number of books you shelve every day and make it an accomplishment. Example: "Organized and re-shelved over 200 books a day."

[@sixkicksfightertricks949]

About the dates. What if I just can't remember what day I was hired and let go? Can just the specified month and year pass?

[@davidbrewer7937]

Here is an idea: How about using your knowledge & de-identifying some real job postings & writing some "perfect" resumes for us to see?

[@aneezapasha-stamm7702]

I have several short term consultancies as well as employment. I can only reflect my experience with a skills based resume including a chronological summary with dates at the end. But I appreciate it is confusing for a hiring manager. Is there a way to make it less confusing?

[@Tomsense76]

At around 8:10 he talks about not wanting to discriminate and don't put your headshot in a resume....followed by the assumption that someone might need sponsorship... In other words, don't give him a reason to break the law because he will break the law by stereotyping and discriminating. Nice....

[@liveyouryoga]

Very informative but also bitter pill to swallow. Guilty as charged on all counts! Kidding. Yeah I switched over from the chronological format to a list of relevant skills years ago, but I can’t remember the source. I haven’t had a job interview in years, as I have been working as an IC for 14 years. I cringe when asked for dates, and yes it is due to ageism. It doesn’t matter anyway, because they will still ask you to put your work/education experience in order according to time on a job application. My second common error is the generic fluff part. “Team player” and “interpersonal skills” yep! These were me. It’s funny that you state generic fluff because the generic fluff examples come from outdated generic job search training groups (quite often free). I disagree with you on one of your points though. Why not include volunteer work? Volunteer jobs give you reference letters. My volunteer gigs (not many) even if not directly related to job tells a story about some of those interpersonal skills. In “What Colour Is Your Parachute?” They said to include it. For some people, that’s all they have, not only students, but someone having to look after a sick or disabled spouse, parent or child. Use your own judgement. Volunteer work also depends on the field. An example of volunteer work is anything to do with social justice. If you are applying for a therapist, facilitator, nurse, coach or even teacher, social justice volunteer experience counts. You’re not just sitting on the fence doing nothing or tweeting all day long about your complaints. You’re putting in the hard work, which takes time and energy. You’re often dealing with disappointment when the outcomes were not what you were expecting. One thing you didn’t mention is how to format education. This history will definitely give away your age. Which order to include it? Before or after work history? Should you include a career objective or save it for the interview (should you get one)? Thanks.

[@liveyouryoga]

Could it be that simply listing your generic skills was recommended to give you a boost of self-confidence? Your self esteem and self image take a beating when you lose your job, whether or not it’s your fault. Your skills listed on the resume are more important than where they came from. It’s a way to give yourself a boost. I know I have these skills, why should I have to justify where they came from? This approach doesn’t work for some positions/fields but for entry level, or low paying work it can. I have only once worked for a large organization when I was very young, hired for casual help. The rest of the time I worked for very small companies. It just seemed counterintuitive to list them on the job application especially if they weren’t even related to the jobs I was applying for. In social service organizations but applying for retail positions? No one cares.

[@brendaechols5929]

I've got my resume for my last job. I worked there over 15 years. I left the job 8 months ago. Right now I'm doing a contractor- gig job. Do I put that as my current job on my resume? All my main skills are part of my job I did 15 years ago. Not sure if I should even mention it? I have no set schedule and I can whatever hours I want.

[@JustinTuthill]

If you cant accomplish your task.. you have no accomplishments. You seem like a good employee and have done everything we will have you do.. but did you win a gold medal?

[@rechitsapivo]

Today a lot of resumes are being read by machines. You're very concise and don't have enough keywords there you'll just get discarded and human will never see it. I wonder if there's a good way to preserve the keywords and yet be concise. Speaking of fluff have you ever seen how much actual fluff recruiters put on a job description? Also demanding only accomplishments is illogical because most of your day will not be accomplishments but day-to-day responsibilities. Still completely agree with a two-page limit and being ruthless about cutting down content.

[@perpell]

This is very depressing...every frickin thing you do is wrong . and you will never get a job

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

getting past the ATS rejection chain system and recruiter to hire manager is difficult as it is but massive competition due to tech layoffs has made things 1000x worse!

[@erin19030]

In my experience I hVe discovered recruiters aren’t too bright , however vary lazy. If I had ever done my job as you explain your jib, I would never have accomplished anything very meaningful . A resume’ is bull shit ! My resumes were all written and designed by me using good practices. Ive landed any job that really mattered.

[@lluewhyn]

Along with fluff, an annoyance that will cause me to reject a resume is self-described compliments, such as "Excellently posted invoices into the Accounts Payable system". Okay, Ted. Leave the praise for other peoples' letters of recommendation. Use objective, concrete examples. "Processed 45 invoices per day through Accounts Payable compared to departmental average of 35" or something if you're trying to brag.

[@MariaVise]

Great advice, but what if in my early career, I was at a company for more than 20 years, and now switched industries but still have relevant experience as well as a new education and minimal experience??? How do the dates look then, examples please???

[@johnsheehy221]

So I have a few issues with job postings and recruiters. First if the job posting says relocations assistance available why do recruiters shy away from someone who is not geo located? Second, if you don't want to pay out relocation, don't add it on the job listing. Let it be an added bonus during the interview process. And lastly, I had to start adding Relocation Assistance not Required to my resume just to get an interview for jobs I applied to previously. So it looks like recruiters don't really look at the resume as much as they look at your location before they contact you. Extremely frustrating.

[@ndeakotell6382]

this is very helpful, i feel like i wanna call you to write mine for me. THANKS A LOT

[@MasterMayhem78]

Reason #8. You didn’t embellish or “white lie” so I tossed your resume in the NO pile.

[@Turco949]

Under Skills, just write: "I got mad skillz"

[@alfredosantos142]

I don't understand the difference bettween having a profile picture on linkedin but not on the resume, isn't the same thing? what's the difference

[@antonioalbino9994]

Wait a second . I’ve been doing this all wrong . Which should I put first , accomplishments or skills related to the role ?

[@AbidurRahman327]

Employers want you to plagiarize the job posting on your resume.

[@allenc4909]

Fantastic insight! Revising my resume’ now. Thank you so much for this video. ☺️🙏

[@beekoXOXO]

Why don't you have more subs I just can't understand

[@ALifeAfterLayoff]

Thank you. That means a lot.

[@cloudair4154]

can you explain what you mean by "list accomplishments" ? i don't really understand what you mean by that.. like for example- i work a phone job.. i am hearing you say "don't say you work a phone job, only list your accomplishments" ok so can you please explain how to do that? saying list accomplishments feels kinda weird to me because it comes off like "your job is not important, now tell me something you did that was important" please reply to my comment.. i am having a hard time understanding.. i talk to like 100 people per day and i am trying to get off the phones but recruiters ask me things like this and i don't get what they are saying

[@ALifeAfterLayoff]

How are you measured at work? Focus on that.

[@cloudair4154]

@@ALifeAfterLayoff thanks bro

[@MRSMakeupBag]

whose the handsome grey haired fellow in the blue suit at the end of your intro. If you get too big you're gonna have to pay him for his cameo lol

[@pbailed8007]

I found a lot of the time people can’t do what they say they can do anyways

[@SuperMopga]

Do you speeding up your videos or you're realy talk that fast? 🤔

[@matthewsheppard7050]

All this really makes me think that the problem isn't the job seekers but the recruiters.

[@stardragonfly]

Not sure what kind of accomplishment bullet points I can actually put down. Working retail and in the customer service industry I don't think there was really anything I could have added or changed within that job. Any advice? Or examples?

[@rscottdjr]

Are there some type of customer satisfaction surveys? Have you received antectodal comments that customers enjoy working with you? At that level, those things matter. Poor customer interactions will drive people away and good interactions help encourage them to come back.

[@speedyprocrastinator]

Cite retail related accomplishments such as drove/led the team in a sales push in a particular season/month that achieved xx % over the target or led a diverse team that continuously achieves x target for x consecutive time frame or state that you are a highly skilled individual with demonstrated experience in x industry/highly competitive setting.

[@SFayeLewis]

How would you tell about your skills then should you even include skills?

[@AYCHMENG]

what do you do if you want to change careers? Let's say I got the education and certifications, but no experience. How do I break into a new industry?

[@MasterMayhem78]

Learn how to be a professional resume writer and lie, lie, lie, and...embellish, then lie some more. It’s the only way to be noticed by these HR scumbags apparently. It seems none of them even consider that this person is a bad resume writer but possibly could be the best employee they’ve ever had.

[@TheEXCALIBUR17]

Do you think it is worth for foreigners to apply for jobs in the USA

[@kVidStream]

what about project workers who get hired to get the job done and let go afterwards?

[@KebaRPG]

How should I List Temp Labors?

[@SoCalRegisteredNurse]

I work in healthcare. They stick your resume in some computer thing looking for key words. I know this because they told me.

[@Ceejc]

ATS- applicant tracking system

[@nobody7817]

So the dates problem really is a HUGE problem for Military contractors. I took a job with one company to work on a Military project. That company got fired, but I was retained and given the exact same position with the exact same contract in the exact same chair doing the exact same work for the exact same people--only now I was being paid by another company. 2 years later that contract came up for bid. I changed companies again, but stayed in that same seat. 3 employers in 3 years--same job role same desk, same contract. I then moved and took a different seat in a new contract for a new company. Same story, 2 years into it, the company gets fired, another company takes over. I took a promotion in that company to go to a new location, with a new contract, only working for a subsidiary. So now I am looking at 6 years, 6 companies, but really only 2 jobs. I'm sure other contractors have the same experience, but I know Military contractors do for a fact.

[@bellaluce7088]

I had a similar situation in a different industry. Future employers didn't seem to mind my solution of listing the position title, *overall* dates, and the actual places I did the work in standard resume format, then adding a note in parenthesis with the names of the companies who actually signed my checks including date ranges in case of background checks. e.g. contract via Company Name 9/2021 - 2/2023, Company Name Two 3/2023 - 4/2024 [etc.] It actually speaks well of you that the departments you actually worked in kept you through multiples changes in contractors and that you were promoted, so don't be afraid to highlight that.