> Voted ‘most likely to succeed,’ when I should have been voted ‘most likely to help ABC develop killer products.’
You'll sound like an utter nob if you write like that. I once received a resumé titled "Steely-blue-eyed contract killer" which didn't go immediately in the bin -- because we were too busy having a laugh about it. Then it went in the bin. Some of the given examples seem very reminiscent of the kind of person who thinks rather too highly of themselves.
This method might work if I wanted to hire a salesman. For anyone else, it strikes me as phony and affected. Do I really care if a job prospect married the prettiest girl in his small town? I am more interested in whether he or she is competent and a self-learner.
People who look at resumes all day spend 15 seconds looking at most resumes because that's how long it takes to find something stupid or disqualifying for the job, not because they look for something awesome for 15 seconds and then chuck it if they aren't grabbed by your whimsical creativity.
Your resume should get you in the door -- use your interview to convey what a unique and special snowflake you are.
My resume got noticed at the last place I applied to because the guy who was making up the short list had already been talked to by two people who could recommend me.
Probably super valuable for receptionists and paralegals.
For developers though, the only purpose of a resume is to get an interview. Competant developers are rare. Everyone with a decent resume that is keyword-compliant is getting interviewed.
If you read this board, your resume probably doesn't need to waste time "selling". Just write what you've done and what you know. Save the selling for the phone screen.
My intention was not provide a flip one sentence Leno-type headline to a resume, I apologize if the idea is offensive. I may have been in one of 'those' moods. I do think that you must grab the hiring manager's attention in a few seconds. Unfortunately, most people tend to bury their achievements, work ethic, attitudes, etc. Put them front and center works best.
That's just silly/stupid. A good resume speaks for itself and is instantly obvious from
1) The grammar and words used
2) The length of the resume (yes, believe me, size does matter)
3) What it says. Content is king, it doesn't make a difference if we're talking articles or resumes/CVs.
A resume isn't where you show off your humor, that's what interviews are for.
I think employment agencies say this because they are in the habit of retyping and reformatting resumes and longer resumes take more time to manage.
I started to have better responses when I started ignoring the advice to keep the resume to one page.
The number of pages is also ambiguous when everything is transmitted electronically, I always provide a link to the on-line HTML version, and sometimes attach a PDF generated from that. It's not actually that long when displayed on-screen.
I have personally not had any trouble getting interviews because I have a 3 or 4 page resume (once printed out). In order for it to be one page, I'd have to exclude a significant amount of my work experience, work experience which is relevant to the jobs I'm applying for. The resume should be an indication of exactly what you can do, your experience and capabilities should be laid out before the interview. The interviewer should be able to look at your resume and say "This person has the skills and the experience we need, let's talk and find out if they're a good fit", not "I can't tell what this person is capable of because their resume is not very detailed".
Also, I try to write my resume with a focus on technical readers, not necessarily HR. Part of the goal is to get past the resume screeners, but if you want the job, having something to talk about, prompted by the contents of the resume, during the technical interview with actual technical people is a big advantage. The last thing you want is to have a sparse resume such that the interviewer does not have a basis for asking questions.
I guess this can kind of come off like "pre-loading the interviewing process", but when I've had to be the interviewer, the better interviews (and the better candidates) were the ones who already knew what they knew and didn't need to spend time reviewing their own past during the phone or face-to-face interview.
I think the resume headline (from GL Hoffman) is a fabulous idea because, as a former corporate recruiter I had to read thousands of resume. A headline a resume would certainly get my attention and get me to read with greater attention.
Resume headlines can certainly apply to highly technical careers as well.
The reason the headline works is because corporate recruiters are famous for screening out exceptional engineers simply because the engineer did not have enough of the right buzzwords in their resume, hence the hiring manager never gets to see the exceptional candidate.
"The reason the headline works is because corporate recruiters are famous for screening out exceptional engineers simply because the engineer did not have enough of the right buzzwords in their resume..."
Anyone who recruits in this fashion is someone I would automatically ignore when looking for a job. A headline like those quoted would do nothing but garner ridicule if you applied to my group.
I can not imagine writing a headline like that for a resume. I would feel utterly ridiculous, like I was writing an upsell for some crappy sold-by-infomercial product.
You'll sound like an utter nob if you write like that. I once received a resumé titled "Steely-blue-eyed contract killer" which didn't go immediately in the bin -- because we were too busy having a laugh about it. Then it went in the bin. Some of the given examples seem very reminiscent of the kind of person who thinks rather too highly of themselves.