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Age Factor
Depending on income, industry and discipline, age can be a minor or major factor, and it will punish a job seeker immediately. Sales and technical disciplines are especially vulnerable to the age factor. Giving hints to age in the resume can be helpful only to the potential employer — you just made it easier for them to narrow the field and eliminate your candidacy. Most job seekers will choose one of two alternatives: 1.) Remove older jobs and make themselves younger, but trade-off with excluded skill sets; or 2.) Keep the jobs, show their true age and be disqualified. Worst is removing all dates! However, there is a third solution, and the best solution! You can still show the depth and breadth of your experience and not allow the age factor to weaken your resume. You can make yourself "younger" in the resume and prevent any employer or recruiter from disqualifying you. 62% of resume ages match chronological ages. Your resume age can be different than your chronological age. Use it to your advantage.

Entrepreneurship / Self-Employment / Family Business
Unknown to most people, this is considered a lethal defect. Although you should be proud of these accomplishments — which you can elaborate on in the interview — your self-employment (or working in a family business) should not be revealed, for several reasons. First, an entrepreneur is considered independent and possibly uncontrollable; second, the employer will not take your achievement statements seriously; third, the potential employer may believe you would lure their customers, learn their concepts or methodologies for your own use, or copy their products and services; and lastly, you would launch your own business when market conditions change or improve. There is simply no reason for an employer to hire an entrepreneur, despite popular beliefs that employers would engender the multidisciplined experience coupled with a strong work ethic, leadership, visionary and risk-taking personality. Former entrepreneurs are desirable by sales organizations who attract demoralized job seekers, dangle financial carrots of immediate and long-term, high income, pay commissions only with no employer investment, use your strong work ethic till they've exhausted you, and then lure a replacement to repeat the process. Although there are success stories in this sales genre, it is rare, unless you want to risk everything. Financial ruin stories of these risk-takers abound, far exceeding the nominal success of a few. Even those few only enjoy success as far as their last sale. Beware and be careful of these employers. These sales predators exist in all industries but are especially noticeable in the financial services, real estate and recruitment industries. Study after study proved between 19% and 34% less resume effectiveness when showing entrepreneurships.

Unrelated Job
Common in many careers is working outside the established career path for a variety of reasons: 1.) The industry-specific local economy has eroded and jobs have vanished; 2.) immediate financial needs required accelerated employment; 3.) or a new job opportunity failed to meet expectations. These aberrations corrupt a resume and distort the all-important theme, causing confusion and even concern by the employer or recruiter. Exclusion of the unrelated job creates a gap - another impediment. Trading off weaknesses does not resolve the defect. There are ways to correct this unrelated job issue without introducing other weaknesses.

Typos
Inexcusable with the advent of spell check, but it lives on. Human error creeps in and our eyes play tricks on us. Some are almost invisible, such as Power Point or Powerpoint (both misspelled; should be PowerPoint); PC's should be PCs (many people confuse plural with possessive); or Manger for Manager (both are words that escape spell check detection). What is the difference between principal and principle, capital and capitol, or compliment and complement? These human errors can aggregate and disqualify the job seeker.

Quantification / Metrics
Always try to quantify the scope of the environment or the measurable level of achievements or accomplishments. If the numbers are small, use percentages to illustrate successes. Use all digits to show magnitude whenever possible because they will be more noticeable. For instance, instead of $1.2M, use $1,200,000; instead of three hundred thousand dollars, use $300,000. Strive to show numbers even when it's extremely difficult because the reader will relate to and identify with the job seeker more. Achieved "President's Club" is only half the message, though it sounds impressive. Better is somehow showing how many were eligible, if possible. For instance, "Received Achievement Award for Outstanding Performance (1 of 3 out of 350 employees)" Now the reader can get his or her "arms around" the level of outstanding accomplishments. Although this is not always possible to show, some self-reflective, free-associated thinking can reveal some interesting facts.

Theme
Thematic and cohesive flow of a resume is the most critical factor for employment candidacy traction, and without it — no matter how good you are — you will be disqualified! Your resume, a marketing piece promoting a unique matrix of talents (can be complex and multi-disciplined) must have continuity, tell a compelling, persuasive and interesting story, and it must sing — and sing the right tune. Engaging the employer or recruiter is challenging and an artform. In an extensive survey, a resume with a cohesive theme was more than twice as effective than a traditional resume.

Titles
Are your titles weak, incorrect or conveying the wrong message? Titles 'hold the theme' of the resume and without it, the resume becomes ineffective. It appears that you may have weak or incorrect titles - and less common, titles that are sending the wrong message — assigned by employers. You are either mis-selling or under-selling your talents. Ask yourself: "Why should a job seeker reduce his or her employability because of an incorrect title given by the employer? Is this fair?" This very common resume aberration affects many job seekers. And no, you do not have to seek permission from the employers, nor do you need to be concerned with reference checks. This solution has salvaged many careers, and it has worked flawlessly for hundreds of thousands of job seekers. In our extensive survey, nearly 1 out of 2 job seekers, or 48%, have incorrect titles. When titles were changed, and changed correctly, resume effectiveness skyrocketed more than 4-fold.

How good are you?
It appears that you describe(d) what you are doing or have done but fail to show how well you have done it … a common error in resumes. Job seekers often confuse job descriptions with achievements, unwittingly defeating the most important purpose of the resume. Whenever you show how well you’ve done something, you make the resume more dynamic and give it a new dimension. Experience and promotions are only peripheral indicators that hint at how good you are. Quantification on scope or size of your environment and ‘referencing’ your achievements can give more impact to your resume, especially in this competitive marketplace. If you don’t tell them how good you are — showing your assets — no one else will! Your resume is not a place to be modest. 38% of job seekers do not show how good they are. When done correctly, resume effectiveness shot up 56%.

Resonance | What league are you in?
Will the employer or recruiter relate to your resume? Does it depict talent consistent with job seekers with your type of position? Is it resonating at your professional and income levels? This is the most intangible comment because your resume should have the 'look and feel' of successful job-producing resumes at your level. If not, you will be disqualified. Your language must be cohesive and intelligent; your presentation should be enticing; your resume infrastructure should be well balanced with the optimum word density and support your theme; and, it should have the 'I want to talk with this person' message. Is it telling the right story? Know yourself and know your audience, and frame or merchandise your resume to arouse curiosity and interest. You're too talented to use a resume with these types of weaknesses; the job market is too competitive to use a resume that's not optimized; and you have made it relatively easy to disqualify you.

Didn't get the credit?
It doesn't matter that you were not formally credited for an achievement. If you conceived the idea that was implemented, you can take the credit; if your boss grabbed all the credit for your hard work, you should take the credit; or if you found a brilliant solution to a complex problem in a team environment, again, you should take the credit. Your explanation at the interview will validate your story.

Inconsistencies
Inconsistent nomenclature in a resume can portray inattentiveness and even sloppiness. For instance, a financial professional using two different ways of presenting numbers, i.e. $2 million and $2.3M, will negatively affect a resume. Date spans, such as 1998-2002 and 1999 to 2004, are other examples. None are wrong; just be consistent.

Is the Title or Employer more important?
In a resume, the mission is to convey experience, talents, achievements and functional duties — paramount in marketing yourself. However, often overlooked, job seekers will emphasize the employers by capitalizing, bolding, underlining, or italicizing the name of the employer, and placing it before the title. Employer name recognition is secondary, or tangential, to a title. Subtle and effective, 18.3% improved performance resulted when the title was emphasized.

Personality
Your resume is one dimensional, somewhat amorphous, with no personality or life. An obituary-style resume undersells yourself and does not present your unique configuration of skills, abilities, credentials and talents. Remember it's as difficult to know what to include as it is to know what to exclude. Your objective is to arouse curiosity and interest to generate an interview invitation. Offering too much resume information will extinguish any questions; offering too little information will cause confusion. A resume can be interesting and engaging, but not obtuse. Also, consider including unusual avocational achievements, athletic accomplishments, or expertise in a unique area. It should be creative and bold, but be careful. Resumes with personality outpulled 1-dimensional resumes a whopping 2-1.

Repeating Words
Repeating words weaken a resume and it should be corrected. If you struggle in this area, or if your vocabulary is limited to your industry sphere, a resume can have "life" by using more interesting words. The English language is rich and full of exciting words; try using some different or unusual words to "spice up" your resume. Do not confuse this with embellishment or a "flowery" approach. It does make a difference. Make your resume interesting and it will set you apart from competitors. Using a dictionary or a Thesaurus can help, but be sure the meaning nuances fit your style.

There are solutions to correct all errors. Thousands of careers have been saved because we do not change anything a job seeker has done, we change the way (s)he is communicated. Everyone has weaknesses. And, of course, other errors develop that job seekers unwittingly include. To review your actual numerical grade — out of a perfect score of 100, a relative indication of performance, click

Thomas Byrd

For details on BAKOSresume options and prices
Compare Us | Why Us?

Thomas Byrd

For details on BAKOSresume options and prices Compare Us | Why Us?

For details on BAKOSresume options and prices
Compare Us | Why Us?