How NOT to Differentiate Yourself From Everyone Else

Oct 29

12:38

2009

Brad Remillard

As candidates become more and more desperate in their job search they often turn to desperate measures that more often than not hurt the candidate. One example of this is with the resume. Lately we have been noticing an increase in resumes that contain some sort of gimmick or strange presentation to get noticed. This is not necessary. If your resume is focused, well presented, and easy to read, it will get noticed - at least by us.

f your resume has a lot of highlighting, gimmicks, smells like perfume, or is on bright colored paper, all that is saying to the reader is, “I’m desperate.” Companies today don’t want to hire desperate people. They still want to hire the best and the brightest.

The best ways to get your resume noticed and read is:

Have a good cover letter. Download a free sample from our Web site. CLICK HERE.
Have an easy to read resume. Use bullet points instead of long paragraphs, make sure it is not over crowded, has white space, 12 point fonts, two pages, and does not have a lot of abbreviations, functional or industry jargon.
Make sure vital information used for screening stands out such as,company description and industry, title, dates, organization, number of people managed, scope of responsibility, etc.
Pleasing to the eye.
Well organized and laid out.
Highly recommend chronicle not functional.
It should be as targeted to the position as possible and that bullet points address what the hiring manager is looking for. NOT a generic one size fits all.

There are probably more and feel free to comment and add your ideas. Just don't try and stand out by using desperate gimmicks and tricks.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

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