How to Flawlessly Capture the “Right Details” on Your Resume

Kevin Kermes — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:36:44 +0000

You know that we stress the importance of including detailed descriptions of your previous professional accomplishments in your resume. While this is a simple idea, understanding how to execute it effectively trips up a lot of people as they write their documents. With that in mind, let’s play a round of “Good details vs. Bad details”.

Good details

The types of information resumes should include—but often do not—are things like the following:

-How many people report to you?

-How much money did you make for your last company?

-How have you saved your employers money in the past?

-Were you recruited or promoted by previous employers?

-What special projects or tasks have you been chosen to complete?

-What have you accomplished that was above and beyond your job description?

Bad details

When people include too much information on their resumes, it typically falls into these categories:

-The verbatim name of the department and supervisor you reported to. Unless you report directly to Mark Zuckerberg or someone equally famous, you can use a general title like VP-Marketing or Director of Branding to convey your status in the company.

-Outdated details about your college experience. If you’ve been out of school for ten years, your college GPA is old news. Ditto the name of the specific school of your university that you attended, unless it’s a highly ranked, nationally recognizable program, e.g., the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

-Personal details about your life. If gaps on your resume are due to something like taking personal time off to care for an ill family member, it doesn’t matter what his or her diagnosis was. Keep your explanation as brief as possible.

An effective resume strikes the right balance between providing specifics that clarify how valuable you are as an employee, while at the same time generalizing your accomplishments in a way that makes sense to a wide audience. To be sure your resume doesn’t include bad details, make it a point to let another set of eyes proofread it.

Jessica Hernandez is the President of Great Resumes Fast. She has a true passion for the job seeker, evidenced by her desire to share everything she can with everyone she can about resume writing and interviewing. Jessica holds the strong belief that life is too short to hate your job and believes wholeheartedly in pursuing that which makes you happy. She loves creating colorful, dynamic, eye-catching resumes, and her articles have been published multiple times in popular job search books and on tens of thousands of career and job search Web sites including Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and more.

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“Your Job Will Come” with Aaron Crowe – Job Boards

Kevin Kermes — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:09:43 +0000

On this episode of Aaron Crowe's "Your Job Will Come," we talk about the job boards. We tackle why they don't work, how you can work around them, the role they can play in your job search and much more.

In addition to hosting this talk radio show focused on helping others in the midst of their job search, Aaron is a Section Editor at AOL's Walletpop.com.

* * * * * * * * *

Kevin is the Founder of Build the Career You Deserve, a company devoted to empowering professionals with the vital tools and information necessary to find the job they want and build the successful career they deserve. Sign up for his free e-zine – Build the Career You Deserve – for insider tips on how to do just that!

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Career Attraction » resumes

How to Flawlessly Capture the “Right Details” on Your Resume

“Your Job Will Come” with Aaron Crowe – Job Boards