The misapplied psychology behind résumés sends many jobseekers
scrambling for uniqueness. Will one page be enough? Are three pages too many?
Do I need to explain my unique situation? Will more details and bullet points make
me unique? What unique buzzwords should I include? Does this sound vaguely familiar?
The answers to these questions amounts to guesswork, perhaps
alchemy would not be an overreach.
Each jobseeker’s situation tends to be different—though not unique. Let us reserve unique for anomalies and one-of-a-kind.
Most jobseekers see themselves as
unique. At any given moment, there exist countless others confronting identical
circumstances. Each will lay claim to uniqueness. At the national level, once
you see sameness a thousand times, it
is hard to envision uniqueness.
Nonetheless, jobseekers ponder
the above. Many resort to questionable tactics in an effort to anticipate
inquiries. Recently, a batch of résumés landed in my inbox. In consecutive
order, three included reasons why they were no longer with a previous employer.
Each felt compelled to explain
why he was no longer with this or that company. Busy employers do not have time to care. Perhaps each wanted to
offer a preemptive strike to a routine interviewing inquiry: Why did you leave XYZ? Résumés should
not be construed as substitutes for job apps.
During interviews, why questions have more to do with how you respond, rather than the justifiable
excuse(s). Moreover, the offered rationales tend to be the most lied about during
interviews. Skilled interviewers know this.
Those who desire to standout and present
a unique appearance need to follow
commonsense guidelines. Here is my shortlist:
1.
Make the résumé easy-to-read.
2.
Cover the last ten years succinctly. Beyond
that, things become outdated.
3.
Minimize or eliminate non-relevant information.
4.
Whatever you do not want brought up consider leaving out.
5.
Avoid small type, narrow margins, tight
spacing and endless bullets.
6.
Throw away the adverbs, superlatives and
how wonderful you are, and stick with
facts. (This alone causes the material
and message to sound more believable.)
7.
Avoid explaining anything in a résumé.
8.
Convert the message to an Internet-friendly format.
As for uniqueness, merely
observing commonsense often suffices. In today’s job market, a concise message usually
makes your résumé appear unique. At least it will cause the résumé to stand
out.
Copyrighted © 2014 by Robert James