16 Ways To Keep Your Resume Out Of The Trash

Make sure your resume stays on top!

Read these great tips on how to make your resume stand out.  These tips will improve your resume.

1. Make sure to read and follow all of the instructions.  This includes the requirements for the position.  If they have minimum requirements for a position, such as a college degree, and you do not have a college degree or you have left it off of your resume, they will toss your resume.
2. NO TYPOS- This is a big deal!  Make sure to spell everything correctly, write complete sentences and make sure to use correct capitalization and punctuation.  This is one of your first tests as a potential employee.  You don't have to be a great speller but you DO need to be able to proofread and run a spell check.  Remember first impressions are REALLY important.



16 Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out





3. Do not staple, fold or put a paperclip in your resume.  This helps the person who is reviewing the resumes so they don't have to remove paper clips or staples if they are scanning the documents.  Make sure you use at least a 9 x 12 mailing envelope.  DO NOT fold your resume and put it in a little envelope.
4. Use mailing labels on your envelope.  Make sure you have printed the labels and they are not
   hand written.
5. Professional paper- Make sure to buy resume paper.  It is thicker than regular copy paper.
6. Don’t use an unprofessional email address.  I personally don't agree with this one too much but I have seen other HR staff that immediately think of someone with an AOL email as "behind the times".  If you are applying for a tech position and still use AOL, you should probably open a GMAIL account.  If you are not applying to a tech position and your resume is strong then I wouldn't worry too much about this one.
7. Don’t use “I” and “me” in your resume.  Create statements like "Created training seminar for over 100 participants" instead of "I created a seminar..."
8. Don’t include references.  This can take up valuable space on your resume and they will ask for references later if they want them.
9. No clip art!  Enough said.
10. Don't include an objective on your resume.  The objective is just restating the obvious, you want a job.  Instead, replace with a powerful headline and qualification summary.
11. Don’t lie.  Now you can stretch the truth a bit but be sure you can back it up if questioned.  A bad lie would be to say you have a college degree and you don't have one.  That is a bad lie!
12. Don’t say "resume" on your resume.  No need to restate the obvious.
13. No personal section.  I haven't seen one of these in a while but if you still have a section on your resume that lets people know you like to knit in your underwear, TAKE IT OFF (the section not your underwear)!
14. No pictures.  Even if you are a super model don't put your picture on your resume, it is weird.
15. No salary requirements.  This leaves the door open for negotiations.  If you include an expected salary range and it doesn't fit the position they will automatically toss your resume because your don't fit the requirements.
16. Leave off hobbies.  Again the knitting in your underwear, we don't need or want to know.

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How to Respond to a Work Question when You Don't Know the Answer

We have all had that awkward moment when a client or customer asks a question that we don't know the answer to but probably should know.  Here is some advice on how to respond to  these situations.

It is okay not to know an answer.  No one has complete knowledge.  The important thing is to acknowledge that the other person has asked something, you value their words, and that you will find an answer for them.

Here is an example of what this conversation may look like:

Client/ Customer: "Can you tell me if this product can do X, Y, and Z?"

You: "Those are great questions.  Please let me check on it and I will get back to you with an answer by (date/ time)."

How to Respond to a Work Question when You Don't Know the Answer

This acknowledges that you heard the person and let's them know when you will have an answer.  If the answer is going to take longer than expected after looking into the question then make sure to update the customer or client.  This way once the date or time passes, the other person doesn't think that you have forgotten about their issue but lets them know you are still working on finding a solution for the customer or client.

Don't feel like you need to apologize or give reasons for not knowing an answer like explaining that you are new to your role or that you have not been trained in an area so as to give answers.  The customer or client does not need to know your excuses.  All they need to know is an answer and when you will give it to them!

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