I’ve been reading too many articles, books and blogs on the art and science of resume writing. After a while, this good advice all starts sounding the same.

For example, if you search for articles about “resume mistakes” on any of the top news sites—USA Today, CNN, Wall Street Journal—you’ll see that people have been repeating the same gaffes for at least 15 years.

Some of these errors sound so howlingly obvious that you might not believe them. But you can look them up yourself!

1. No contact information: Include your phone, email or address (unbelievable, right?)
   
   
2. Color or heavyweight paper: Use ordinary white paper and black ink.
   
   
3. Typos, spelling and grammar errors: Use spell check, but make sure a knowledgeable human checks for wrong words that are correctly spelled (“their” versus “they’re” and so on).
   
   
4. Amateurish formatting: Make sure your margins, paragraphs and bullets are aligned. Don’t squeeze too much text onto the page. Many readers can instantly sense bad alignment, even if they cannot explain what the problem is.
   
   
5. Personal attributes and hobbies (young, divorced, golf, fishing, “free spirit”): Just delete anything personal.
   
   
6. "References Available on Request” is an obsolete phrase. Just delete it!

People know better than to commit these errors, but sometimes they just get careless.

Fortunately, the cure is simple: Before you send out your resume, just ask some knowledgeable person to check it.

Or you can order a Double Check right from this Web site.

I met Karl Kinkel in May 2007 at an Internet marketing workshop in Tampa.

Karl joined the Army in 1948 at age 17—right out of high school—and eventually became a pilot in the Air Force.

After 22 years of military service he went back to school and—at age 46—started his new career as a pediatric dentist for the Public Health Service. Now he's pursuing a career in Internet marketing and copywriting.

During his presentation in Tampa, Karl made some side comments that I'll never forget:

I’m 77 years old. You might think that a man my age doesn't have that much time. But I don’t believe that. There's always time to make yourself the person you want to be. I am living proof of that. You are most likely younger than me. Don't wait till you're 77 to stop floundering . . .

We gave him a big standing ovation. Karl unexpectedly electrified the room, put things in perspective and gave us the big-picture view. I left that room thinking that maybe we're all in better shape than we realize!

The answer might surprise you!

Click this link: Jobs for Over 50.

 

 

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How the "New" Internet Is Changing the Rules for Job Hunters...

Six Things To Do Right Now If You're Looking for a Better Job

Sometime in 2005—while you were busy and minding your own business—the “rules of the road” started changing for job hunters.

Now it’s late 2008, the economy feels shaky and resumes are flooding the Internet. Unfortunately, many well-qualified people don't know about the new rules so their resumes are landing in the spam pile.

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Advice from Top Recruiters: "Do Three Things Now—Even if You're Not Looking for a Job"

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, maybe you're been hearing a small voice in the back of your head saying "Be Prepared."

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Unfair Advantage?
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Some Resume Fads You Need Not Worry About—for Now

Every few years somebody says the traditional resume is about to be replaced by some high-tech upgrade like the video resume, the social networking resume, or even the podcast resume.

As we say in Brooklyn, fugghedaboutit.

A traditional resume is still the power tool for your job search. Unless you are a Web designer, multimedia artist or "digital snob," these high-tech formats won’t apply to you in the foreseeable future.

BTW video resumes are tedious to watch and inefficient. An employer can scan a printed resume in 10-15 seconds--it takes that long just to load a video on YouTube!

The Web 2.0 Resume, Marci Alboher, NY Times, March 10, 2008
http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/the-web-20-resume/

How to Spiff Up Your Resume, Marci Alboher, NY Times, Nov 1, 2007
http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/how-to-spiff-up-your-resume/

References for All Articles
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