Your Resume Format Matters… and Doesn’t

As a writer, I get a lot of questions about resume format. The advent of so many awesome career-related portfolio sites and easy-to-use graphic design tools has sparked an explosion of digitally interesting resumes and digital portfolios. Personally, I find these fascinating, simply because as humans, we are visual creatures and anything that is attention-getting [...]

Resume Writer Confidential: We Know When You Are Lying

Not unlike a confessional, resume writers oftentimes hear stories that would make most people’s hair stand on end. How they messed up on the job big-time. Or a bad decision that resulted in a termination. Or had an awful boss who did unspeakable things to them. Or didn’t know how to do the job to [...]

Résumé Terms That Make Hiring Managers Barf

So you’ve rehashed your résumé, over and over, and at this point, your eyes are glazing. The necessary evil of tweaking this career document takes its toll on job seekers, but sometimes the part that they spent hours agonizing over is actually the one that doesn’t require as much attention. Sometimes, the words that you [...]

Single Most Important Career Question To Ask Yourself

Most people are unaware of seemingly subtle points in their resume that scream out certain things to employers. What may seem vague and somewhat insignificant to you usually is one of the first things that an employer looks for when evaluating candidates. Employers are evaluating resumes and looking to see what you’ve done to keep [...]

Spring Cleaning: Time to Freshen Up Your Career Documents

It’s springtime! Cue the singing birds, blooming flowers, and that warm promise in the air that summer is just around the corner. Ahhh… what a wonderful feeling! But to borrow a page out of our hardy forebears, this isn’t where one gets to rest on their laurels… time’s a-wastin’! It’s time to do much-needed deep [...]

Job References Gone Bad

Most people think about job references as a positive part of their career portfolio… but what happens when they end up hurting more than helping?

Who you list and why you list is an important thing to consider. It goes without saying that you should always make sure that the people that you list are “fresh.” By this, I mean that people listed as your references should be ones who can speak most immediately and relevantly to your character, experience, knowledge, and skills.

10 Ways To Impress With Your Writing

Job searches being what they are, you’re inevitably doing a lot of writing along the way.  There are cover letters and résumés to write/tweak, emails to compose, and thank you notes to send out. During this process, however, many people get lazy. The sheer volume of what they are trying to do makes it very [...]

Why Bad Resumes Are Like Holiday Fruitcakes

The other day, I was participating in a Twitter chat when someone complained about getting not just one, but FIVE fruitcakes this holiday season. And since December is just getting cranked up, this lucky fellow could potentially end up with a whole herd of fruitcakes crowding out the gifts under his Christmas tree. Instead of [...]

Your Resumes and Tricky Issues

It would be so great if our work experience were to be a glistening straight line of continuous work, punctuated by promotions and superior accomplishments.  The truth is that for most of us, life happened causing numerous career zigzags, sputters and interruptions. In today’s economy there is little tolerance for less than perfectly aligned skills [...]

Your Cover Letter, Better in 4 Steps

Cover letters are often the most difficult part of initially applying to a job. This is especially true for those of you who are recent grads or are otherwise relatively new to the job market. It can be hard to pin down your accomplishments and why you are a perfect fit for the job without [...]