Career Pros Share Resume No-Nos

Career Pros Share Resume No-Nos ) would qualify him for a Technical Trainee job with a large-city transit operation. He was surprised to find out that his resume as it currently stands would never “make the short list” because the hiring decision-maker won’t take the time to connect his Stonemason experience with his technical attributes. Instead, job seekers should locate actual job postings they wish to apply for, list the actual job title (and â€" where applicable â€" the Job ID # that needs to be quoted) on their resume and cover letter, and customize their skills and abilities according to the job posting qualifications.   If a job seeker doesn’t feel confident in their ability to do this or feels overwhelmed by this herculean task, they are more than welcome to seek out a CPC member for assistance.”   Marian Bernard of The Regency Group Stories that Miss the Mark Lately, job-seekers are attempting to put value in their documents by using the recently popular trend of career-storytelling in place of the objective statement.  When used correctly, career-storytelling on a resume has great value. However, the concept behind storytelling is increasingly becoming misunderstood. Career storytelling isn’t about long and wordy statements or dense paragraphs. It is about putting your accomplishments into context by specifying the challenges you faced and how you successfully overcame them. It is about anchoring your resume with quantifiable results that reinforce your credibility.Just telling a story isn’t enough â€" you need high impact SAR (situation, action, result) statements that outline the strategic impact you have previously made in your industry…like: “Launched company-wide beta test for an Associate Sales Program that fostered profitable customer accounts and grew revenue from $4.5M to $12M in 18 months.”At the end of the day, job seekers need to remember that resume storytelling isn’t about writing a book. Write short and concise accomplishment statements in your qualifications summary and throughout your resume that take an employer through the strategic impact you can bring to them. Skye Berry-Burke of Skye is the Limit Resume and Career Solutions Job seekers keep in mind that although some approaches are not acceptable, there is truly no one way or right way to compile a resume â€" just resume best practices (which these red flags don’t fall into). Always qualify resume advice from an established, certified career professional. Adrienne Tom is a Master Certified Resume Strategist with Career Professionals of Canada.