11 DOs (and 6 DON'Ts) to Maximize the Impact of Your Resume

Writing the perfect resume is a daunting task, and it is important to do everything you can to make yourself stick out (in a good way). Recruiters pore over volumes of resumes and may spend mere seconds looking at each one. As someone who has reviewed hundreds (maybe even thousands) of resumes myself, the following is advice to help your resume stand out.

Overall

DO spend some time thinking about what kind of job you are applying for, who is likely to review your resume, and what they are looking for. Focus yourself on questions like What adds the most value to my personal brand? and What sets me apart from the competition?, especially as it relates to the specific job and/or company to which you are applying.

DO develop your story to have the most positive impact possible. Minimize non-relevant information and focus on demonstrated impact and results.

Formatting

DO organize your resume in order of relevance. If your educational degree(s) will set you apart, put that before work experience (or vice versa, if work experience is most relevant).

DO be consistent with fonts, headings, dates, locations, etc. The more consistency there is, the easier recruiters can find the information they are looking for. Using templates, learning to right justify text (e.g., dates), and maintaining adequate white space help your resume to look professional.

DO be creative and recognize the potential that electronic resumes bring. Most recruiters will be viewing your resume on some form of computer, tablet, or phone screen. Consider embedding links to relevant online pages, like your LinkedIn profile, professional blog, work samples, or the corporate webpage for companies listed in your work experience. This gives resume reviewers an option to seek out additional information, without taking up valuable additional space on your resume. Another possibility is using color to add visual appeal, but be careful that it isn't distracting and that the resume still works if printed in black and white.

DON'T use jargon or abbreviations unless you are 100% sure that reviewers of your resume will understand them. Instead, use more general and readily understandable terminology or spell out potentially ambiguous abbreviations. Similarly, don't use contractions, which are often viewed as informal and unprofessional.

Education

DO focus on what sets you apart from the competition. For example, did you get a 4.0 GPA in college? Then list that under your degree. Did you get a 2.3 GPA in college? Then leave that out. As a general rule, list things like awards, GPA, and extracurriculars only if they help you tell your story and have a positive impact.

Work Experience

DO be concise and simplify as much as possible. Try to limit yourself to 2-5 bullet points per job, and try to keep each bullet point on a single line. This forces you to clearly and distinctly summarize the job, because recruiters do not want to slog through irrelevant details.

DO list bullet points in order of relevance, importance, or impact for each job. Whatever is most likely to make you stand out should be listed first to catch the recruiter's attention.

DO focus on quantifiable results, wherever possible. Instead of just listing your job duties, find way to demonstrate your impact, accomplishments, or learning in objective terms. Instead of saying Conducted sales calls to develop new client relationships, say something like Increased new clients by 30% and revenue by $250,000 through targeted phone campaigns.

DO use active, powerful verbiage to illustrate your duties and accomplishments. For example, Member of team that set company sales record could have much more impact when stated as Actively engaged new clients as part of a team that set company sales record.

DON'T copy and paste the same bullet point into multiple jobs or use the same verb for sequential bullet points or bullet points within the same job. These things demonstrate a lack of attention to detail or a lack of effort in compiling your resume.

DON'T include irrelevant information. Focus on the job duties and accomplishments that are pertinent to the job and company where you are applying. Including all prior work experience, even when it is not relevant, will dilute your resume. As recruiters scan your resume, they are just as likely to focus on irrelevant information as they are on relevant information. So highlight the things the recruiter wants to see by getting rid of the rest.

What to Exclude

DON'T include a Summary/Profile/Objectives statement. This is typically full of subjective information (I'm a hardworking, conscientious people-person...) or information that is redundant. Recruiters already know your objective (to get the job) and should be able to put together their own profile of you based on the clear and concise information in your resume (e.g., work experience, education, etc.).

DON'T list your references (or even include a references are available upon request statement) unless specifically requested by the employer. The employer will assume that you can provide references and will ask for this information if and when it is needed.

DON'T include personal information. There is no need to highlight your love of fishing, watching football, knitting, or cooking - and definitely do not include marital or parental status. Keep your resume focused on job-related information.

Editing

DO have multiple people review your resume and give you feedback. It is hard to catch your own typographical errors, and others can help identify any inconsistencies or make you aware of anything unclear or confusing. It is always a good idea to get multiple honest perspectives about your resume. In the end, it is your resume, and you can choose what to incorporate and what to ignore from these friendly reviews. But it's better for a friend to catch a major error before your resume is in the hands of a company recruiter.

Halloween: 6 Tips for Avoiding a Workplace Nightmare

(image from monster.com)

October 31 is one day of the year where you never know what you are going to see. Zombies, superheroes, cartoon characters, celebrity doppelgangers, witches, and ghosts roam freely from house to house all night long. But even before the sun goes down, those same costumed characters can be found in a variety of workplaces. Before deciding if and how your organization will celebrate Halloween, it is important to consider a few simple tricks (and treats) that can help your festivities run smoothly:

1. Consider the Work Environment: Are there safety concerns if costumes are worn, such as on a manufacturing line or production floor? Ensure that you are not placing your employees at risk by inadvertently creating an unsafe environment. For example, one SHRM article suggests a pumpkin painting activity as an alternative to pumpkin carving. In addition, makes sure that costumes and decorations do not violate fire codes or OSHA safety standards.
   Do your employees interact with customers? If so, consider how the image that costumed employees may portray. What might be an acceptable costume in a theater or clothing retailer may be considered unacceptable at a family restaurant or financial institution. Remember that the front-line employees represent the organization to their customers.
   Finally, does celebrating Halloween in the workplace match the culture your company is trying to cultivate? These are questions you initially need to consider when determining what celebration (if any) is appropriate in your workplace for Halloween.
2. Determine the Invite List: If you decide that a Halloween shindig is in order, determine when it will occur (during work time? after hours?), and who will be invited. Are only employees allowed, or are significant others welcome? Is it an adult-only party or are families encouraged to attend? Make sure that the party environment, entertainment, and food/drink match up with the participants invited.
3. Communicate Expectations Clearly: If employees are encouraged to dress up in costume for Halloween, ensure that everyone knows what is appropriate. A minimum qualification should be that the costumes match your typical dress code by not being offensive, revealing, or otherwise in poor taste. Costumes that poke fun at religious groups, politicians, sexual orientation, race, or that may be otherwise inappropriate should be expressly not allowed. Similarly, if families are welcome, costumes that may not be appropriate for children (scary monsters, bloody zombies, etc.) should be avoided. Office decor (if allowed) should similarly reflect good taste. In addition to ensuring that everyone knows what is appropriate, you should also lay out the consequences of not following the guidelines.
4. Offer Awards: If employees are encouraged to dress-up, offer incentives to do so by providing prizes such as best, funniest, and most creative costume. Decorating work spaces and party activities (such as Pin the Bow Tie on Mr. Bones) can also have prizes attached. Ensure that the awards, prizes, and judging are all communicated clearly to employees to encourage costumes, decorations, and other activities tailored to the awards.
5. Do Not Make Participation Mandatory: While most employees may view Halloween activities as an enjoyable diversion from day-to-day work, an excuse to dress up in costume, and/or enjoyable interactions with coworkers, it is true that the origins of Halloween may make celebrating it uncomfortable for some employees. Whatever activities are done should be voluntary. Offer to let employees work from home or leave work early with pay if they are uncomfortable with celebrating Halloween, and ensure that no harassment takes place against anyone who chooses not to participate.
6. Consider Alternatives: Even if you decide that it is not worth the headache and potential complications that can arise from employee costumes or Halloween celebrations in the office, you might consider other ways to celebrate the season. For example, families might be encouraged to bring their children into the workplace after school for trick-or-treating, you could host a company luncheon, or you could stage a Fall Festival or Harvest Celebration.

Hopefully these suggestions help you avoid the pitfalls that can occur when celebrating Halloween in the workplace. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my own soiree . . . Argh! Where did I put my pirate hat?

Independence and Constraint

I had an interesting discussion recently with a couple of colleagues about how to foster employees' creativity. We discussed a number of things, but one of the ideas that stuck with me was the interplay of independence and constraint.

At first blush, the terms seem to be diametrically opposed. Independence is about an individual having control, while constraints allude to limitations or restrictions placed on an individual that are outside of their control. How can you have both?

But the two ideas can work together in the workplace to foster creative employees. Giving employees autonomy, or independence regarding how something gets done, is a great way to enhance intrinsic motivation and encourage employees to find the best way to do or create something. But to do or create what? There needs to be some constraint imposed that directs the behavior in the intended direction. Basically stated, there should be clearly stated goals for the employees to work toward, and clearly established boundaries regarding the resources available. When employees have clarity in their purpose and the resources available, this clarity empowers them to focus their attention on how to achieve the desired goal using those resources. Once those parameters have been clearly set, the employee is free to creatively work within those constraints. They are told what needs to be done and the tools available, but they are not told how to do it.

Maybe an example from my own life will help illustrate my point.

When I was in college, a roommate received a magnetic poetry kit - you know, the kind where each magnet is a word and you can stick them on your fridge and move them around to form all sorts of funny sentences.

(image from lessonplans.dwrl.utexas.edu)

This particular set was a genius magnetic poetry kit, or at least something very similar. It included a lot of words that the average person (like myself) would have to look up in the dictionary to understand.

My roommate challenged me to come up with a poem using only the words from that magnetic poetry kit. This gave me a clear goal (to write a poem) and clear resource boundaries  (only using words from the box), which helped instill intrinsic motivation to see what I could accomplish using what was available.

From that experience came the following poem:

Verbose

To question admonition

And every sound you see

Is to understand the mind of man

And spurn society

Above an almost salient space

I languish upon feeling base

Expunge myself as I eschew

The miscreant I make of you

How clever and curious our repose

Obscured by words no scholar knows

Time has lapsed this turgid zeal

Hence forming only her vapid will

I wrote dozens of poems in high school and have written dozens of songs as a singer/songwriter. But I think this is one of my most creative works. Why? Because of the clear goals and limited resources, along with the latitude in process, I had to think about things in a different way than I typically would when writing a poem or a song. In other words, those constraints aided my creativity by forcing me to think outside the box (or inside this specific box, in this case), while the independence allowed me the freedom to experiment and see what worked best.

- - - The Bottom Line Tip - - -

To foster creativity in your employees, try giving them a specific goal and outlining the resources available to them to achieve the desired goal. Then let them go and see what happens. The results just might surprise you.

Be Careful What You Post Online

image from thenextgreatgeneration.com

Does this story sound familiar? An individual sees something humorous or interesting, snaps a photo, and uploads it somewhere on the internet to share with others. Seems pretty innocuous, right? Most of us have probably done it ourselves - whether it be on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, or a personal blog. Unfortunately, things get a little muddier when the incident occurs in a work setting, refers to your job, or may cause others to look negatively at the organization that employs you. All of a sudden, what is seemingly innocent could end up being the grounds for disciplinary action - including termination.

Take the recent example of the waitress at Applebees who was fired for posting a customer receipt onine. Sure, a receipt from a self-proclaimed pastor questioning why a waitress should get an 18% tip when God only gets 10%, is interesting, humorous, and unexpected. But the problem came when the customer's signature was included in the picture and was used by the savvy internet community to identify the customer. The waitress (who wasn't even the one who served the table, by the way) took down the initial image and replaced it with one that did not include the signature, but nothing is truly erased from the internet as the image had already been reposted and taken on a life of its own.

You don't have to look far to find other examples of people being fired for information posted online, such as a teacher who was suspended (and eventually fired) after posting insulting comments on her blog about her students. In fact, here are 25 Facebook Posts, some more major than others, that led to firings.

These stories have received media attention because the question of separation between life inside and outside of work is a complex one. Often, these stories include legal action on the part of the employees who were terminated because the issue of if and when internet postings constitute a valid, job-related termination decision is a blurry one. And technology is changing so rapidly that it's almost certain that the courts won't be able to keep up.

- - - The Bottom Line Tip - - -

So what should you do as an employee? First of all, know what your company's policy is regarding online information. Secondly, always err on the side of caution. If there is any question as to whether you should post something online or not, the answer is probably no.

And what should you do as an employer? Make sure your company has a policy regarding internet use and posting information online. The company will be in a much better legal position if it has instituted, communicated, and consistently enforced such a policy with its employees.

Doing Things vs. Getting Things Done

Note: Every once in a while on this blog, instead of focusing on the weird and unique, I will actually try to offer tips and advice and make a genuine contribution, like with this post.

If you are like me, sometimes you feel like you are just spinning your wheels at work - always doing something, but not seeming to get anything done. It is a frustrating feeling that, if left unchecked, can sour your own perception of your work contributions and your job fulfillment.

In essence, it is important to understand that there is a difference between being busy and being productive. A recent blog post on The Happiness Project  refers to it as Fake Work and Make Work. In other words, sometimes it is easier to be busy than to be productive.

One model that I use to ensure that the work that I am doing is productive and effective is the 2x2 model of urgent and important work, as described by Steven Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

According to this model, there are four quadrants where we spend our time:

Important & Urgent - These activities are important to you, to your job, and/or to the company for which you work. In addition, these are extremely time sensitive and need to be done soon, if not immediately. Examples might include rushed jobs on a tight deadline, serving in-store customers, trying to hire a new employee immediately because a recent employee quit unexpectedly, and work that has been procrastinated until near its deadlines.

Important & Not Urgent - These activities are similar to the activities above in that they are important to you, your job and/or your company. But unlike the activities above, they are not extremely time sensitive. Examples might include jobs and/or goals on a long-term deadline, preparing in advance for upcoming meetings, and modifying job descriptions for upcoming positions that will need to be filled.

Urgent & Not Important - These activities take precedence on your time, while they are not important for you, your job, or your company. Examples include coworkers stopping by unannounced, some phone calls, and getting roped into helping another employee at the expense of your own work.

Not Urgent & Not Important - These activities are not important at all to you, your job, or your company, and they are not urgent either. Examples include personal emails and phone calls, browsing the internet, online chatting, and playing games.

To me, the secret of getting things done is to spend as much time as possible in the Important & Not Urgent sector, where you are making progress and accomplishing tasks on your own time line and with a minimal amount of stress. The other three sectors may give you the illusion of getting things done, when in reality, you are merely doing things. Let me explain what I mean by breaking down each sector.

Important & Urgent: It is true that when you spend time in this category, you may actually be getting this done, but you do it at the expense of additional stress and a heightened likelihood of making mistakes. The more frantic and urgent you feel, and the more pressure to quickly complete the task, the more likely you are to miss some steps or make some mistakes along the way, which results in additional work and additional stress in having to do this work over again.

I have a co-worker that loves to live in this quadrant. He is always, in his own words, "putting out fires and running in a thousand different directions." I have to admit that, at times, it can be difficult working with this coworker because I am not called in until something is critical and needs to be done immediately. So, by being drawn in to his Important & Urgent quadrant, all of a sudden I find myself in my Urgent & Not Important quadrant - helping my coworker put out his fires, while neglecting my own work.

Urgent & Not Important: This is the sneakiest of all of the categories. Because the activities in this area are urgent, you get the impression that you are actually making a difference and getting work done. The problem here is that, while you may be completing these urgent activities, it is not making a dent to your important job-related tasks. This truly is "spinning your wheels," getting caught up in urgent work without getting important work done. And when you do that, then your Important & Not Urgent work starts moving closer and closer to that Important & Urgent category, creating more unnecessary stress.

Not Urgent & Not Important: Sometimes, you just need to take a break. Studies have shown that a quick walk, a healthy snack, and maybe even a quick game of solitaire can be beneficial to your productivity. Where you run into problems is when these activities become counterproductive. When you are overly stressed about upcoming deadlines or a heavy workload, it's tempting to just walk away or to ignore the work by escaping into internet browsing, online shopping or similar activities. But once those activities are completed, your important work is still there waiting, as the deadlines creep even closer. You have done nothing to help your situation, and may have even made it worse.

- - - The Bottom Line Tip - - -

Spend as much time as possible in the Important & Not Urgent quadrant. By focusing on your important tasks before they become urgent, you have more time and attention to give. You will be less prone to make mistakes, encounter less stress, be more productive, and get things done!