Welcome back to the second part of resume myths: what is fact and what is fiction? We discuss whether the following are fact or fiction:
- A good resume can get you a job offer without interview
- White lies are OK on your resume
- Nobody reads cover letters
- If you have the right contacts, you don’t need a resume
- You should do mass mailings with your resume
- You are the best person to write your resume
It’s a fair bet that the employer who offered you a job on the basis of your resume alone would not be a very good one. The majority of employers who are offering viable jobs with decent salaries – i.e. not commission only jobs – will want to see you, ask questions to clarify points in your application, find out what you’re like as a person and how you interact with others, etc. Your resume’s job is simply to get you short-listed and provide some guidance as to areas you can be questioned on. Once you are at the interview, it’s your presence and performance that matters, and that is another marketing exercise altogether. Remember, though, that even the seemingly ideal resume may fail to secure an interview, for the employer may have other unspecified requirements, your cover letter is not strong enough, or sheer numbers of candidates mean that many applications are more suitable than yours. And never forget that a weak resume can always lose you a job.
Quite simply, no, they’re not. If you give yourself better exam results, create qualifications that you never took, give yourself promotions or create any form of fiction in your resume, you must recognize that it could backfire and that when it does, it could cost you dearly. Many employers do checks at some point and this is certainly getting easier. They don’t just take up references – many employers now simply look on the internet for informal information that might tell them a little more about a candidate.
Some people seem to think that cover letters are old fashioned and unnecessary. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the cover letter has numerous functions. At the very least, it shows you can compose a formal letter and handle the language you are writing in. More importantly, it further emphasizes the connection between your experience and the requirements of the vacancy in question. It is your opportunity to really express your commitment and conviction, and in doing so get a bit more of your personality across.
Correction: if you have the right contacts, you may have a chance to be considered for a job that isn’t advertised. In most instances, the contact you’ve made through networking will still want to have a look at your background and will ask to see a resume. No matter how much they approve of you, their decision may well have to be approved by a superior or the Human Resources Department. Very, very few people ‘just walk into’ a job and you should never anticipate that happening. It would be a dreadful loss of an opportunity to successfully network your way to an unadvertised opportunity and then to be asked for your resume, only to have to admit that you haven’t got one. You will be seen as totally unprepared and quite unprofessional.
We may live in an age of mass marketing, but unfortunately sending out an enormous amount of emails of your resume is generally a pointless and time consuming exercise. Successful resumes and applications are those that are tailored towards individual vacancies. That means spending time and effort on every application, tweaking the information here and there, rewriting your Profile to best impress the employer in question. You may even have two or three ‘basic’ versions of your resume that are altered for different kinds of jobs, or different industries.
The opposite is often true – you can know yourself too well, which actually makes it very difficult to write your own resume. Resume writing entails taking a step back to take an overview of your experience and skills, before deciding what to include or leave out. The key information must then be communicated in a strong, positive fashion to the recruiter, so that you are ‘sold’ to them as a prospective employee. So, while you are certainly the best person to research job vacancies and put together your background information, outside input is usually valuable, whether this comes in the form of using a professional service, advice from a website, or feedback from someone with experience in recruitment. This is particularly true if you apply for jobs where quite a number of people will be applying, when the professionalism of your presentation is all the employer has to go on. If your resume is letting you down and you want to substantially improve it, then please head over to my resume writing site .
You make great points here! I totally agree that a good cover letter is incredibly important! If the cover letter stinks, many employers won’t look any further.
Great write up and very truthful, one definitely needs to remember that everything that they write on their resume has to be accounted for and will come back on them if not careful.