The
number of new grads getting hired is up this year. Your chances of getting =
an
offer are much greater if you avoid these common resume flaws.
FORTUNE
Monday,
May 17, 2004
By
Anne Fisher
Ready
to get your first "real" job? Great, because employers are ready =
for
you too—or at least likely to be more welcoming than they were last year.
Companies will be hiring 12% more newly minted college grads than in 2003,
according to a survey by job site CollegeGrad.com (
http://www.collegegrad.com). The No=
. 1
hirer of entry-level people this year is Enterprise Rent-a-Car, which says =
it
plans to take on 6,500 people. Others on CollegeGrad.com's list: Microsoft,
Coca-Cola, Geico Direct, and Farmers Insurance Group. If you live in the So=
uth,
or are willing to move there, you may have a bit of an edge. Another survey=
of
companies' entry-level recruiting plans, this one by CareerBuilder.com (
http://www.careerbuilder.com), sa=
ys
that 33% of hiring managers looking for new grads are below the Mason-Dixon
line, while 25% are in the Midwest, 24% in the West, and just 18% in the
Northeast.
Brad
Karsh, CEO of JobBound (
http://www.jobb=
ound.com),
a site specifically for students and those fresh out of college, has seen
thousands of neophyte resumes, and he says that most of them contain at lea=
st
one (and sometimes several) of the following flaws. Does yours?
Job descr=
iption
vs. job accomplishment. "This is the mistake virtually every new =
grad
makes," Karsh says. "He or she simply describes what anyone =
in
the position—whether it was an internship, a part-time job, or an
extracurricular role—did, rather than telling about his or her own
particular achievements. If what you have written on your resume could
just as well have been written by the person who had the job before or
after you, then you haven't done yourself justice." Go ahead, bra=
g a
little.
Strict
chronological listings. "Recruiting directors skim over a resume =
in
10 or 15 seconds," Karsh notes. "They look at the first
experience listed and decide whether to keep going." So if you wo=
rked
at McDonald's in the summer of 2001 and as a financial-analyst intern =
at
Goldman Sachs in 2002, here's a tip: Put the Goldman Sachs job first.
Likewise, be sure to list the most important information left to right.
"Often, a new grad will write something like, 'Fall 2003, Alpha T=
au
Omega (social fraternity), President,' " says Karsh. "The hi=
ring
manager may not make it to the word 'President.' So instead, write,
'President, Alpha Tau Omega (social fraternity), Fall 2003.' "
Fluffy
objectives. If you must include an objective, Karsh recommends keeping=
it
very specific. "Write 'To obtain a position in the marketing
department at Coca-Cola,' " he says. "Stuff like 'To use my
outstanding communications skills to advance through a multinational
corporation' is just wasted time and space. Anyone can write that.&quo=
t;
Computer
skills. "Every student and new grad includes them, but is it real=
ly
necessary to do so? For some jobs, yes, but not for all," says Ka=
rsh.
"If the job description specifies certain skills, then list those.
But at this point, putting down that you know how to use Microsoft Wor=
d is
like writing that you know how to dial a phone."
Gimmicks,=
fancy
paper, odd layouts. No, no, no. "A laminated resume shaped like a
menu just tells the recruiter there isn't a lot of substance in the
content," says Karsh. And please, no multipage resumes. "You
need to keep it to one page."
Errors in
grammar or spelling. '"You may as well just drop it in the garbag=
e,
because recruiters will," Karsh says. "Simply no excuse!&quo=
t;
Yikes. If you're not sure you've parsed and spelled everything correct=
ly,
show your resume to someone who can spot where you may have gone wrong.
Don't rely on spell-check: It doesn't know many proper names and can't
identify homonyms.
Good
luck! Happy hunting! And hey—congratulations!