Dont Get Creative With Your Resume

Dont Get Creative With Your Resume Dont Get Creative With Your Resume Well, guess what? Its not going to work. Its time to stop fooling around with your resume and stick to the tried and true.U.S. News World Report published an interestingarticle on the subject. The problem with this strategy, the article says is that hiring managers can see right through the most common resume tricks, and using them will usually backfire on you.Here are some of the tricks it suggests avoiding and why1. Using a functional resume instead of a chronological resume to hide weaknesses in your work history.According to the article, employers knowjob seekers use functional resumes to hide gaps in their work history. Funnily enough, this commonly suggested trick is little more than a red flag for most employers.2. Shortening your resume by shrinking the margins and font instead of cutting content.Employers are aware of this strategy, too. All it shows them is that you dont know how to edit your work prop erly.3. Leaving dates off your resume to avoid age discrimination. Dates of employment are such a standard part of resumes that employers will notice if you dont include them.U.S. News World Report compares leaving dates off of your resume to leaving the house without your pants.On her blog, job coach Susan Ireland says, As a general rule, you dont need to go back more than 10 years however, if its to your benefit, you may go back further.In order to decide how far back you should, Ireland suggests asking yourself a few questions, including How old do you want to appear on your resume? and How relevant are your earlier lages to your job objective?. You can read the full list on her blog.4. Littering your resume with keywords to get by resume-screening software.U.S. News World Report says that a significant number of companies dont even use resume-screening software especially smaller companies so this trick is generally useless. If the company does use resume-screening software, theres a good chance theyll find you, even without the barrage of keywords provided youre qualified for the position in the first place.5. Using a fancy or unusual resume design to stand out and catch the hiring managers eye.U.S. News World Report says that unusual resume designs sacrifice content for flash. Hiring managers dont want flash they want easily accessible, relevant information.Thisreminds me of a kid at my college. He put his resumes on grocery bags. His tagline was, Im so willing to work for you I would brown-bag it every day. It seemed clever, but nobody knew exactly what the heck he was talking about. Nobody could figure out what packing your lunch had to do with landing a career.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further thei r career.