FM Oct 04 PDF - Orlando Chamber of Commerce

Red Flags
The Top 10 blunders to look for when weeding through resumés.
By Luis Ferrer, President, Florida Employer Solutions
Sometimes knowing what should not be on a
resumé is just as important as knowing what should
be included.
Managers of small businesses must be careful
when making the commitment to hire a new
employee. Too often, resumés are inundated with
superfluous information, and some recruiters say this
leads to settling for a less than qualified candidate just
because it’s easy. This hasty decision, in turn, can lead
to costly mismatches.
Recruiting managers from several industries
suggest watching out for these frequent mistakes to
avoid the expenses of employee turnover:
■ “Jack-of-all-trades” resumé — Like the saying
goes, ”When you appeal to everyone, you appeal to no
one.” While versatility and a diversified background
are desirable traits, an applicant without a focused
objective does not help fill a specific position.
■ Revealing personal information — It’s
surprising how often family and hobbies appear on
a resumé. People tend to think of a resumé as an
autobiography and include things irrelevant to their
job qualifications. Make sure that every item is
pertinent to the position.
■ Being generic — Look for specifics when reviewing
professional accomplishments. Instead of being vague
with “Increased sales volume,” an applicant should
assert, “Increased product sales volume by five percent
over an 11-month period.”
■ Political views/sensitive subjects — Be conscientious
of a prospective employee telling too much before
an interview. Although applicants may include personal
views such as involvement in political affiliations, make
sure that they aren’t pre-judged based on their beliefs.
■ Use of clichés — What does the phrase “I’m a people
person” tell someone about an applicant? Nothing.
Using clichés is vague and gives no indication that the
applicant meets the qualifications. Instead, gauge the
time they took to research the industry by their use of
industry jargon and “buzz” words.
■ Too much information — A resumé is the tip of
the iceberg, not an account of an entire lifetime’s work.
The word “resumé” means a brief summary of work
experience and qualifications. While there is no
standard resumé length, it should highlight a
particular facet of one’s career.
■ Fluffy objectives — Chances are, you’ve read this
objective before: “Highly motivated team player with
excellent organizational and communication skills.”
An objective needs to be tailored to the position, not a
standard phrase plucked from a how-to resumé book.
■ Plain carelessness — Grammatical and spelling
errors are the number-one mistake made on resumés,
even at the senior level. A resumé addressed to the
wrong person or containing inaccurate contact
information translates to an employee who doesn’t
pay attention to detail.
By watching for these red flags,
management can often avoid
ill-advised hirings and have a better
track record when hiring “the right
person” for a particular job.
■ Fancy colors and fonts — Since many
organizations scan resumés and place them into
a database, many fancy fonts, layouts and colors
are lost in translation when sent electronically. It’s
helpful for companies to solicit a plain text document
from applicants.
■ Reasons for leaving past jobs — Although
interesting, this should be left out of a resumé and
best addressed in the interview.
A job candidate doesn’t have to produce the
perfect resume in order to be a good employee,
but by watching for these red flags, management
can often avoid ill-advised hirings and have a better
track record when hiring “the right person” for a
particular job.
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