25 Words That Can Hurt Your Résumé

I think their should be a federal law banning the automation of resume sorting - it is an entirely dehumanizing practice and creates an unfair advantage to those who simply pick the key words that these programs search on. It is an example of efficiency gone too far!

I am a software engineer and contractor. I am not a resume expert, but I have been through the interview GAME a few times.

Rule#1 - Make your resume stand out, be unique, and profesional. The worst thing that you can do is follow the "cookie-cutter" formats that lots of people tend to use. Think like a marketeer...how is my advertisement going to grab attention to want to read it. Your resume needs to have a unique professional look that will make it stand out. By the way, neon green paper will stand out, but is not professional. If you are emailing a bunch of resumes, experiment by send it in different formats and see if one format gets more responses than others, what does it hurt?

Rule#2 - Some resume rules are meant to be broken. I've had HR or Headhunters tell me, please send me a 1 page or 2 page resume that is the rule. Back when I was looking for a new job, I had a 4 page resume, yes I have lot of experience, so after hearing those people over and over I decided to thin down my resume to 2 and 3 pages (as an experiment), and guess what, I got few responses. So I bumped my resume back up to 4 pages and then started getting more phone calls, amazing. My new rule is...I'll send ya what I want to send ya...don't care what ya want...but I don't tell them that...I just send the long resume.

Rule#3 - If requested by a small company HR and all headhunters to enter information into their internal database format, don't do it, it isn't worth your time! For a very large company with lots of open jobs, it is worth your time. To you headhunters, f*ck off, that is your dam job, and I'm not wasting a bunch of time converting my resume for you, all you are trying to do is collect as many resumes as possible, thus the more you collect the less likely that I'll get that job. To be honest, I don't think that I ever got a job with headhunters that required me to do that...so that is why I won't waste my time on those type of firms. If a headhunting firm requires you to visit them, don't, and move on to the next headhunter, another flipping waste of my time and gas money.

Rule #4- Deal with small headhunting firms. One time, a large headhunting firm in LA area, called me and said that a company was very interested in me and I had to be at an interview that day otherwise they wouldn't accept any more interviews, so I drove a long ways...sat a long time...took a fairly-simple technical written test that I think I aced or close to it....then in a couple of days the headhunter called me back and slipped by telling me that I was the best or next to best (can't remember) of all the people they sent from their agency....what? what? what?...the gal slipped and told me something that she wasn't suppose to say they sent a dozen people to be interviewed in 2 days...I later found out the company did like me but I was over qualified and the pay was way below where I wanted to be...after that I quit taking calls from that headhunter company....just a waste of my time.

Rule #5 - Find a job before you loose your current job. If there are strong rumors of a lay off, get your resume out there to get things moving along before it happens. You have more barganning power when you have a job than when you don't!

Rule #6 - If you get a bunch of severance time off, like multiple months, then don't look for a job the entire first month and enjoy life because you rarely will get that much time off in one segment, it also helps you get your brain back to normal and calmed down after being let go. Don't start looking for a job until you are mentally ready to do it. Another rule, after about 1 month, start revising your resume and start getting back into the job looking mode, because you don't want to wait too long otherwise employers will down on it. Why can I say this? It happened to me twice in the last 7 years, the first time I had 17 weeks of severance & unpaid vacation, and I can't remember the second but I think it was 7 or 9 weeks of severance & unpaid vacation. Severance is incredible...you get a full pay check to do nothing...so enjoy some of it!

Rule #7 - Don't live you financial life on the edge. If you can't survive on unemployment, then you are independent enough. There is nothing like the feeling when you have your house paid off, your car paid off, multiple months ahead on your bills, no credit card debt, heck you can walk around work like your sh*t don't stink at work and say things that might get other people fired, hell come into work at noon who cares, man that is one of the best feelings in the entire world! I'm not 100% in this situation yet, but I'm close to it. The next time I loose my job, I don't want to sweat running out of money! Yes, I know that everyone can't do this, especially if you have kids, but if you can then try to do it, you will be glad you did! In the day of never knowing how long a job or company will last, it is important to keep out of debt, because a job loss at the wrong time can ruin you for a very long time!