Nevergirl’s

Vet talked me into signing up for an online HR community months back. No, it did not turn me into a walking, breathing repository of HR information. What it did is route at least 30 emails a day into my inbox. And because I seldom check my emails, thanks to Globelines’ horrendously slow connection, I get stuck with manual inbox clean-up which involves sifting through chunks and hunks of mail – 598 at one time – to delete the ones that don’t matter and sort the ones that do.

My mail habits are the stuff jokes are made of — to the husband, anyway. He tells me it’s good I don’t check my mail regularly; otherwise, inbox clean-up would turn into a full-time job.

Today, I had another go at those posts. And what do you know? I got 600+ in three weeks! One mail made me laugh, however. It discussed the funniest ways people unwittingly sabotage their own job applications and resumes. The list includes:

1) writing down “occasionally” in the part where applicants must indicate their Sex
2) actually putting this line in the cover letter: I’m 16, pregnant, and can do anything.
3) adding “bi-lingual in three languages” as a skill
4) printing out your resume in colored paper, with cute or wacky fonts
5) providing an email address that is just, well, too odd for comfort (and just so you know, I’m guilty of this, too. My email address is literally justalittleodd@gmail.com)

All these bloopers considered, what does a fail-safe, professional resume look like? The mail provides this sample from one Dan Neumeister. It’s dry, it’s concise, and it’s focused.

But just so we’re clear on this, I’d probably take one look at professionally done resumes like his and feel drowsy two paragraphs after. There’s no accounting for taste. I really, truly prefer the applications that go: You should hire me because I bring doughnuts to the office on Wednesdays.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 11:49 am and is filed under From the workdesk, While on baby leave. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.