Feb 16 2009
Plug the Holes in Your Resume
Be conscious of the fact that human resources people, and I am one of them, are notoriously anal about making sure that applicants account for all of their lifetime on the resume.
Be careful not to leave notable gaps of years that are unaccounted for, or they will assume that you are an ex-convict, an illegal alien or a real alien (would that then be a legal alien??).
You do not need to be super specific about dates, years are fine and months and years even better, but not showing some reference for what you were doing for a full year or more will raise a big, red flag and your resume could land in the ‘No’ pile before you have any chance to explain that you were living with the Tibetan monks or whatever.
Keep in mind that they are trying to eliminate as many people from the ‘Yes’ pile as possible and any excuse will do. Don’t make it an easy decision.
I agree with you on this! It is very competitive out there today, and you need your resume to really stand out!
I found your blog through labelladiva’s blog. I am so glad that I did. I really enjoyed reading it. I agree that it’s competitve in the job market. You tips about filling in gaps on your resume will be really helpful.
http://theinformer.today.com
That’s great. What do you do when you are an at home mom? Do you put that in your introductory letter? i always think that’s the reason my resume gets tossed. The other problem I have, who do I ask for supervisory experience when I was the President of the Company? That always gets me. The only other person on staff that had my kind of pull was my hubby. Not very good for references. And who wants to give the boss a reference? Both my hubby and i have this issue, and it’s a real bugger. Thanks for the reminder, because I did know about it, but living it is far worse.