The
Job Journal hosted a job fair yesterday and
Community Business College staff helped out by providing free resume critiques. Here's what happened...
Each time we attend a job fair, the experience is a little
different. This job fair in Modesto was
notable because we ran out of resumes to critique. That almost never
happens. Why did it happen this time?
Here are some theories:
People are
gearing up for the holidays so job search is on hold.
The word didn’t get out
about this particular fair.
More
people have jobs than need jobs.
Of the possibilities, the first two seem to make more sense
than the third theory.
But, needless to say, offering unemployed job seekers free
critiques on their resumes we learn about what’s trending. It’s a good service
that a lot of people appreciate.
All told, we helped 34 people with their resumes, from the
job fair. It always provides us with a good feeling to help those in need.
We also had a job seeker travel all the way from Ione,
California for this job fair and we had a priest who is no longer a priest and
needed help on his resume to get a secular job.
And, finally, one other interesting factiod from this job
fair – this may be the first job fair we attended that had two nut companies recruiting
for employees at the same time: Diamond Nuts and Fisher Nuts.
So here are the trends we saw
amongst the resumes:
Here are some of the tips that came up at this fair:
Rules? We don’t Need No Rules
In addition to the regular rules of job fairs, we did find
one worth adding.
First, the regular rules still apply:
Come dressed
as you would for an interview;
Bring copies
of job-ready resumes to hand to employers;
Be prepared
to answer interview questions;
Take lots of
notes to follow up later.
But here’s a new
rule: Don’t come to the job fair if you’ve finished drinking a few beers and
spilled some on your shirt.
Yes, it happened. Somebody walked up for a free resume
evaluation smelling like a homebrew factory. And, needless to say, he was not
as sharp as would have been if he had come in sober. Now, granted, looking for
a new job can be really stressful, but it’s not bad enough to hit the brews
BEFORE you go in.
It sends the wrong message. It’s like the one person who
went from employer to employer, wearing a t-shirt that says, “I’m not laughing
with you, I’m laughing at you.
Another thing we came across is someone with
Lotus 1-2-3 and old
Word
Star listed as software skills. Our advice? Stick to listing contemporary
programs on your resume
unless you
find a job opening that specifically asks for one of these classics.
Loyalty To The Extreme
One job seeker was quite concerned that she wouldn’t want her
next employer to see that she was still working.
Why?
She thought it would make her look disloyal to her current employer.
She is working at a part-time job position but is looking for a full-time job
her current employer couldn’t provide.
Her leaving for a better position is just the way of things and
almost every employer understands that. The bottom line is if employers really
want to keep employees, all they have to do is offer better wages, better
perks, more hours, etc. That’s part of being an “At Will” employer. If
employees can get a better deal somewhere else, they should take it. After all,
the employer is under no rules of loyalty to keep employees and layoffs happen
all the time.
The Dreaded Double Entendre.
One resume was an electronic oriented resume with lots of
technical skills listed. One of the attributes was “Sound Design Skills.”
So was he saying he has audio skills like for dubbing in
audio in movies?
Or was he trying to say that his design skills are sound?
When working on your resume phrasing, remember to watch out
for phrases that can be read more than one way.
There have been other, more extreme examples of this, like
the ever embarrassing – “I was told by my last employer that he was lucky to
get me to work for him.”
Sometimes it helps to have friends and family read your
resume for that reason alone– it gives you a new pair of eyes who can read
things differently like a potential new employer might.
The Real Job Of The Resume
One of the school’s resume evaluators found a common concern
- Getting interviews can be quite a challenge.
Here’s one of the most common reminders we offer: It’s the resume’s job to get you the
interview. Then it’s up to the interview to get you the job.
We’ve never heard anybody say that they got a job just off
the resume. There almost always is an interview required.
The last quirky thing that occurred at this particular job
fair? One job seeker couldn’t stop sneezing. It must still be the end of allergy
season.
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