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Irrelevant Work Experience

December 13, 2018 By jmjeditor

Resumes have evolved to become personal marketing tools for working professionals. Job seekers were once able to list their recent experiences and present them to hiring managers to gain employment. Now, with the implementation of initial screening technology with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), resumes need to be strategically crafted in order to reach employers. Since they now have to be optimized, including irrelevant work experience in your simple resume will destroy your chances of getting a call for an interview. We will explain how including irrelevant experience in your resume can hurt your chances of getting an interview.

Irrelevant Work Experience Overcrowds Your Simple Resume

Hiring managers are looking for qualified candidates with qualifiable information. The more relatable experience the candidate has, the more likely that candidate is to be offered the job. With this in mind, employers want to be able to look through little information and find the right guy for the job. Employers generally spend only 6 seconds looking at an applicant’s resume. Including relevant work experience in this little information will save space and make the best use of your simple resume. Overcrowding your resume with irrelevant work experience can cause hiring managers to miss the important, relevant information. As a result, your chances of getting hired will be greatly diminished.

Irrelevant Work Experience Can Make Your Resume Unfocused

With ATS screening, resumes need to have relevant keywords in order to pass. For example, let’s say you want to apply for a position as an accountant. In your past, you worked in a variety of positions, including working as a deli clerk at a supermarket. You choose to include this information in your simple resume. You write about how you sectioned different meat selections and serviced customers. This can hurt you in two ways:

First, the applicant tracking system is looking for key relevance to a position as an accountant. This information will stray away from identifying you as an accounting candidate.

Second, a hiring manager looking to hire for an entry-level accounting position does not want to know that you worked for a grocery store in the deli department during your college days.

If you are writing a resume for an accounting position, you will want to focus your writing efforts on the skills and accomplishments needed for a career in accounting. You could very possibly use that position as a deli clerk to include information about cashiering and cash handling to better fit your simple resume for accounting.

Include only relevant work experience and skills on your simple resume. This will cut out a lot of unnecessary and irrelevant information and allow you to focus on your dream position.

Basic Resume Examples | How to Quantify your Simple Resume in 2019

December 11, 2018 By jmjeditor

Since resumes were first introduced by Leonardo da Vinci in 1481-82, they have undergone a digital transformation. In a more competitive job market than ever, skills alone are not sufficient to gain employment with top companies. In the art of contemporary resume writing, it is now a numbers game. The most successful resumes that work in landing candidates jobs are quantified. Resumes have to be quantified in order to be considered qualifiable for many of today’s positions. In this article, the Simple Resume team will give you tips and basic resume examples demonstrating how to quantify your simple resume for your 2019 career goals.

Quantify Your Team

If you worked in a team environment, it can be extremely helpful to use numbers to detail how many people were on your team, how many people worked on specific projects, and how many people you led or managed.

Here’s a one of our basic resume examples on how to quantify a team-related accomplishment:

Before Quantifying: “Led team in the implementation of specific projects”
After Quantifying: “Directed a team of 15 employees in the implementation and completion of technical projects”

Utilize Frequency

If you handled specific tasks often, it is great to mention how frequently you were required to accomplish these specific tasks. Showing frequency of tasks or projects in your job resume helps employers get a better picture of your consistency, proficiency, and willingness to repeat necessary tasks. The following is one of our basic resume examples of how to quantify your frequency of performing specific tasks.

Before Quantifying: “Created articles for content”
After Quantifying: “Produced 5 creative 1,000-word content articles per week”

Implement Time Management

Time is everything. In the professional world, you must be able to do everything in a timely fashion. Save time, manage time, complete tasks, and meet deadlines are a few things that require good time management. Here’s one of our many simple resume examples of quantifying time management within your simplified resume.

Before Quantifying: “Implemented a time-saving sales process to cut time”
After Quantifying: “Introduced a time efficient sales process to management to cut average call time by 15 minutes”

Use A Range

Some job seekers may work in environments where there is really no room for accomplishments and it is really difficult to quantify their job responsibilities. In this instance, it may be challenging to come up with an exact numerical figure. To combat this, use a range in your quantification. Look at the following example for clarification on how to use range to help quantify your work resume.

Before Quantifying: “Answered phone calls to provide customer service on a day-to-day basis”
After Quantifying: “Assisted 25-30 customers per day by providing knowledge and expertise to effectively resolve complex and escalated situations”

Quantify On A Scale

In roles that involve money, it is important to provide a numerical scale of a company’s financial growth, allocated funds, and costs. The following is one of our simple resume examples on how to quantify your financial accomplishments on a scale.

Before Quantifying: “Increased company financial growth”
After Quantifying: “Implemented several strategic projects in an effort to increase company financial growth, which resulted in an increase of $300,000 from the previous fiscal year”

Quantifying your simple resume creates a resume built for optimal performance. Our certified Simple Resume writers are trained to quantify your accomplishments and can create an effective, brand new resume for a low cost.

Professional Resume Outline | To Include Or Not Include Education

December 10, 2018 By jmjeditor

When creating a professional resume outline, it is extremely important to have a section to include your education. At one point in time, many job seekers were able to get their foot in the door in companies and didn’t necessarily need a degree. In today’s competitive job market, it is nearly impossible to get an entry-level job without at least a bachelor’s degree. As time goes on, job seekers will be expected to have even higher levels of education to qualify for roles. In this article, we will detail why it is important to include a section for your education in your professional resume outline.

Meet Qualifications

Education typically serves as a minimum qualification on a simple resume. In most job descriptions, you will find the qualification “bachelor’s degree required”. Most of these same jobs at one point only required candidates to have a high school diploma to be considered for employment. There is a general consensus that people with degrees have developed more skills and are more mature than people with only high school diplomas. Therefore, it is a must to include your educational background within your simple resume layout to meet qualifications.

Education Shows Your Worth

Employers value an employee with a quality education simply for the fact that they can invest in them. People with degrees are seen as more stable and less likely to job hop. With an educated employee, they are also most likely to advance in their respective roles. Many companies do not allow employees without a degree to advance into higher-level management or executive roles.

Education Shows Desire

A degree shows that you are able to fully commit to focusing on a project until its completion. In the professional world today, many roles consist of several hands-on projects that can take months or years to complete. In order to complete a four-year undergraduate program or two-year graduate program, you must have the desire to succeed. To employers, this shows focus and the ability to commit.

Stand Out

Although the education section within your professional resume outline is kept brief, it is critically important to include it in order to stand out amongst other job candidates. In accordance with this, there is an extremely good chance that you will stick out the more advanced your degree is in comparison with other applicants. In terms of setting yourself apart from the competition, it will come most handy if your education and skills align with the field which you are pursuing.