Wanna know why your resume doesn't get responses?

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kraftiekortie
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29 Apr 2021, 12:55 pm

I agree with the "unique" part. Absolutely.

It's easy to sift through resumes and deem many of them not pertinent to the job at hand----if the job opening is one which is exceedingly specialized within a field like engineering.

It is more difficult when the opening, say, is in a business/corporate entity. More generalized skills could be required within these openings.



Fnord
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29 Apr 2021, 1:22 pm

One of the saddest excuses for a résumé looked like someone had printed out the template and then scribbled their name and other info into the blank spaces on the paper itself.  The person's handwriting was so terrible that I never did find out who they were.  No return address on the envelope, either.

I bet they are still wondering why no one replied.


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goldfish21
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29 Apr 2021, 5:50 pm

Redd_Kross wrote:
No.


Oui.


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MjrMajorMajor
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29 Apr 2021, 8:41 pm

Fnord wrote:
Fireblossom wrote:
I was taught in school how to make a resume starting from ninth grade. Is this not common? I mean, the one thing most people get right here is the proper format because it's taught so many times.
I have asked candidates if they had ever learned how to write a résumé.  Most tell me they have, but some also tell me that writing résumés is "high school stuff" and does not really matter when applying for a job.
Fireblossom wrote:
But yeah, the first point couldn't be more true, though I wish they'd at least sent an automatic "you were not chosen" after the choice is made so that one wouldn't hold on to the hope for nothing.
If someone puts all of their hope in only one job application, then they will be disappointed whether or not they receive such a notice.  It is better to send out hundreds -- if not thousands -- of résumés and hope that just one of them gets a positive response than to put all of one's hope in one résumé, only to have that hope dashed to pieces later.


I received similar advice and it was game changing. It showed that some failure doesn't mean you won't succeed.



Dial1194
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17 Jul 2021, 4:08 pm

I've talked to a lot of people who read/assess resumes for their employer (and sometimes being the employer themselves), and there's one overriding issue which stands out above all others:

There. Are. No. Standards.

Every single person who reads a bunch of resumes is looking for something different. There might be a few overlaps, such as "correct spelling" and "not written in crayon", but every single assessor has their own personal idea in their head about what a 'good' resume looks like.

And they don't share this with anyone. At all. Ever. Not applicants, not other assessors, not anyone in their company.

There's no central standards authority. There's no industry group. There's not even a bunch of people who get together down the pub and talk about what they should accept in a resume. And the expected standards are never, ever, EVER communicated to applicants in any form whatsoever - not in the job application, not on the corporate website, not in a document attached to a standard HR applicant enquiry email. There are no templates, no rubrics, not even a hint.

None.

Applicants are, in short, expected to be nothing short of telepathic in determining what the unknown person reading their resume will personally want to see. It's a complete crapshoot as to whether your application will make it past that person. A toss of the coin, a roll of the dice. All anyone can say is "do a spellcheck and don't write it in crayon".

If you've ever wondered why you can take a resume to fifty different "Improve Your Resume For Great Jobs!" places and every one of them will change something from what the last place assured you was the Best Possible Resume, that's why. It's the same reason that every article on the subject will be different, and even the same writers will write different things year to year. Because there are no standards, no One True Format, no secret sauce.

And, of course, as an applicant you will never, ever get useful feedback saying how to reformat your resume to match the personal whims of the reviewer. (Not that this would prove terribly useful anyway, unless you applied for some other job at the exact same place and happened to get the same reviewer the second time around.)

So... good luck. You'll need it. Literally.



goldfish21
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17 Jul 2021, 4:14 pm

Ok. Keep submitting wall-o-text resumes to your heart's desire and getting no responses because it's the reviewers fault.


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funeralxempire
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17 Jul 2021, 4:23 pm

I assume it's because I haven't made any attempts to distribute it in awhile. :nerdy:


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GGPViper
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17 Jul 2021, 4:48 pm

I used this to get my current job (sections in yellow are to be filled out):

Image

I managed to condense 12 years of working experience into a single page resume (only 6 lines longer than the above template) this way.



Dial1194
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21 Jul 2021, 6:36 am

GGPViper wrote:
I used this to get my current job (sections in yellow are to be filled out):


If you don't mind me asking, what industry was that in?



Fnord
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21 Jul 2021, 8:12 am

GGPViper wrote:
Image
A candidate using this format (or others like it) would go onto my "call" list if all the facts have been verified.

HR or a trusted agency does the verification process before I even see a résumé like this, however.

A "wall of words" would never make it to my desk.


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GGPViper
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26 Jul 2021, 8:57 am

Dial1194 wrote:
GGPViper wrote:
I used this to get my current job (sections in yellow are to be filled out):


If you don't mind me asking, what industry was that in?

The Danish central government.



TheRobotLives
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27 Jul 2021, 1:25 pm

What about mentioning AS or ASD?

I never did, and at two job interviews I was laughed at (outcome: not hired).

At jobs I got hired at, it's obvious I have communication difficulties, but then how to breech the subject with your new employer?

It seems so much easier to put it in your resume, to be open up front, but then maybe they never contact you.


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funeralxempire
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27 Jul 2021, 2:01 pm

TheRobotLives wrote:
What about mentioning AS or ASD?

I never did, and at two job interviews I was laughed at (outcome: not hired).

At jobs I got hired at, it's obvious I have communication difficulties, but then how to breech the subject with your new employer?

It seems so much easier to put it in your resume, to be open up front, but then maybe they never contact you.


I'm not sure where you live but in Ontario you can find disability workshops that coach about stuff like when to disclose. It might vary depending on what employment laws look like where you live, so I'd look to see if something similar exists locally.

I was today years old when I found out about that. :oops:


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TheRobotLives
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27 Jul 2021, 4:46 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
TheRobotLives wrote:
What about mentioning AS or ASD?

I never did, and at two job interviews I was laughed at (outcome: not hired).

At jobs I got hired at, it's obvious I have communication difficulties, but then how to breech the subject with your new employer?

It seems so much easier to put it in your resume, to be open up front, but then maybe they never contact you.


I'm not sure where you live but in Ontario you can find disability workshops that coach about stuff like when to disclose. It might vary depending on what employment laws look like where you live, so I'd look to see if something similar exists locally.

I was today years old when I found out about that. :oops:

Thanks.

I was not asking for myself.

I already went through it.

I found one of the few jobs I could do ... a work from home technical writer.

Deciding whether to put one's diagnosis on a resume is a big issue either way.

If you leave it off, then your employer may eventually think, "WTF is wrong with you".


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that1weirdgrrrl
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07 Aug 2021, 2:01 am

Quote:
If you leave it off, then your employer may eventually think, "WTF is wrong with you".


They always think this anyway :lol: :lol: :lol:


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