Apologies for cross-posting&

In a recent inquiry initiated by my colleague Mary K. Chelton and I, we 
solicited examples of resume/cover letter gaffes encountered by members 
of a range of professional listservs. A large number of respondents 
(especially those currently job-seeking) indicated that they would be 
interested in the replies, so here is a compilation prepared by Mary K 
with some additions from yours truly. Many thanks to all the generous 
souls who took the time to reply !

Comments from Professional Listservs Regarding Resume Problems Seen by 
Prospective Employers

Original inquiry:

Dear colleagues,

Our student association is having a workshop on resume preparation and I 
thought I would ask what mistakes and/or annoyances you folks see in 
resumes/cover letters of new grads?

Please respond to me off-list; happy to compile for anyone who might be 
interested.

Many thanks!

Mary K. Chelton or Claudia Perry
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
Queens College, CUNY
Flushing, NY 11365

CHMINF-L Responses:

1. My favorite was a combination gaffeeither "author" might
have gotten away with itboth claimed to have authored the same
author-unattributed book from the same company. One reported to the 
other at that company and neither was aware that they were both applying 
for the same position at another company. The consensus of the 
interviewers was that the supervisee might have contributed to the book, 
but that there was no way that the supervisor had authored it. As it 
turned out neither was hired at the time.

2. I have reviewed CVs and cover letters for a number of
years when recruiting for chemistry research associate positions.
(BS/MS level chemists)

CV gaffes that I personally don't like to see are:

1) misspellingsif the applicant doesn't care enough to spell correctly 
for this document, what does that indicate about ALL work that he/she 
may do when on the job.

2) poor grammarprovides insight into quality of education

3) obviously altered transcriptsunbelievable, but sometimes seen.

4) attempts to hide the standard types of background information: GPA, 
schools attended, 2-3 people that can be contacted as a reference.In 
this day and age when hiring supervisors may scan 100's of applications, 
difficult to find information is one sure way to have a CV placed in the 
discard file.

5) poor selection of personal references.in my opinion they should 
pertain to schooling for new grads, and employment history if recent 
and/or significant.

3. Here are some classicsI'd love to see the full list when
you're done.

Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain store.

I m a rabid typist.

Reason for leaving my last job: They insisted all employees get to work 
by 8:45 a.m. every morning. Could not work under those conditions.©Ü

The company (I was working for) made me a scapegoat just like my three 
previous employers.

Please call me after 5:30 because I am self-employed and my employer 
does not know I am looking for another job.©Ü


4. Though I am not a fan of the series in general and
certainly not its title, Job Hunting for Dummies is extremely well
written by a very experienced placement firm executive. Beyond having 
excellent advice and impeccable organization, he intersperses the text 
with a number of pages of real-life gaffes in interviewing and resume 
writing he has collected over many years from his many HR contacts. The 
one I will always remember is the interviewee who passed the time 
waiting in the lobby chowing down on cheese puffs. As the interviewer 
approached, the job seeker stuck out his hand still covered with yellow 
cheese dust.

5. First and foremost, your students need to understand that
search committees may review over 100 applications. That, of course, 
means we're trying to weed people out. Another tidbit for themif 
there's a search committee involved, probably nobody on it is going to 
see the fancy paper and matching envelope...save the money and use plain 
white for both!

Here's my list:

-Misspellings and poor grammar. Folks, if the ad requests excellent
written communication skills or attention to detail...

-Highly irrelevant experiencee.g., if all of your background is in Web 
design and programming and your stated objective is a job doing the 
same, why are you applying for a subject specialist job that involves 
lots of public service?

-Including "I just thought I'd send this out to see what happens" in
your cover letter. Yes, I've seen it.

-No explanations. OK, so you've been a Reference Assistant. What did you 
do, answer ready reference questions and design pathfinders...or make 
photocopies and sort the mail?

-Including hobbies is a little weird, and dangerous if they're a severe 
mismatch to the local environment.

-Including family information is also a bit weird. Apart from the legal 
issues, we're wondering about hiring *you*, not your spouse or your 
adorable children. (Exception: perhaps include in the cover letter if it 
helps to explain a gap in your resume or why you're applying for a job 
that appears to be tangential to your experience. We all know about 
family illness and trailing spouses.)
6. I know of a case where a graduate student did a spell
check, but did not check spelling and missed

_____ High School
New York State Reagents DiplomaSciences Concentration

It was returned with a red circle and a comment that it would be best to 
hire a chemist who knew the difference between a NYS Regents Diploma and 
chemical reagents.

7. ClaudiaI saw your posting on CHMINF-L. On a number of
occasions I have seen cover letters where a different organization is
in the body of the letter. It is obvious that the candidate sends the
same cover letter for several applications and neglected to change the 
name of the organization in the word processor.

8. The mistakes that affect how I evaluate an applicant's
resume are those of grammar, especially spelling, not following
directions given in a job listing and skills exaggeration. 
Unfortunately, I don't always catch the skills mistake until after the 
person has been hired. I try to get examples showing that an applicant 
is actually able to do what their resume says, but
I'm not always successful. I wish that students would be more honest on 
their resumes about their skill levels.

I hope this helps.

9. My biggest gripe as a hiring manager was to encounter
instances where the gaff was not a mistake but, in fact, a
misrepresentation. One example is the candidate seeking an advanced 
degree and also the first job. The resume is offered with the degree 
claimed but not earned. Several months after the hire, there is still no 
degree but the hiree is being paid according to the supposed degree. 
Just imagine the problems ... a really ugly situation for all (not the 
least of which is the HR function that is supposed to verify these things).

You may wish to investigate matters of willful misrepresentation
further. I am unable to elaborate, for reasons of confidentiality and
legal self-preservation. I do, however, remain convinced that there is 
no such thing as blind circumstance or accidentonly our inability to 
foresee the inevitable.

10. Spelling and grammar mistakes (spelling my name wrong and
spelling Xerox wrong are big ones I see all the time)get someone who's 
first language is English to proofread if you have any concerns about 
your competence with the English language. Cute openings I much prefer 
chronological resumes instead of functional ones

A trick I use to test people's ability with word processor software
when resumes and cover letters are submitted electronically, I turn on 
the non printing characters and see if they know how to use tabs, set up 
margins, etc.

11. Many of our students do not remember to put down foreign
languages and computer skills. In some areas of Chicagoland, speaking 
another language (Urdu, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Chinese,, etc.) can 
make a huge difference in being hired or successful in a practice. Also, 
computer skills may give a new grad an edge over someone more 
experiencedsince computerized record systems are so pervasive, being 
knowledgeable about computers may help a candidate learn the new systems 
more quickly and be a big benefit to an employer.

ARLIS-L Responses:

1. The worst I ever saw was a description-dense resume, where
the candidate had evidently gotten tired of writing description. In the 
middle of listing her current job responsibilities was "yadda yadda 
yadda". Oops. (We did not interview her.)

Pet peeves:

Spellcheck, then read it for content and spellcheck again. And
again. There is a difference between "its" and "it's". If you are not a
native English speaker, get someone else to proof it.

Make sure you understand grammar, or have someone else proof for grammar.

Make sure the objective is relevant to the job you are applying for,
not the previous job. (I'm staring at an application that says the
objective is "to attain a security guard position".)
Don't use an objective unless it is relevant. "To obtain a full or part
time position in an academic environment ..." doesn't really tell me
anything, so leave it out.

Provide relevant information. I don't want a full CV if it's about your
career as a violinist.

I could go on and on. I've reviewed a lot (!) of resumesI've stolen
from the best for my own, and gone through a variety of emotions
(embarrassment, annoyance, mystification, amusement ...) on the worst.

2. I worked in HR in my previous life, prior to becoming a
librarian, and the complaints are always the same: spelling mistakes, 
and the use of exclamation marks. It never fails to amaze me how often 
people spell things wrongly in their resumes or cover letters, or how 
common it is for applicants to use exclamation marks and other informal 
punctuation in cover letters. When you are going through hundreds of 
resumes/letters a day, spelling and punctuation are the first things you 
notice and the easiest way to make a cut. And spell check is not the 
only answermaking sure that applicants read the letter themselves, 
rather than rely on Microsoft, is a very important lesson.

3. What an excellent question! For years I've wanted to
provide feedback to some of the job applicants who might have wondered 
why they didn't get an interview.

Cover letters seem to be a particular problemapplicants often don't 
address how they meet the specific job requirements in the ad. Or worse, 
send a very generic cover letterI've even received them where the 
letter mentioned a different job indicating a real problem with "cut & 
paste". Please tell your students that employers do not want to have to 
search through the resume to determine if the applicant meets the job 
requirements or has the preferred qualifications. The purpose of the 
cover letter is to indicate exactly what experience or training the 
applicant has had that matches the job as stated in the ad. Often the 
cover letter may enlarge upon things in the resume, e.g. "you may note 
from my resume that I worked for X company while in college. This 
experience allowed me to work with the public in a direct manner 
balancing customer's requests with the company's policies and providing 
experience as required in this position." I also appreciate honesty in
cover letters. If the person genuinely doesn't have an attribute called 
for in the ad, I also like to see that addressed with a commitment to 
learn the necessary skill. I give credit for being up-front since it 
indicates that the person actually read the job ad and considered how 
they matched the job requirements & preferred skills. Also everyone 
should keep in mind that typos and poor grammar and mispellings will be 
noticed and count against the applicant. Also being too casual or 
over-confident can be off-puttingletters that begin, "I am perfect for 
this position" always make me want to prove the person is mistaken.

In a resume, I want more emphasis put on the content than on the lovely 
paper or typefont or layout. If the applicant has work experience, 
provide an short description of what each job was and particularly 
mention if the job included increasing responsibilities based on 
performance. Besides learning that one has a BA in a particular field, 
perhaps a short description of some of the favorite
classesparticularly if they apply to the jobwould provide a fuller
picture of the applicant. Language skills, computer skills, and other
special attributes can help fill out a resume for a young person with
little job experience. I also don't object to listing hobbies or
favorite pursuits since it helps me better understand who this person 
is. It's also important to select appropriate references AND TO LET THE 
REFERENCES KNOW that you have listed them. References who can provide 
substantive evaluations are much preferred over someone who is a casual 
acquaintance.


4. Two things stand out that annoy me 1) when someone sends
an email saying something like "Attached is my resume," and thinks that 
suffices as a cover letter; and 2) when someone sends a list of
references or other supplemental material before they are asked to. I 
think the first one annoys me the most.

5. Actually I can tell you some because my son is looking for
his own replacement at his job and is the recipient of the resumes and 
cover letters. He had dinner with us the other evening and was
complaining about all the resumes and cover letters he was deleting.

He saw things that were not proof read, spell checked, but not proof 
read. For instance, the word form is a word but it is not the word from 
as in "I look forward to hearing form you." He said that young people do 
not need a two or three page resume. When he sees that he hits delete. 
He saw a lot of grammatical errors and just bad English.

I think short and perfect is what he wants to see. He wants to know the 
people he hires can write a decent sentence.

6. Spelling errors, of course (especially for cataloging jobs). Stated
professional goals of the applicant out of whack with the job as
described in the ad (e.g. someone who responds to an ad for a full time 
cataloging job with a goal of: "to interact with patrons and gain 
experience in the reference interview")

No attempt to reconcile job history/experience with the job applied for 
(e.g. if all your jobs have been in medical libraries, and you are
applying to a museum library, make some attempt to explain why you are 
interested in a museum library"my first degree was in art history"; "I 
go to museums all the time" ; whatever.. )

I would also advise students never to submit salary requirements in the 
first letter, even if you are asked to do so so. If the employer really 
really wants them, they will follow up; why run the risk of looking 
foolish if you submit something much much higer than what is being 
offered (or undercut yourself by offering something lower)

7. I have several peevish things! First of all, each cover
letter should be geared to the particular job in question. Never send a 
"generic" cover letter unless you really are just blanketing the
country with your resume. A cover letter should contain things that you 
can't squeeze into your resume. It's a great place to highlight how your 
particular skills fit this particular job. It's okay to send a
cover letter that is longer than one page (depending on how much
experience you have). A 1 and 1?2 page letter is fine and can be very
informative.
Typos. Don't make them. Have someone else read your letters for you if 
you are a bad typist or don't know how to use spell check.

Grammatical errors. Ditto.

Personal information (hobbies, number of children, marital status,
etc.) should NEVER be included in a resume or cover letter. It is
unprofessional, and the hiring library shouldn't be asking you about
these things anyway. I would advise mentioning one's religious
affiliation ONLY if you are applying for a job where it is strongly
desirable that you are RC, Baptist, LDS, etc.

On the resume, I would stress that it is okay to have a resume more
than one page long. As you gain more experience, your resume will
develop into more of a CV, and this is going to get longer as you have 
more jobs and participate in professional activities.

8. The most prevalent and easiest to avoid is misspelled
words. It is amazing how many people send resumes out with obvious 
errors like that, especially when it is the easiest thing to double check!

Association of Vision Science Librarians:

In a previous life, at the U of Illinois/Chicago, I probably saw 400
resumes. I saw another hundred when hiring students at Michigan. I see 
fewer these days, because of government 'process,' but I did just review 
40 applications for a posting in our tech services department.

So here are my thoughts:

These must be spotless in terms of grammar and spelling. Not a single error.

After preparing the resume, go to a photocopier and photocopy it. Look 
at the quality of the image. You want it be crisp and clean. You will 
likely see at this point why you do NOT want to use anything but high 
quality white paper, since many people looking at your resume will be 
looking at a photocopied copy.

Account for all periods of time. Be honest about taking time off; don't 
assume people will not notice gaps.

I have interviewed students because their resumes, while not showing any 
remarkable preparation, showed the ability to 'make lemons of lemonade' 
by, for example, pointing out skills learned in otherwise mundane 
positions, or creative things done in those positions. I am not 
referring to people exaggerating or outright lying. Those are too 
obvious even to warrant a warning.

A special warning for anyone applying for a federal position: the
current mode is that there is a document called KSAs: knowledge, skills 
and abilities. For every position posted. The applicant will
absolutely be judged against that, and the first screening will be by
people who are human resources, not people who will be co-workers or 
supervisors. So if it's not crystal clear that the applicant has a 
significant match on the KSA document, he/she will be rejected.

Hope that's helpful...

YALSA-L Responses:

1 My biggest peeve are resumes that are obviously not
tailored to the specific job posting. The position description clearly
tells you the requirements and skills necessary to the job. I can never 
understand why applicants don't take the time to edit their resume to 
make sure they incorporate key words and phrases and tell me exactly how 
their experience and education make them qualified for that particular job.

2. If you do a resume that just lists your qualifications and
experience, do a cover letter that will tell the interviewer how you
fit into that position. What attributes you may have that would qualify 
you to be considered a suitable candidate to even get an interview. This 
is especially important for new grads as their experience in the library 
world may be limited. Draw on past experience and tailor it to the job 
you are applying for.

The written "thank you" bit Alan is something I learnt about when I
came to the US. I read it, but it does not play a part for me in
selecting a suitable candidate. It is a nice gesture all the same. Do
thank the panel after the interview before leaving as I always thank
the interviewee for coming.

3. As a matter of sharing my concern for the profession, I
just wanted to share that I forwarded this original message from Dr.
Chelton to a state library association list todayas well as two other
messages that had been posted on the ALSC listand was met with a 
message from the list manager that I need to "use greater digression in 
what I post" to that state library association list. Out of curiosity, 
are any of the others here involved with state associations that 
apparently either don't hire new MLS grads or care about helping them 
send out better-prepared resumes before entering the profession?

4. I just did a session on this (actually broader because it was about 
how to get a job) for the Univ. of Texas.

Failing to tailor the resume or cover letter for the job applied forso 
many people apply for a children's position and I can't tell from their 
resume that they've ever SEEN a child much less worked with them.

Typos, especially misspelling the name of the library where you are
applying.

Showing a career objective that is clearly at odds with the job for
which you are applying. Couple this with applying for multiple jobs at 
the same library and CHANGING the objective to match each position (How 
can your objective be to work with an urban children's department at the 
same time it is to provide original cataloging services in a multi-site 
library? Pick a broader objective or don't include one.)

Not providing month/date for positions. Often this is needed to qualify 
the applicant and if I can't tell whether you worked at East Nowhere 
Public Library for a month or a full year, you may not pass the first 
screening. (At least a year is better than the last resume I received 
that had NO dates at all.)

Cute email addresses. Get a free yahoo account that sounds professional 
and keep sexylady, smoothsailor, lovesmutts etc. for your personal email.
I always recommend that if it is not crystal clear in the resume how
you meet the job requirements that it be addressed in the cover letter. 
Our HR office screens applicants before I see the resume and it's easy 
to miss something because of vocabulary, job duties, etc.

I'd love to see the list of items you receive. I think the recent grads
are finding that it is not as easy to get a job as it was 4 years ago
during the last days of the "boom" and they lack the skills needed to 
write a good resume and cover letter. (At least in Austin, 4 years ago I 
would hire anyone with a pulse because if I waited they were swooped up 
by the dot coms. Now I can be a lot pickier.)


5. I am in the process of hiring right now, so this question
is especially timely.

I have to concur with another poster who said misspellings and grammar 
errors are particularly distracting. My thoughts are, if the candidate 
does not care enough to proof their resume, how much is he/she going to 
care about the job? Don't assume that spell check is going to catch 
everything. Give your resume to someone else to read and edit. Another 
advantage to this is, you may think you know what you are saying, but 
that doesn't mean the reader does. A third person who is good at editing 
will help you make your writing clear and concise.

Secondly, don't apply for jobs you are not qualified for in hopes of
getting your foot in the door. My particular opening is for someone
with Children's/YA experience as well as supervisory experience. It is 
obvious from some of the resumes I've received that the candidate did 
not read the entire posting. I have received applications from 
engineering librarians, academic librarians and others who clearly have 
no Children's/YA experience. I'm taking a guess that these applicants 
are blanketing their resumes to any open position in the hopes that 
they'll find a job. I don't have the time to read these. I scan it for 
pertinent information and if it doesn't fit the needs, away it goes. If 
in doubt about the specific requirements, call the library and ask.

I know you didn't ask about interviewing, but after this last round,
just let me add, if you're interviewing for a position, know the
subject matter you're interviewing for. If you're interviewing for a
Children's/YA position, you know you are going to be asked about book 
titles. Make sure you have some titles and authors in your head. you're 
probably going to be asked about what teens like to do, or what kind of 
program you would design for teens. If you're applying for a Business 
Librarian position, it is probably a good idea to know basic business 
reference material, data bases, magazines and how to use them. I am 
constantly amazed at the number of candidates that we ask "What do teens 
like to watch on TV?" or "What kind of music do teens listen to?" and we 
get the answer, "I don't know, I don't watch TV." or "I only listen to 
classical music." You don't have to watch what teens watch or listen to 
what they listen to, but be aware of the likes. You're applying for a 
position that works with teens. How do you expect to relate to them if 
you are clueless?


Once again, thanks to all who took the time to replyand best wishes for 
the New Year!

Claudia Perry

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