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 __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]