Face to Face
With Fred Coon

January 6, 2004 - 20 Pet Peeves Recruiters Have About Resumes
Courtesy of Mike Worthington, ResumeDoctor.com

# 11 - Employer or Industry Information Not Included

According to executive search recruiter Terry Cantrell of Panama City, Florida, "People often try to write a resume so generic that a reader has no idea what industry the candidate comes from. Did they manufacture fertilizer, package cow chips, cook and distribute potato chips or assemble computer chips? Often I have no idea what 'Acme' sells, services, imports or manufactures. I cannot take the time to filter through a thousand resumes to see what and where their real network is. I am usually looking for a reason to exclude resumes, not a reason to include them."

Kelly Persichetti of the Persichetti Group adds, "I always tell candidates to think about WHO is the initial receiving audience of your resume. With this in mind, many times one has to be more explicit with their resume. Believe it or not, many recipients wouldn't even know if the resume they were looking at was even in their own industry!"

It is suggested that your resume specifically state the type of industry, revenues, public or private in the body of the resume in or beneath the specific company. This will help the reader determine if it's a direct industry OR an ancillary industry.

Recruiter Tip: Another idea is to bullet-point in your summary the specific industry experience the recruiter or hiring manager is seeking. For instance:

• Extensive Internal Audit Experience in the Healthcare industry.

Recruiter’s likes and dislikes in a resume were surveyed nation-wide by Mike Worthington of ResumeDoctor.com. FACE to FACE will publish all twenty pet peeves in this column over the next months.

ResumeDoctor.com is a service provided by Personnel Department Inc. PDI is Vermont’s largest independently owned staffing agency. They have been locally owned and operated for over 14 years. They have been featured in many publications, TV news programs, and radio broadcasts. You may contact them at: http://www.resumedoctor.com.

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About the Author: Fred Coon