Everyday Cool Tips: Tips on Creating a Great Resume Without Lying

Monday, May 21, 2012

Tips on Creating a Great Resume Without Lying

In March, I wrote a blog post about the importance of making your social media persona as true to real life as possible?especially when looking for work.

These days, people are more likely to lie on their resumes than they are on their LinkedIn or Facebook page. A recent study by Cornell University found that 92% of college students lie at least once on their resume. Can it get them into trouble? YES! In fact, it can cost them their job.

That?s exactly what happened to Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson after it was found that he padded his resume with an embellished college degree. Thompson?s snafu was outed by an activist shareholder group called Third Point, which owns just under 6% of Yahoo.

False statements about Thompson’s degree stretch beyond his time at Yahoo, which began in January. References to a “computer science” degree also appeared in his online biographical information on PayPal’s website when Thompson was president of the eBay subsidiary. ?CNNMoney

The discrepancy was flagged by Loeb, who discovered that Stonehill, a private Catholic school near Boston, didn’t begin offering computer science degrees until four years after Thompson had graduated. ?LATimes

Thompson had been CEO of Yahoo for four months before this scandal broke and he stepped down.

Here?s the thing?Thompson probably had enough going for him that padding his resume with ?additions? to his undergraduate degree probably didn?t even matter! I?m not sure how old Thompson is (judging by his photos I?d say he was in his 40s) and I?m almost positive his ?computer science? college degree wasn?t the reason he was hired in the first place.

This scandal got me thinking?what are some safe (ie: truthful) ways to make your resume stand out from your competition? Here are some ideas that won?t get you fired:

Education Isn?t Everything

Many people incorrectly believe hiring decisions are made based on the candidate?s education, and they feel compelled to stretch the truth in order to compete with their degreed counterparts. The reality is that education, though important, isn?t the driving force behind hiring decisions unless, of course, your profession requires a degree (e.g. doctors, lawyers, CPAs, etc.). ?WriteResume

Your experience speaks volumes?so let it! Would you be more likely to hire someone who graduated with a bachelors degree in history but who has a stellar photography portfolio or someone who has graduated with a degree in photography but has no relevant work experience to show?

Sell Yourself

To write an effective resume, you have to learn how to write powerful but subtle advertising copy. Not only that, but you must sell a product in which you have a large personal investment: you. ?RockportInstitute

Learn to toot your own horn, as a resume is a perfectly acceptable channel where you can toot toot toot and not look like you are full of yourself.

Another idea is to put yourself in the shoes of the person reading the resume. Let?s be honest, most resumes are actually scanned, not read, so you need to make the best information about you easy to find. Why should the person hire you for this project? What makes your skills and expertise better than the next persons? A cleverly crafted resume can make the difference between a phone call and nothing.

Highlight Other Freelance Work Wisely

This section can get a little crazy depending on your experience. One suggestion I found that sounded like a good idea is to split the work experience section of your resume into sections based on employers or types of content.

For example, one copy of my resume includes a subsection about the companies I?ve contracted with, a subsection about the various kinds of web content I?ve provided, and a subsection about my blogging experience.?WritingSpark

Perhaps you?ve written extensively about health-related issues for several publications and businesses. Tackle this strategically by creating subheads for the different content: print, web, and marketing materials, for instance.

Include Links to Your Work

Don?t make it hard for the person receiving your resume to see samples of your work. Include links in your resume to your stories online and include shortened links, too, by using a program like bit.ly). Don?t have an easy way to showcase your work? Create a website where all of your writing samples can be found, or, if your niche is design-oriented, consider creating a digital flipbook that you can link to in your resume.

Making it easy for the person on the receiving end of your resume is key. If you are going to email the person, attach the resume to the email, as well as copy, and paste it into the body of the email. Some people have a serious aversion to attachments and you want to appease, not annoy.