Use common sense during your job hunt

Over the years, I’ve read many resumes. It amazes me what people include.

Suggestion #1:
Do not put your current work email address on your resume and don’t send job search emails from that account.

Think about it. Your employer keeps records of every email sent, and most likely has archive backups of them — even the ones you think you deleted.
Simply signup for a free Web mail account: Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AIM. You can check them with a Web browser and it’s less likely that you’ll leave a trace.

Also, use a name that sounds professional. JohnSmith@domain.com, JSmith@domain.com are easy to recognize. TummyKitten69@domain.com is bizarre and puts a negative idea in my head about your level of maturity.

Suggestion #2:
Please be clear about when you worked at each job. It is so annoying to see sketchy dates. It just makes me suspicious that you are trying to hide something. It’s okay if you have a gap in your work experience. (It’s understandable that people take time off, travel, change careers, etc.) Just don’t try to hide it.

Suggestion #3:
It may be cool, but I really don’t care if you belong to a medieval re-enactment club. Career advisors no longer suggest to put on personal life interests. It’s irrelevant to the conversation and I need to quickly figure out if you are the right candidate for the job.

Suggestion #4:
Things I typically want to learn about you during an interview…
- Tell me about the teams you worked on.
- Tell me about your managing style and tools you use.
- Describe how you’d handle difficult situations.
- Describe how you’d plan a new project.
- Tell me about your project from hell.
- Tell me about your professional goals?
- What will make you happy in a new job?
- What will discourage you in a new job?

I’ll ask these types of questions to help me piece together what type of account/project manager the candidate will be. I’ll want to get a sense of the candidate’s…
- Competency
- Maturity
- Experience
- Common sense
- Energy and enthusiasm
- Response under pressure
- Willingness to learn from mistakes
- How well he/she will work with internal and external colleagues

I hope you find this useful. Please add your thoughts below.
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.