Of Mums, Dads and Kids, Oldies and Sickies. Explaining Absences in Your Resume

March 25, 2010 View Comments

You know in your heart it absolutely looks awful. I’m taking about that gap in your resume where you just can’t easily explain your absence. Did I say “gap”? The more you look at it you see a great yawning chasm with nothing to link the dates before “the event” and after. “The Event” of [...]

Resumes: Two Phrases to Turn Robotic to Robust

March 18, 2010 View Comments

Cutting and pasting your current job description into the experience section of your resume speaks volumes about your slap dash, throw-it-all-together-in-a-minute approach and attitude. Is that really the impression you want to give? The key problem with job descriptions (apart from the fact they are mind-numbingly boring to read and full of fluffy, nonsensical business-speak) [...]

Interview Paralysis

March 11, 2010 View Comments

The other day I was sent the Word of the Day by a friend. It was Anatidaephobia. Before you race to Google it, I’ll save you the time. Anatidaephobia is defined as a pervasive, irrational fear that one is being watched by a duck. (I vowed to get that into a sentence or a conversation [...]

Resumes: The Top 5 “Must Haves”

March 5, 2010 View Comments

It’s a rare day that goes by where someone doesn’t ask me to critique his or her resume. To be brutally honest, most resumes are not up to par. From the spelling errors to the lousy formatting, from the boring, never-ending laundry lists of duties, to the straight copy-and-paste job descriptions full of fluffy business-speak, [...]