I follow a recruiter named Adam Karpiak on LinkedIn and Twitter, and he is constantly posting the real truths about what it’s like to be a recruiter. He posts tips and tricks for recruiters, clients, and candidates alike. This one particular post is what inspired this Tip of the Day.
I could not agree more with Adam! When you’re writing your resume or answering interview questions, make sure you are actually answering the question. If you don’t have anything to add or don’t have experience in that area, be honest. Use that time to say how your other experience can relate to what they are looking for.
On your resume, make sure your job descriptions are clear and straight forward accomplishments from your time at that position. Accomplishments don’t need to be quantifiable, but any hard numbers and facts you can put into you resume can only help. But please make sure that you are using numbers in the correct context. In the tv show The Office Dwight says he’s moved billions of units of product, because they work for a paper company he was referring to each individual piece of paper. This doesn’t make the most sense and leaves anyone viewing that stat confused. (I don’t watch the office and saw this scene once on YouTube in a “How to put accomplishments in your resume” type video, so I totally could have messed up that scene, but you get my point).