Coming soon: redlined resumes!

My out-of-town company has left, and I've had a chance to sit down and mark up the resumes I've received so far. I'll be posting them tomorrow and the rest of the week as a JPG so that you can double-click on the resume and open it in a separate window to see the resume better. I'll also include comments as to why I wrote what I wrote on them, but I also will include notes on what's working in these resumes. So far, the batch I have show some really creative thinking and some neat ideas in terms of formatting and presenting information.

In the meantime, check out this link on Ten Online Resources for Job Seekers. I clicked through a few of the links and found some good tips, but the most basic tips remain the best: no spelling or grammatical errors, include plenty of contact info (more than just one phone number--gimme an email address as well, at the very least), and remember that your formatting makes a difference (breathing room around the info on the sheet as well as a legible font).

One article I read said to include a customized "Objective" on each resume, targeted to the job for which you're sending the resume. I've recently heard from the folks at the firm at which I work that an "Objective" is redundant and could possibly bite you in the backside. Your objective should be to work for the exact job I'm advertising, and if your printed "Objective" varies from what I'm advertising or what my firm is about, your resume goes straight into the big blue recycling bin. Using your cover letter to target and highlight your experience instead of an objective on the resume is becoming an acceptable way of getting a job (and is how I got my gig back in 2000, before sticky Toyota accelerators and the iPod). However, one of the upcoming resumes includes a section that brilliantly accomplishes what the objective cannot.

Meanwhile, I must also say this: your resumes inspire me to fix and tune up my own. I need to anyway--you should update your resume once a year--but this batch really gives me some great ideas and represents some solid but creative thinking.