I apologize, I know that sounds pretty harsh, but it’s true, there is something creepy about third-person resumes, and lately I’ve gotten a run of them. They say things like “Ray is a talented designer who has built three companies” or “Mr. Johnson has twenty years of experience as a widget maker.” You know, like someone was writing an article about them for a magazine, only it’s not a magazine, and it’s not an article or a brochure or anything like that… it’s a danged resume. And I know that you wrote it yourself, Ray and Mr. Johnson, or at least oversaw the process of it, so when it’s written in the third person, it is just plain creepy, like crazy talk.

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The other day, I posted something on Facebook in frustration about clueless cover letters, and got a lot of follow-up questions from people, so I decided to give a little glimpse inside my recruiter’s mind so you can see what I’m thinking when I review resumes to select candidates. I hope it will help. It isn’t hard to have your cover letter stand out, because honestly, a lot of them just pretty much suck.

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I tend to rant a lot about resumes, and it might sound like complaining to some people, but honestly, these resume rants usually come from a place of astonishment, because it just seems so danged obvious to me that if you want someone to want to interview you, and the only thing they have to judge you on is your resume, then you should want your resume to show you at your best.

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There was a recent blog post on a the TechRepublic site about three mistakes people make on their resumes, and the writer listed having a personal section of interests and hobbies on your resume as one of those mistakes. (If you’d like to read the whole thread, you can go http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=195?tag=1-1-11-0-0)

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I live a life of rejection. As an executive recruiter, I see dozens of resumes every week, sometimes even hundreds. And most of them, all but a handful, end up in the virtual trash can. I am constantly rejecting people — or perhaps more accurately, digital representations of documents that represent people, a.k.a. resumes — and I hate doing it as much as you hate having it done to you.

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I admit that I’m a resume freak. Resumes are one of my passions. I think that a great resume is one of the biggest and best weapons in your job search.

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