5 Myths and Facts related to Professional Resume Writer

Introduction

There seems to be a flurry of misleading advices about resumes floating around out there. One such advice might arise from some random blogger who might ask a candidate to create a new resume for each job he/she wants. There might be any friend who would assert that incorporating keywords into the resume is the only way to land an interview. Meanwhile, some relative might advice something that hasn’t been relevant in decades.

At Brilliant Resumes, we work with professional resume writers in Chennai and want to clear the air once and for all. In this article, we bust the five common resume myths and tell you the facts.

Myths & Facts of Resume Writing

Myth 1 is to include the candidate’s entire work history on the resume.

Fact is that the resume needs show only the latest 10 to 15 years of the candidate’s work history.
He/she might have 25 years of relevant experience to be showcased on the resume. However, adding the entire work history gives the employer a clue about the candidate’s age and that may expose him/her to age discrimination.

Yes, age discrimination in the workplace is illegal, but it does happen unfortunately. According to research, 3 of 5 workers over age 45 have experienced or witnessed instances of age discrimination in their workplace. Depending on the industry, some employers even consider applicants in their late 30s or early 40s to be old.

One should ensure to list dates of employment going back 15 years. If one has experience one wants to highlight dating back further than that, one should list it in under the “additional skills” section or in the resume summary. Another way to keep the age under wraps is to not include the year one graduated college.

Myth 2 is to include detailed information about everything the candidate has done.

Fact is that the resume should be concise, high-impact, and no more than 2 pages.
If one has got great experience with a long list of accomplishments, it might be tempting to put everything in the professional resume writing. But the goal of your resume is to get an interview, not to detail the entire work history. One has to highlight one’s career accomplishments that have tangible results attached. One can get into additional details about one’s work experience when he/she is actually in front of the interviewer.

Myth 3 is that public sector resumes are different than private sector resumes.

Fact is that today’s public sector resumes are very similar to private sector resumes.
Whether one is going for a government job or a job in the private sector, the purpose of the resume is the same, i.e., to get one’s foot in the door and land an interview.

Years ago, common wisdom held that public sector resumes needed to be 5 to 10 pages filled with detailed job descriptions and stuffed with the right keywords. As a result, the true value a candidate brought to the position was getting lost in all of those words.

The bottom line is that the government resume should be clear and concise and no more than 2 pages in total. Those 2 pages should be used to highlight one’s experience and the most impactful professional achievements.

Myth 4 is that the resume should be tailored for each role one applies to.

Fact is that it is only one resume that one needs.

Many of the clients approach us thinking that they need multiple resumes. We’ve found that clients are more successful when they have one fantastic resume, but tailor their cover letters to match the job they want.

Myth 5 is that one should include as many job description keywords in the resume as possible to pull up in the employer’s ATS.

Fact is that filling the professional resume writing with keywords or keyword stuffing is more likely to work against the candidate.

Keyword stuffing is an outdated practice of adding a lot of keywords from the job descriptions to one’s resume to rank higher in the employer’s applicant tracking system (ATS). Some unscrupulous experts still advocate the practice. There are even some resume review websites that will score one’s resume just based on how many keywords from the description appear in it.

Despite what one may have heard, keyword stuffing is not an effective practice.

First of all, many ATS programs today can identify keyword stuffing and will block a resume that looks to be stuffed. Even if a stuffed resume gets past the ATS, any hiring manager will quickly see that the applicant was trying to play with the system.

There is a way to use keywords naturally, so that the resume gets past the ATS and still gives an honest summary of one’s experience and skills.

Conclusion

We therefore conclude that the candidate first needs to do some homework regarding the selection of appropriate resume writing services in India who will prepare a customized and interview-cracking resume for him/her by keeping aside the age-old myths regarding resume writing prevalent in the market. We at Brilliant Resumes are always ready to help out our esteemed customers to create the professional resume writing to land interviews successfully.