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Applicant Pro-Tip: PDF your Resumes and Cover Letters

3,242 Views | 21 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by exp
HollywoodBQ
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AG
I need to hire a person to replace me in my current role so I'm working with an in-house HR Recruiter.

In our HR system, I got a couple of resumes submitted via employee referrals. Those were either entered in the system correctly or sent to me via Email. Those all included a MS Word, or PDF resume and were all human readable.

The HR Recruiter sent me all the resumes to review for phone screening however, for outside applicants, I only received a screen shot of some embedded HTML gobbledygook. So now I've got to go back and see if I can find the Resumes submitted by applicants because the machine readable crap that the system spit out is unreadable by me.

For several of the applicants, it looks like they have submitted either a Resume, Cover Letter, or both in PDF or Word format.

I know a lot of HR systems have you fill out an application online and you can submit that. Do that but, please follow up with a human readable PDF in case the computer code that comes out of the system is garbage.
AggieBarstool
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There's nothing more demoralizing than uploading a resume/CV/cover letter only to be asked to copy/paste the same content into a bunch of fields during the application process.
Naveronski
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Unless I really really really want the job, I'm not filling out your application like I'm 17.
HollywoodBQ
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Pro-tip #2 - Don't take 35 bullet points to tell me what your job responsibilities are.

And please don't take another 21 bullet points to tell me what your achievements are at that job during the past 3 years that you've worked there. I'm only on Page 2 of 6. I don't think I'm going to make it all the way through this one.
HollywoodBQ
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Pro-Tip #3 - once you've got tenure in a job past a few years, you don't need to list half-years, 1/4 years or additional months. i.e. 9.25 years at one employer or in one role is the same as 9 years, I don't care about the additional 3 months.

Pro-Tip #4 - If you're applying for a job in modern technology - i.e. Cloud, Open Systems, Virtualisation, etc., you probably don't need to provide too much detail about when you were a Mainframe Operator for 5 years, 35 years ago.
OkinTexas
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I've had to review resumes on several occasions because i knew the requirements for those contracts. I have to say that 90% of all applicants have very ****ty resumes. And I'm talking about real professionals in STEM fields. Just horribly written, formatted, and overall bad.
Agmechanic
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Just my pet peeve, but keep your resume on one page. Its supposed to be the cliffs notes version of you.

Multiple page resumes go to the bottom of the pile.
a gmechanic 01@gma i l (no spaces)
Petrino1
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Agmechanic said:

Just my pet peeve, but keep your resume on one page. Its supposed to be the cliffs notes version of you.

Multiple page resumes go to the bottom of the pile.
This is bad and outdated advice. If you have more than 10 years experience and have worked for several companies, its almost impossible to keep your resume to one page. If you only have a one page resume with over 10 years experience, it's not thorough or detailed enough.

A one page resume is fine for recent grads or more junior candidates, not for a mid/late career professional. This is coming from someone who looks at hundreds of resume a week.
ATM9000
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I've always heard that you typically have like 30 seconds to capture somebody's attention on a resume and I think that is about right. That's why you need clean formats and good active language is so critical in a resume. I have over 15 years experience now and I try to keep my resume at 1 page still. If it goes over that, I'm not communicating very well. I don't need to highlight stuff I did 12-13 years ago anymore if I have management highlights in the last 5 or so that trump that stuff. It is sort of implied that I'm probably highly competent in the early career stuff.

Just my opinion, but a resume is a highlight reel of your skills and professional accomplishments and not a professional biography.
Naveronski
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LinkedIn is a good place for the longer resume details.

If someone is looking you up, they're already interested.
JamesPShelley
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ATM9000 said:

I've always heard that you typically have like 30 seconds to capture somebody's attention on a resume and I think that is about right.
Six seconds. And in addition to capturing the recipient's attention, you must hold it.
ATM9000
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JamesPShelley said:

ATM9000 said:

I've always heard that you typically have like 30 seconds to capture somebody's attention on a resume and I think that is about right.
Six seconds. And in addition to capturing the recipient's attention, you must hold it.


Haha 30 seconds is what I've heard before and about the amount of time I find I will pay attention to one. I guess I'm patient.

I always feel like the longer resumes will tend to lack relevance in what I'm looking for and is usually a harbinger for a poor interviewer/communicator on the off chance the long resume catches my attention.
O.G.
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ea1060 said:

Agmechanic said:

Just my pet peeve, but keep your resume on one page. Its supposed to be the cliffs notes version of you.

Multiple page resumes go to the bottom of the pile.
This is bad and outdated advice. If you have more than 10 years experience and have worked for several companies, its almost impossible to keep your resume to one page. If you only have a one page resume with over 10 years experience, it's not thorough or detailed enough.

A one page resume is fine for recent grads or more junior candidates, not for a mid/late career professional. This is coming from someone who looks at hundreds of resume a week.
ea,

Correct. I have some miles on me, no possible way the relevant experience/references/professional licences etc etc are going on one page. Page one is: Education/job experience/companies I've worked for.
Page two is: References/licences that I hold/industry relevant organizations that i'm a member of.

Ulrich
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I shorten older jobs, but part of my "pitch" is that I've got a very wide variety of experience. I have not steadily worked up through one function. If I leave out too much detail, it risks looking like I was skipping from job to job before I had to do any real work.

I went from one page to two about three years after college. At seven years I cut down early career stuff quite a bit but added a "professional profile" section at the top. I wouldn't go over two pages.

Oddly, as I'm getting farther into my career, it's getting easier to consider shortening dramatically. My role is such that people aren't likely to think that I failed into it and my network is where the really promising leads come from anyway.
HouAggie
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The 1pg advice is great advice IMO. I assume most of what folks write on their resume is carefully wordsmith-ed fluff, so if I'm interested in you, I'm going to ask you the questions that get me those answers anyway. No detailed fluff you could possibly add to your experience section is going to make a difference between you making it to the next step or not.
Average Joe
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ea1060 said:

Agmechanic said:

Just my pet peeve, but keep your resume on one page. Its supposed to be the cliffs notes version of you.

Multiple page resumes go to the bottom of the pile.
This is bad and outdated advice. If you have more than 10 years experience and have worked for several companies, its almost impossible to keep your resume to one page. If you only have a one page resume with over 10 years experience, it's not thorough or detailed enough.

A one page resume is fine for recent grads or more junior candidates, not for a mid/late career professional. This is coming from someone who looks at hundreds of resume a week.
I agree. If the job listing has 30 bullet points in the job description how am I supposed to say I meet those requirements in 1 page?

Quote:

  • I do all of the **** you listed. The end.

HouAggie
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AG
Nobody is reading your resume close enough to know if you ticked all 30 boxes. They need a broad idea of what you've done so they can infer if you might have the necessary skills for the job. They'd they'll interview you to make sure.
m48xhp
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Naveronski said:

Unless I really really really want the job, I'm not filling out your application like I'm 17.
as a hirer, I am ok with this comment. because if you don't really really really want the job, I don't want you to apply. we won't waste each other's time.
:insert random comment here:
Chipotlemonger
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Come on, you have to admit the process of uploading a great resume only to have to enter a lot of the same details in manually is pretty antiquated and a waste of the applicant's time. (I realize the field information is all gathered for analytical purposes).

If the company truly uses a rundown of those fields to judge applicants, fine. Ask for them to fill it all out but why then mlneed the resume too?
m48xhp
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I don't disagree with that. It is antiquated and redundant, I'm just saying if you really want the job, you should be willing to do what it takes to get the job. If you don't want the job, then don't hit the apply button. Simple as that.

Also, I don't think most companies use those apps for data collection. maybe some massive corps do, but I think most have it because they likely have information that doesn't show up on resumes that they may want/need in order to screen out candidates.

But, unfortunately many companies do have way too long of an application. That should stop.
:insert random comment here:
Average Joe
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HouAggie said:

Nobody is reading your resume close enough to know if you ticked all 30 boxes. They need a broad idea of what you've done so they can infer if you might have the necessary skills for the job. They'd they'll interview you to make sure.
I guess it depends on the field, but for IT this would be stupid. I know several employers that have you input your education and experience just so they can have their system search for keywords like certifications, programming and scripting languages, Cloud hosts, server manufacturers, virtualization vendors, and numerous other requirements. Not listing enough doesn't even get you out of HR. Having a 1 page resume would make you look qualified for a nice help desk position at $30k.
HollywoodBQ
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Yep. You've got to make it past the "bots". For a lot of big companies the software they use and the recruiters screening resumes are lazy AF. They just do keyword searches looking for matches/hits on certain skills/certs.

As always, if you can get an employee referral through to the hiring manager, that's always a good way to make it past the bots. And also why having a good clean resume in PDF is important.
exp
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2 pages is better than 1 and much better than 6 in most cases. But so what suits you and take your shot. There's no wrong answer.
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