Six Resume Mistakes To Avoid in 2021

Whether you are looking to get started on your first job search out of college or looking to change careers and reopen your search, having an up-to-date resume is imperative. Recently, our friends at Nexxt revealed six of the most commonly overlooked mistakes made by job-seekers on their resumes. With the help of our friends at Nexxt, we breakdown the key examples here: 

Too Many Soft Skills

With an average of 30 seconds or less to capture a hiring manager’s attention, it’s best not to waste time with self-proclamations of being a team player, good communicator, or a sound multi-tasker, etc. There is no easy way to prove these characteristics through words on a resume, so it is best to leave the comments to be shared by your professional references or to be portrayed naturally during your interview. Push an emphasis on your applicable experience and relevant ‘hard skills.’

Overlooking Your Accomplishments

If you are dead set on an industry and have proven experience to compliment your acquired skill-set, you should jump straight into your career accomplishments as the highlight of your resume and elevator pitch. Don’t waste precious space uncovering the basic details of your previous job, but rather provide perspective as to why you succeeded. Present your accomplishments effectively to hiring managers through the CAR approach (Challenge-Actions-Results): 

  • Challenge – What was the existing problem, need, or situation?
  • Actions – What did you do about the challenge?
  • Results – What outcomes did you produce? Quantify it!

*Pro-Tip: Utilize strong action verbs to begin your statements

Grammar & Spelling

Grammatical and spelling mistakes are the first in the book and easiest to occur, but they continue to surface. If you are not confident in your grammatical capabilities, run your text through a resource like Grammarly. There is no worse feeling as a job-seeker than losing out on a job opportunity due to one typo or one forgotten punctuation.

Failing to Adjust Your Resume

Whether you are locked in on pursuing a specific industry or job title or are broadening your horizon, each job is unique and requires your resume to be unique as well. If you are not tailoring your resume to each job posting you apply to, you are spoiling your chances before you even received a phone call. For example, pursuing an Inside Sales position with a telecommunications firm will vastly differ in qualifications or required skills from that of a Content Writer opportunity for the same firm. Likewise, submitting the same resume for sales positions with two different companies implies you failed to research the company, and that will not go unnoticed.

Nearly 75% say they believe finding a job has become more challenging in 2020. (Jobvite)

Not Providing Timelines

It may seem like a solid strategy to keeping your resume with a ‘neat and clean’ appearance, but checking for dates is a vital part of a hiring manager’s review. Without a clear timeline, you are implying you have an employment gap or a history of short stints with employers you want to keep secret. If you are fortunate enough to receive the benefit of the doubt, you can undoubtedly expect clarification to be desired on your first phone call with the hiring manager. 

Using an Objective Statement

Arguably the most outdated feature on 2019 resumes, this section often takes up valuable space atop job-seekers’ resumes. Focused on general aspirations and ‘fluff’ statements, most hiring managers will skip over the paragraph or, worse, mark it as an immediate red flag. Courtesy of your submitted job application, employers are already aware you are “motivated” and “looking for your next opportunity.” Instead, utilize this space to provide a career summary, or dive straight into your work experience with concise summaries under each position.

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Avoid These Four Mistakes In Your Next Video Interview

Emanating from the onset of COVID-19, thousands of companies continue to operate under the work-from-home order. Unemployment remains at a high volume, and many organizations rely heavily on phone and on-screen meetings for their hiring efforts. If you are active in the job search, you can anticipate the use of Zoom, or another video conferencing platform, for the beginning stages of your interview process. While your content preparation remains unchanged in terms of having examples, answers, and questions readily available, your interview’s virtual aspect brings new challenges you may not expect.

Courtesy of CNBC Contributor John Bowe, we review four of the most annoying mistakes made in video interviews, as revealed by Zoom’s Head of Global Talent Acquisition, Phil Haynes. 

1. Fidgeting and glancing at your phone

Haynes advises: “With an in-person interview, you’d never sneak a look at your phone. It’s simply not a behavior you would exhibit in real life. So, we remind people: a video interview is still a face-to-face interview.” Don’t forget to smile – your face is still taking up most of your interviewer’s screen. 

If you know yourself to be easily distracted by technology and phone applications such as social media, sports updates, or a need to know who texted you, try muting your notifications. If you fear this won’t stop you, turn your device off or keep it in a different room. In the brief 15-45-minute conversation, there is unlikely to be an update worth more than your shot at a new job. 

2. Darting eyes across the screen

In a virtual interview, maintaining steady eye contact is even more critical than the typical in-person interview. Hiring managers often measure your level of eye contact to gauge your interest in joining their organization. Always looking around will make you appear disinterested or inattentive. One great tip you can quickly implement is to hide the ‘self-view’ feature during meetings. Removing the view will ensure you do not get caught staring at yourself and worrying about your appearance rather than actively listening. 

3. Visibly worried and distracted

Every job seeker fears the uncontrollable aspects of their interview, such as a child entering the room and screaming or a pet demanding attention. Since COVID-19 began shutting down offices, Haynes affirms, “the human element is just pouring through.” In many ways, the pandemic has defaulted a more real, human experience for both sides of the webcam.

What can you do to limit your home office-related distractions? Find a private space and request an hour of quiet from your family members or roommates. If this is not plausible for your current situation, consider completing your interview outside your home.

4. Boring, unenthusiastic answers

If you offer weak, lackluster answers, you will leave your interviewer with nothing of note. Be sure to have questions prepared for the end of your interview and answers for these commonly asked questions. What indicates a weak and ‘boring’ answer? You share too many details and focus on what you did in your previous role, rather than why you did it and the impact you had. However, you must not come off as too rehearsed or scripted in your replies. 

Comparable to how you must keep your body language engaged in conversation, your answers must keep your evaluator engaged. Think back to an obstacle you faced in your career and how you overcame it. Practice telling your story and speaking confidently about your qualifications. 

For more great insight and tips to review before your next interview, check out Bowe’s full article here. 

If you join the millions operating under the work-from-home order, check out these essential tips for Setting Up An Effective Workspace at Home.

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Building A Positive Team Culture

“Individual commitment to a group effort: That is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi

It takes real leadership to establish a vibrant, uplifting work culture where your employees can feel a sense of authenticity and fulfillment in the workplace. When this kind of working climate is achieved, the foundation for employee satisfaction is secured. Here are a few things you can do to ensure your company’s culture is one that fosters growth and attracts future ‘all-star’ employees.

Hire the Right People

Identifying the ideal ‘fit’ for your active job listings goes beyond hiring the most intelligent individual. Recently, I spoke with a friend in the recruiting industry who revealed that his company ranks ‘culture fit’ as their No. 1 priority in candidate analyzation. He shared a story of turning away a highly qualified IT professional due to his arrogance, smug, and ‘my way or the highway’ mentality. Despite all his accolades and capabilities, it appeared inevitable that his presence would cause strife and disrupt the chemistry within the department. When you establish core company values, your goal should be to identify the same values in individuals before you hire them. 

Relationship Building

When there is limited interaction between colleagues or departments, the challenge of instilling a sense of unity and camaraderie is intensified. So, what steps can you take? Stay intentional when it comes to including others and intermixing your departments. Courtesy of our friends at Inc, here are five leadership tips to help you strengthen relationships and build a sense of community, inspired by Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life.

  1. Speak the truth out of respect.
  2. Think of yourself less.
  3. Practice uncommon courtesy.
  4. Maintain confidence.
  5. Focus on frequency rather than intensity.

Check out the full breakdown from Human Capital Specialist, Michael Schneider here.

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.” -Patrick Lencioni

Establish Goals

Every employee wants to feel heard, valued, and like they made a difference. Setting new goals with your employees, both from an individual standpoint and as a team, offers the chance to make that happen. Additionally, challenge your employees to step out of their comfort zones and set some new objectives for themselves. It can be daunting, but excelling in an area outside your specialization brings a level of job satisfaction that cannot be measured.

Track the progress of these goals and encourage them throughout the way. Advocating for your employees will renew their motivation and yield feelings of importance and purpose. However, make sure that the goals set forth are ones you believe are attainable and align with the employee’s strengths. Falling short of a goal can put your employee in a rut, but completing these goals will build a sense of job security and loyalty.

Be a Role Model

If you have expectations for your employees to follow company values or act a certain way, you must understand those same guidelines apply to you. If you have core values of integrity, honesty, and fairness, you must demonstrate those values and lead by example. Choosing to put your team before your objectives is one of the most manageable steps to creating a positive culture. 

Make yourself readily available. Being in the building is not enough. If you want your brand to have a positive correlation and message, it starts at the top. Show respect to your employees and allow them to feel comfortable approaching leadership with any questions, concerns, and frustrations. Mastering ‘The Art of Listening‘ will establish a healthy work culture through trust, empathy, and complimentary exchanges. When you choose to empathize with them, trust is established for both parties.

The Benefits of a Positive Culture

Employee satisfaction is the driving force behind a business’ success. When your team sees value in the work they are doing, there are enhanced levels of joy and loyalty that can become contagious throughout your company. Courtesy of our friends at Forbes, we take a look at a few of the top benefits that a positive work culture ensues: 

Recruitment
People want to work for organizations that are thought highly of by their peers. A toxic work environment can be picked up on by candidates right away, so having a positive culture is a real competitive advantage for employers.

Collaboration
When there is a sense of authenticity and fellowship, it gives way for more social interaction. Workplace acquaintances develop into genuine relationships, and fruitful ones at that! When there is open communication and teamwork, amazing things can happen.

Reduced Stress
A strong corporate culture tends to boost employee morale, health, and work performance. When employers are dedicated to seeing their employees achieve a healthy ‘work-life balance,’ you will find increased focus, communication, and interest in their work.

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Employers: Here’s How to Attract Top Talent

According to the latest “Employment Situation” release from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is down to 3.8 percent. This means that there are fewer available candidates for each job opening, thus putting the power into the hands of the job seeker. As an employer, this makes it challenging to attract top talent, since many of the most competitive candidates are already employed.

Most companies will prefer to hire top talent, as according to the Harvard Business Review, a high performer is estimated to have a 400 percent higher productivity level than the average performer. Additionally, hiring average talent just to fill open jobs can be costly for a company. It has been said that the cost of replacing a departed employee is their salary plus half. For example, if a salaried employee making $40,000 per year left, it would cost approximately $60,000 to replace him or her. Because of this, employers must attract (and retain) top talent.

To attract top talent companies must have a “robust people strategy, an innovative and well-structured recruiting program, a strong value proposition and employer brand,” according to recruitment media company Nexxt. There are four ways that employers can do this:

Evaluate Your Current Talent Pool

To figure out where you want to go, you must look where you have been. Take a look at your current employees and assess their strengths and weaknesses. You can use a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to make this process easier.

When evaluating your current staff, you will figure out a framework of an ideal candidate. Additionally, you can determine areas that need improvement and create a training program to help your employees continue to develop in their careers.

Learn from Competitors

You should always be monitoring your competitors to stay ahead of the game. By conducting research on how they are attracting top talent, you can alter your hiring strategies to do something similar. Not only do you get to learn what the competition is doing, but you can develop your employer value proposition, according to the team at Nexxt.

Reaching Your Target Market

Knowing your target market is one of the first things you must do when creating a business. Once you have realized who this market is, you must figure out how to reach them. In today’s constantly-connected society, if your company does not have a digital strategy, it will likely fall behind. As it has been said, “adapt, or die,” and reaching your target market is no different.

You must create compelling content that will resonate with your audience. Do some in-house research and ask employees what they like and do not like about your current website/content. Then ask them what they like about other sites that they frequent the most. You can take this research to revamp your content strategy and stay up-to-date with society’s rapid changes.

Appeal to the Needs of Top Talent

Once you’ve attracted top talent, how do you get them to stay? Research shows that today’s employees are valuing flexible work environments more than they did in the past. Being able to maintain a healthy work-life balance has become increasingly valuable for employees in many industries. In order to figure out what your employees value, conduct a survey.

If your company has outdated protocols surrounding vacation time, etc. chances are employees will eventually lack the motivation to continue working for you. Additionally, top performers are usually career-focused and enjoy opportunities to continue developing their careers. Offering professional development opportunities is a way to not only attract, but also retain top talent.

Wrap Up

Companies everywhere strive to attract the most talented workers to their staff. With today’s candidate-favored job market, figuring out how to stand out from the competition to hire these top candidates has become fairly difficult. Not only do companies have to figure out how to attract top talent, but also how to retain these employees. By using these four tips, you can change your hiring strategy to attract top talent in this candidate-friendly job market.

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Where Are The Candidates?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Employment Situation – December 2018,” the national unemployment rate is 3.9 percent. While this is great for the nation, it makes hiring increasingly difficult for employers. If you’re an employer and have found it difficult to fill your open positions, one way to make the process easier is enlisting the help of recruiters.

The current job market is in favor of the job seeker. Given the low rate of unemployment, candidates can pick and choose what jobs to apply to, as many are currently already employed and just casually looking for new opportunities. Because of this, hiring can be seen as an uphill battle and a burden for many human resources departments. To put this in perspective, let’s take a look at some of today’s hiring statistics:

  • 42 percent of employers are worried they won’t be able to find the talent they need.
  • 86 percent of the most qualified candidates for your open positions are already employed and not actively seeking a new job.
  • 26 percent of candidates feel the hiring process takes too long, and;
  • 46 percent feel their time is disrespected during an interview.

By enlisting the help of recruiters, human resources professionals can focus on other responsibilities that the company requires. Since the job of recruiters is to find and place top talent in open roles, they can focus all their efforts on the hiring needs of their corporate clients and alleviate their stress in addition to speeding up the interview process for their candidates.

According to our very own Chris Bancsi, NexGoal’s VP of Sales and Recruiting:

“With the unemployment rate so low, employers are hurriedly getting offers out to candidates and counter-offers to current employers who have accepted other positions. In this job market, potential employees need to be identified, interviewed and extended competitive employment offers at an expedited pace. Employers don’t have weeks to make a decision, they have days. It has become a ‘if you snooze, you lose’ mentality.”

At NexGoal, we work with corporate clients of various sizes. Big companies may struggle with their hiring practices just as small-to-medium size companies do. Although the reasons for these struggles may vary, companies of all sizes rely on recruiters to find quality candidates for their open positions.

When the competition for open positions is so fierce, recruiters can do three things to help employers with their hiring needs, according to Inc.com.

Think Globally, Recruit Globally

Although not every company is willing to hire international talent, especially smaller companies, this tip can be broken down to a smaller scale. For example, if your company is in Chicago and the local candidate pool is dwindling, recruiters can search elsewhere for the best candidate.

Larger companies with higher budgets might be more willing to expand their search for talented candidates. When this is the case, recruiters can tap into the international candidate pool to fill these open positions. Not only will the client get a great candidate, but they can also improve diversity of thought, experience and culture within the company.

In the Cleveland area, hiring globally is a hot topic. The primary focus from a technology perspective is trying to keep local talent in the area

Pony Up More Perks Rather Than Pay

Employees look for new jobs for a variety of reasons: higher salaries, better benefits and shorter commute to name a couple. When putting in a two-weeks’ notice, it is common for employers to counter-offer whatever a new company is offering their employee. However, one of the most underrated workplace perks is a work-life balance.

While 68 percent of candidates still consider compensation (salary + insurance benefits) as the main factor when weighing their opportunities, additional benefits are becoming increasingly popular. These include: flexible schedules, work-from-home options and professional development opportunities. Employers don’t want to take the time to interview a candidate just to find out that the salary and benefits expectations and actual offerings aren’t aligned. Candidates echo this sentiment, with 46 percent feeling that their time is “disrespected” during an interview. By working with a recruiter, candidates can be pre-screened before being sent to the client. This means that only qualified candidates with expectations in line with the employer will be sent over to be interviewed, thus limiting the waste of time.

Be Willing to Teach New Skills

These days, candidates are more career-driven than previous generations. While Millennials tend to get a bad rap, they are the largest segment in the work force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this generation will make up 50 percent of the US workforce in the next two years. That number will grow to 75 percent by 2030. As a result, employers need to be willing to teach new skills. Candidates in this generation will seek opportunities that offer career development opportunities (seminars, conferences, webinars, lunch and learns, etc.).

If your company provides career development strategies for its employees, communicate this with the recruiter. He or she will be able to paint a picture of your company and pitch it to potential candidates to pique their interest and excitement before you ever meet them.

Wrap Up

The record-low unemployment rate is a great thing for today’s society. More people have jobs so they’re able to provide for their families and make a decent living. However, considering how many people have jobs, employers are struggling to woo candidates to work for them when they already have a steady job that they are comfortable in.

If you’re an employer struggling to meet your hiring expectations, it is time to consider working with a third-party recruiter. Not only do these individuals understand the struggles of hiring during low unemployment, but they take the burden of the hiring process off the shoulders of the company. As Bancsi put it, “Companies need to factor in the cost of vacancy and ask themselves, ‘How much money are we losing with no one in this position? What services are we not being able to provide without this employee?’ NexGoal and companies like us can devote multiple resources to each position in order to get a rapid turnaround time at mitigate losses endured by vacancy.”

Ready to enlist the help of a recruiter and learn more about NexGoal? Schedule a call with Chris today!

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