Bad resumes are something of a pet peeve of mine. They make or break your chances of getting an interview with a company. They’re not even that hard to do well. And yet, on a nearly daily basis, I see terrible resumes. 17 page resumes (seriously!). Resumes where it’s not until the second or third page that you discover that they’re working for Microsoft (Come on, people! That’s a selling point!). Resumes where people fail to mention that they, say, founded a company (again — seriously?!?). Grr.
In thinking about your resume, it’s important to remember how resumes are reviewed. Resumes are not read; they are skimmed for about 15 seconds. Let me say it again: resume screeners do not read your entire resume.
My article “What Are Common Mistakes That Applicants Make When Writing Their Resumes For Tech Companies?” has been posted to Forbes.
Read the whole thing here.
Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the founder / CEO of CareerCup, and the author of Cracking the Coding Interview and The Google Resume. Gayle has worked as a software engineer for Microsoft, Apple and Google. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Computer Science, and an MBA from the Wharton School. She currently resides in Palo Alto, CA.
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