Greg Ryan Resume Writing

4 Reasons You Must Personalize Your Cover Letter

Hi! Welcome to my Blog. I like to use my experience as both a Certified Résumé Writer and administrator in charge of the candidate selection and interview process for my department to share helpful tips that I have picked up along the way. This blog will be updated frequently. I hope you enjoy it! Positive Testimonials and remembering to “Like” my Facebook page are GREATLY appreciated.

4 Reasons You Must Personalize Your Cover Letter

I hear it all the time. I understand it. I get it. But I just don’t agree with it. The “it” is when people tell me that they are too busy to write a different cover letter for each job application. I fully appreciate how busy and hectic life can get. We all have those days where it seems like we don’t even have a second to think, let alone time to sit down to write an entire cover letter. Still, whether you are hiring a Professional to help or writing your own, I believe a cover letter should be personalized for a particular job posting. Here are 4 reasons that you must personalize your cover letter.

Supply vs. Demand. Jobs are in short supply and high demand. Depending on the type of position you are applying for, it’s likely that there are literally hundreds of interested candidates. If you were a hiring manager, would you rather hire someone that clearly has no knowledge about your company and its goal or someone that articulates how they will directly benefit you and your company?

Chance to ease concerns. No matter how experienced you are, there are going to be certain roles that you are better qualified for than others. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead to concern on the employer’s end if not properly explained. Résumés do not leave much room for explanation. Cover letters are your opportunity to elaborate on why you do meet the specific needs of that company.

It’s obvious. Don’t fool yourself. Employers know when a candidate took the time to research the position and company. That shows an initial investment that is appealing to the person in charge of hiring.

Highlight why they NEED you. Some accomplishments, honors, awards, etc. are more important to certain people than others. A generic cover letter doesn’t allow you to purposefully choose which areas you highlight. This prohibits you from driving home aspects that will truly impress an employer and best fit their needs.

Visit gregryanresumewriter.com to perfect your Résumé and Cover Letter today!!

5 Ways to Determine How Far Back To Go On A Resume

5 Ways to Determine How Far Back To Go On A Resume

This blog post is more geared toward seasoned professionals with a lengthy list of past experiences. The question always comes up as to how far back should a resume go in detailing previous experience. There are a few guidelines that I follow while making this decision because there isn’t one concrete rule since all situations are different. Here are my top 5 things to consider when choosing how far back to go on your resume.

FCS Rule of Thumb. Employers Focus on the past 5 years, Consider the last 10 years, Scan anything before that. This would imply that going back 10 years is a good guiding principle to keep in mind.

Getting Repetitive. The further back you go and the more positions that you include, the more likely it is that information will become repetitive. One goal of a resume should always be to optimize impact and space by having each bullet point add value. If each of your responsibilities for a position 12 years ago have been mentioned in more recent positions, then there really isn’t a need to provide details for that job.

Burying Critical Information. Since the majority of resumes have professional experience near the beginning of the resume, that means that most information will come after. Burying impressive honors, awards, publications, etc. too deeply may cause a potential employer to miss them altogether. This goes back to making sure that everything you include is adding value to your resume.

Losing Relevance. Career paths and goals tend to change over long periods of time. If you are going to list detailed information about an older position, make sure that it is still relevant to your current career path.

Compromise. Many job seekers that have been working in the same field for 20+ years believe that there is value in that type of experience. I agree and want to make it clear that I’m not saying that you shouldn’t list those older positions at all, if nothing else they demonstrate that you have been consistently employed. I am simply saying that you don’t need to take up critical space repeating information that can be found in more recent roles. In these cases, I like to incorporate an Early Career Summary section where I still list job titles and companies without including bullet point lists of responsibilities.

Visit gregryanresumewriter.com to perfect your Résumé and Cover Letter today!!

10 Mistakes to Avoid During Your Job Search

10 Mistakes to Avoid During Your Job Search

The entire process of applying for a job, interviewing for a job and weighing a job offer can certainly be overwhelming to anyone. There are constant hurdles to be cleared throughout the whole ordeal, making it easy to become paranoid that one mistake will hurt your chances. I’m here today to hopefully help everyone relax a little bit by offering the 10 biggest mistakes to avoid during your job search. These include some that might seem surprising but are all too common during an interview process.

Appearing disinterested. If the interviewer feels like they don’t have your full attention or you have other places you’d rather be, they will write you off immediately. Be careful to remain engaged and interested throughout the entire process.

Being unprofessional. This is an issue at all steps of the application and interview process. Make sure you have a professional looking résumé that does not include typos or spacing issues, that you have a professional sounding email address (not Wildman23@…) and always dress professionally. It’s better to over-dress than under-dress.

Speaking negatively about previous employers or co-workers. This gives a bad first impression and can leave employers with a bad vibe about you. They may fear that you are difficult to work with and the same issues will happen at your new job.

Lacking attention to detail. This can occur in a variety of ways: failing to follow application instructions, being late on deadlines, forgetting to include attachments in an email, etc. Candidates always give their best impression during this process, so employers will be wary of giving someone a chance whose “best impression” already has obvious flaws.

Forgetting to personalize application materials. This may imply that you are either uninformed about the position & its requirements or simply unable to provide evidence supporting your candidacy.

Your résumé is too long or too short. You want to highlight key information while still being succinct.

Sharing too much personal information. Employers want to know how you will benefit their company, not what you do on the weekends with your friends. Don’t cross that line until you have worked at a company for a while and have learned when it is acceptable.

You can’t provide specific examples. Saying that you are good at this or that is nice, but it quickly loses value if you don’t have any specific examples to back up your claim. Entry level positions can be more forgiving because you aren’t expected to have much industry experience.

Asking personal questions during an interview. This goes along with #7 above but it’s still worth mentioning. When I’m interviewing someone, I find it uncomfortable when a candidate attempts to delve into my personal life. Know your place at the table. It’s to showcase why you are the best candidate, not to make new friends. It’s one thing to be personable, it’s another thing to get personal.

Applying for the wrong jobs. Being extremely underqualified is obvious why that would be an issue for employers, but being WAY overqualified can be a concern as well. Employers are hesitant to hire someone that they think will immediately be looking for another their next job. With that being said, I do think it’s fine to apply for jobs for which you may be slightly under/overqualified. Passion, work ethic and desire to learn can make up for that.

Visit gregryanresumewriter.com to perfect Résumé and Cover Letter today!!

5 Ways To Ensure Success At Your New Job

5 Ways To Ensure Success At Your New Job

Congratulations – you’ve landed that job you’ve been searching for! Now what? Landing the job is only the first step, now it’s time to make sure that you are successful so that you can keep your new job. Here are 5 helpful hints to ensure you make a good impression at your new job.

Do Your Homework: Research and internalize everything that comes up during your first few days. Chances are that similar topics and scenarios will arise again. Document and take notes. This will help shift you from being a passive observer to an active contributor that helps resolve critical issues.

Communicate and Collaborate: Don’t be afraid to ask questions and offer suggestions to both colleagues and bosses, just remember to be receptive to constructive feedback and keep in mind that they have been there before. Doesn’t mean they’re always right, but experience can provide useful information for the future.

Immerse Yourself in the Company Culture: Become a part of the new family environment and make an effort to contribute to the team’s success, even if it means going above and beyond for a while.

Record As Much As Possible: Bosses can’t be there every second of every day, nor are they aware of everything you are doing. Being able to provide evidence of personal and team success at your initial performance reviews will ensure that your efforts and accomplishments are acknowledged.

Tend to the Basics. Sometimes being courteous, punctual and organized can go a long way in making a positive first impression. Even if you are feeling overwhelmed initially, present a confident and welcoming front until things calm down (and they will, I promise!).

Visit gregryanresumewriter.com to perfect your Résumé and Cover Letter today!!

5 Reasons to Use a Functional Résumé

5 Reasons to Use a Functional Résumé

Traditionally, résumés have followed a chronological format that lists your past experience beginning with the most recent and moving back in time. That is still the case today, but there are instances when you might want to consider another résumé format to best meet your needs. One such example of a different way to construct a résumé is to create a Functional Résumé. This type of résumé focuses more on transferable skills than a traditional résumé. If you are having a tough time putting together a résumé that you are happy with, perhaps a functional résumé is the way to go. Here, I will explain 5 reasons to use a functional résumé.

You are re-entering the workforce. There are plenty of completely valid reasons why someone may have voluntarily decided to take time off from work. The problem is that it can be difficult to communicate those reasons effectively in a résumé. A functional résumé will shift the focus to the skills that you possess that will help a potential employer instead of inadvertently focusing on your time away from work.

You frequently change jobs. Employers may look at this pattern of “job-hopping” and assume that you won’t be staying with their company very long. That means they’ll have to go through the exhausting hiring and training process again in the near future. That can be off-putting for employers. A functional résumé can showcase the wide variety of skills that you have acquired at your various jobs and turn “job hopping” into a strength.

You hope to transition to a new career. It can be difficult to have strong previous experience if you have never worked in a desired field, even though many of your skills may be transferable. A traditional résumé can unintentionally highlight that lack of experience by focusing on job titles that are not exactly relevant. A functional résumé would focus more on the transferable skills that are relevant and use your experience as proof that you have a proven track record of success using those skills.

You have multiple gaps in your work history. Multiple gaps in employment can give the impression that there is a reason that you can’t keep a job. These gaps can best be explained in a face-to-face interview and a functional résumé can help get you there.

Your previous jobs all had very similar responsibilities. Generally, it’s a good thing to have worked in your field in a variety of positions. However, it can make a résumé seem long-winded and repetitive if you keep repeating the same responsibilities and skills from one job to the next. A functional résumé will pull those skills out to the forefront and provide space to elaborate on why they are relevant for this potential position.

Visit gregryanresumewriter.com to perfect your Résumé and Cover Letter today!!