About your resume...

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I don't talk much about resumes here, but I'm frequently asked to comment on them by my clients.

A recent short post by the Inhouse Blog about resume phrases recruiters hate (and other resume mis-steps) is worth a read. And I don't believe these sentiments are the sole province of in-house legal recruiters. So here's an interesting snippet. See the full article at the link here.

First you're advised to explain gaps in employment and to perhaps simply eliminate some. Back when I was teaching business law full-time, I also had a part-time gig at a Beverly Hills law firm. At the time, having had more employers than most, it seemed prudent to simply not mention the part-time job. It's never since appeared on any of my resumes or on LinkedIn. Use your judgment and your own ethical standards in deciding to leave something out that is fully covered by something else.

Having hired dozens of young associates and legal interns, I never failed to read an entire resume (as stultifying as that endeavor always was). So I admit I was somewhat surprised to read that only one in five employers have the patience to finish reading a CV and make a decision to consider or discard it in less than 60 seconds. On my own behalf as a hiring associate and hiring partner, I always looked at the "hobbies" section to get a sense of the interests and experiences of applicants. Someone with an interesting background (former paratrooper for the Israeli Defense Force, for instance) generally led to an interview. Just think if your resume will elicit "I want to meet this person even if I don't hire them." I did, in fact, hire the former paratrooper and he was one of my best hiring decisions.

Other research highlighted by the InHouse Blog revealed that 59% of recruiters "hate running into oversights, no matter how minor, such as grammatical and typographical errors. But that doesn’t infuriate them as much as reading cliches and common phrases, such as “I can work independently,” “I know how to work in a team,” and “I work hard.”

Here's another interest bit of advice:

"Another thing they hate is informality. For example, someone ending an email in a too casual tone or, worse, their email contains a strange nickname. And what about emojis? 4 out of 10 employers would discard a job application that contains one of these symbols….”

I hope that helps in your job search. Remember, you just want the recruiter or hiring partner to put your CV into the "maybe" pile. Ask yourself why you'd hire you and take a second look at your CV from that perspective.

And now, it's time for another update on the 12 Hundred Buck Hours gifted by a generous client. We entered all of the names in a random drawing and emailed the grantee of the March hour.

In April, we'll be giving the hour to someone who identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a woman of color. If this is you (or someone you know) reply to this email and let us know. If you nominated yourself or someone else for previous months and they also fall into this category, let us know so we can add in that name once again!

This offering (and others like it) would not be possible without the generosity of our clients. We have a gifting page if you can and would like to gift one of our consulting package.

Until next week, and happy negotiating!