I am a detail-oriented…
If I had a dollar for every time I received a resume that began with a personal statement…
No matter. The problem with personal statements is that no employer cares what an applicant thinks about themselves. All employers care about is what the applicant can do for them, based on their past and current accomplishments.
However, there are employers who will read the statements, probably for the laugh. If they do, then the applicant has established the criteria by which they should be judged. And that can work against them.
For example, many write that they are detail-oriented. I once had a position to fill that the most important requirement was that candidates be detail-oriented. So, when conducting Zoom interviews, after the normal pleasantries, I immediately asked candidates to tell me about the most complicated project on which they had worked that required them to be detail-oriented.
In one case, as he began to answer my question, I noticed where he was. He was in his bedroom. Nothing wrong with that. The camera was facing his bed. Nothing wrong with that. The bed, however, had not been made and the pictures hanging on the wall were all crooked. No detail-oriented person would “invite” someone into their bedroom if the bed was unmade and no detail-oriented person could stand looking at pictures on the wall that were crooked. No matter what he said, I listened with my eyes and they told me he was not the person for the job.
In his case, his resume did not indicate a problem. It was a good resume. After all, once I had read it, I called him. That’s the purpose of the resume, to get the interview. But if the resume begins by claiming that the owner is “detail-oriented,” the resume better reflect the accuracy of the claim.
In many cases, after establishing an expectation, the resume disproves it. And when the claim is that the person is “detail-oriented,” it’s the little things that matter.
For example, I have received resumes from “detail-oriented” applicants with multiple typos. My “favorite” was from a person who used different “bullets” (sometimes a dot, sometimes a hyphen) in the same list of job responsibilities. This is not nitpicking. If someone claims to be “detail-oriented, the “nits” so to speak, are fair game.
And, of course, there is the obvious one: The resume begins with the claim that the applicant is “accomplished,” yet under each job are only listed the person’s responsibilties but not a single accomplishment!
Most recently, while working on a search for a part-time position, I received a resume from an applicant who began her resume with the “Objective” of finding a full-time position. It wasn’t setting an expectation as such, but it did immediately disqualify her…
The lesson is simple: Never establish expectations in your resume that the resume does not bear out. The simple solution: Don’t start with a personal statement. Again, no one cares! For that matter, don’t start with an “Objective” because if your objective is anything other than getting the job for which you are applying, you shouldn’t be applying!
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- Mentor vs. Business Consultant
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- Get Out of Your Head!
- The Thank-You Email
- Sometimes it’s the Employer’s Fault
- Think Like a Recruiter
- Prioritizing Quality Over Quantity in Candidate Submissions
- Optimizing Candidate Submissions
- The Resume as a First Impression
- Strategic Approaches to Job Selection and Avoidance
- The Crucial Role of Interview Preparation in Candidate Placement
- Thoughtful Debriefing with Candidates
- Cultivating Advisor Relationships with Premier Candidates
- Efficient Candidate Vetting
- References
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Employment Edification 