Face to Face
With Fred Coon

September 30, 2003 - 20 Pet Peeves Recruiters Have About Resumes
Courtesy of Mike Worthington, ResumeDoctor.com

PET PEEVE # 18 - Resumes Written in the 1st or 3rd Person
A resume should not be written in the first person. A resume is a marketing piece and business correspondence. No recruiter or future employer wants to read a resume full of "I did this and I did that..." Furthermore, writing a resume in the first person often leads to it becoming too verbose.

Writing a resume in the third person was also slated as a major "pet peeve" among many recruiters. There is absolutely no reason for such. Once again, a resume is simply a quick marketing piece about the job seeker's background and how it matches the requirements of the position. It is not a biography for a book jacket cover. For example: "Mr. Smith is an excellent recruiter, who has placed many Architects..." Recruiter Trey Cameron of the Cameron Craig Group shared the following comment, "At least make it sound like you actually wrote the resume yourself. I don't care how experienced or senior level you are."

Recruiter’s likes and dislikes in a resume were surveyed nation-wide by Mike Worthington of ResumeDoctor.com. FACE to FACE will publish all twenty pet peeves in this column over the next months.

ResumeDoctor.com is a service provided by Personnel Department Inc. PDI is Vermont’s largest independently owned staffing agency. They have been locally owned and operated for over 14 years. They have been featured in many publications, TV news programs, and radio broadcasts. You may contact them at: http://www.resumedoctor.com.

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About the Author: Fred Coon