by Robyn Melhuish, Communications Manager at MedReps.com
For each corporate job posting, employers receive about 250 resumes, and using tired old resume tips could be keeping yours at the bottom of the stack.
At one point in time, these resume tips were well-intentioned, but many of them no longer make sense for sales job seekers.
Here are five outdated resume practices you should ban from your sales resume:
1. Writing an Objective.
The time your resume has to impress a recruiter is precious. On average, recruiters spend just six seconds reviewing a resume. Including an objective statement wastes that time.
At best, an objective statement is a waste of space that recruiters skip over. At worst, an objective statement will turn recruiters off from your lack of originality. No one wants to read that you want to “use your skills for an innovative company.”
Cut the objective and use the space to include more of what matters — your experience.
2. Using Fluffy Language.
Your sales resume is not the place to show off SAT words or the flowery language you put in high school essays.
Your resume space is valuable. Cut the adjectives and adverbs and use verbs instead. Get to the point. Using phrases like “implemented innovative sales tactics” will get you nowhere. What tactics did you use, and more importantly, were they successful?
Sales recruiters want to know what you have done in the most specific way possible. Say what you did and the result in a straightforward sentence. Numbers speak louder than descriptive words.
3. Hiding Social Media.
According to a report from Jobvite, 93 percent of recruiters review social media profiles to screen candidates. To improve their chances of landing the position, job seekers may hide their unprofessional profiles. In fact, another survey from Jobvite found that 46 percent of job seekers have modified their privacy settings to prevent recruiters from viewing their party photos, negative tweets, and other posts that reflect poorly on the candidate.
But hiding your social media presence from recruiters could be putting you at a disadvantage. Social networking is an important skill, especially in sales. About 78.6 percent of salespeople using social media to sell outperformed those who didn’t use social media. A strong web presence can showcase your knowledge in the field, networking skills, and personality.
Make a recruiter’s job easier and include links to your social accounts, profiles on job search sites, and website on your resume.
4. Emphasizing Education.
When a recruiter views your resume, the first thing they should see is relevant experience. Placing your education information at the top of your resume only distracts from the meat of the resume. Sales experience is more important than education.
Recruiters do not want to know which business courses you took or that you were a member of your college’s glee club. Place your education information at the bottom of your resume and limit the section to one line that includes the school you attended and the degree you earned.
In addition, don’t include the year you graduated. Including dates in the education section could set you up for age discrimination.
5. Using Templates.
Resume templates are better left in the past. They place emphasis on the wrong areas, neglect important information, and are a formatting nightmare.
Instead, keep it clean and simple with plenty of white space. Reverse chronological order is the best format to use when organizing your resume as it will show your most recent, and hopefully, most relevant experience first.
Feel free to play around with style and color. Sites like Pinterest feature creative resumes that will grab the attention of recruiters. But don’t go too crazy. The format should enhance the information you present, not distract from it.
What misguided resume tips have you heard? What are the best tips for sales job seekers today?
Robyn Melhuish is the Communications Manager at MedReps.com, a job board which gives members access to the most sought after medical sales jobs and pharmaceutical sales jobs on the Web. Connect with Robyn and MedReps.com on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
