5 Pieces of Bad Career Advice

Reader Comments
Back to blog

Advice number 1: If you are seeking employment, your job is to be offered the position over the other person also being interviewed for the position. It is your duty to find out exactly what is the employers need and sell them on the fact you are the one to fill the need.
Advice #2 Leaving the months of the resume. Partially disagree with this one. If your last job ended in October 2008 and you have been unemployed just a few months (three to four) you should list the month, but if you lost your job in January 2008 and it is now October 2008, it may be best to leave the month off. If the employer is impressed with your overall skills, you would be called in for an interview, and then be in a better position to explain any gaps.
Advice #4 The functional format is also used to showcase transferrable skills you have to offer a potential employer if you are applying for a job that you have the Skills or Education for, but have little to no actual experience working in. Best Resume format is one that targets what the employer is seeking (sorry HR Goddess of IL). Keep in mind you HR Personnel on average spend about 30 to 40 seconds reviewing resume, you want to make sure you are showcasing the skills they are seeking. Best way to do this is to begin the resume with a Summary of Qualifications or Profile Heading.

Jose Lopez of NJ 9:10PM November 26, 2008

The only one I could argue about is #5. A good manager will address the problem correctly, but good managers are rare. Adequate managers will do nothing, and poor managers will do anything but address the problem, including shooting the messenger and rewarding the bad employee.
So why is this bad career advice perpetuated, anyway? Who's out there thinking that these are all good ideas?

Rebecca of PA 9:18AM August 06, 2008

As an IT consultant who has at least 6 interviews per year (I've been working for the same company for several years, but all my assignments involve extensive interviewing), I completely agree with all your points.
And I'm always relieved when I DON'T say what I know the interviewer was expecting to hear and don't get hired - it just mean the job wasn't for me. I get hired by the right companies and am much happier that way!
Also, being truthful about my real weaknesses (and obviously, what I'm doing to overcome them, having already identified what they are) has never prevented me from getting hired.

Petunia of NY 9:59PM August 05, 2008

DJO: Yes, I think if you're talking about a really long period (like 1998-2007), then months are almost irrelevant. It's things like 2006-2007 that annoy me. That could be December 2006-January 2007, or it could be a full two years. But then, because you should be consistent in how you format each job, if you're using months for one, you should really use months for all.
Jane: I hear you on getting the offer first and then deciding. But the advantage of just being your real self all the way through is that you'll screen out the employers who aren't good fits for your personality -- something that you can't always determine on your own, but that because painfully clear once you're working for them.

Alison Green of DC 9:15PM August 05, 2008

Skipping the months and writing a functional resume are about as effective as a comb-over but what else can the Older Worker do? In IT an older worker is often defined as someone over 35. We geeks who have hit our 30 years of tweens - too old for IT and too young for retirement - get a little desperate sometimes.

kwijibo of ID 9:04PM August 05, 2008

Be sure to put your OBJECTIVE at the top of the resume.
This is absolutely useless to me in HR. I don't care if it's general (and meaningless), such as "Seeking employment where I can apply my skills to help the business", or whether it's specifically tailored to the job -- "Seeking the Software Engineer position at ABC Widgets".
Both are equally pointless and get the applicant absolutely nowhere in my book. The "Objective" just clogs up the resume with non-substantive statements.

sa of CA 12:14PM August 05, 2008

....I've committed only two of these mistakes (#1 and #3.
I agree with DJO of AR. Who needs months? Why clog up your resume with that level of detail?

Working Girl of WA 1:47AM August 05, 2008

Telling the interviewer what she wants to hear is not necessarily bad - it just keeps the power with the candidate. By all means, do not take the job where you would need to pretend to be somebody you are not, but you might as well get an offer. Then try to negotiate the terms of the positions, or simply decline.
Same thing about talking about one's weaknesses. Sure, saying that you are a perfectionist is just silly. However, bringing up something the interviewer can respect, or something you have resolved makes the candidate sound better than talking about a real shortcoming.

jane of CA 7:14PM August 04, 2008

Is there room for debate on leaving the months off the resume?
It does make sense to me to include months if a job lasted less than one year--and then I would hope it was seasonal--but for a candidate who has been in a position from 1998--2007, do you really care if it was June 1998 to February 2007? I'm always for conserving real estate where possible...

DJO of AR 4:31PM August 04, 2008

You covered some great points here. I also don't like when candidates tailor their resume to the job. I want to know what their actual experience was and how they progressed. Tailor your cover letter, but let your resume speak to what you actually did.
Also, don't use fancy words that you can't explain. For example:"Implemented a creative solution to track leads while increasing business by 150%". If you put this on a resume, you better be able to explain exactly what the "creative solution" is and how that solution increased business.
Be honest about your experience. Spend your creativity in the position you have and you may be surprised where it takes you. If you are more focused on mis-stating your experience, it makes me question how dedicated you will be if you work for me.

HR Godess of IL 3:00PM August 04, 2008