You have sent out hundreds and hundreds of resumes with barely a response. You reason that it’s the economy. However, it’s deceptively easy to make mistakes on your resume and exceptionally difficult to repair the damage once an employer gets it. So prevention is critical. Check out Penske Careers resume guide to the most common pitfalls and how you can avoid them.
1. Your resume is your first impression to an employer and your chance to acknowledge your accomplishments so make sure it is results oriented. Make sure you provide the reader with the juicy details of how you added value for your past employer. Sometimes it even helps to show statistical results of how you improved sales goals, production, membership… This section is critical; it shows the reader at a quick glance what you bring to the table and what you have accomplished in the past. It will help the reader understand the competencies you possess as they connect with the position for which you are applying.
2. Grammar and spelling errors plague resumes! Spell check and grammar check are not always perfect so ask multiple friends and family to review your resume to catch errors.
3. How your resume looks is also important! Consistent and an aesthetically pleasing presentation will help your resume shine. This demonstrates attention to detail. Penske Automotive Group likes resumes in clean, legible font like Book Antiqua, Cambria, Tahoma and Times New Roman.
4. Aside from being complete outdated, objectives tell the reader what you want, not what you offer. A resume is a marketing and sales tool about you. You need to offer up information about what you bring to the company – not what you want them to do for you. A much better idea is to identify your goals in the cover letter so they can be tailored to each position you apply for.
5. Yes, they drilled this into our heads in college to keep your resume on one page, but we’re grownups now with much more experience. The acceptable length for a career spanning over six or seven years is two pages. That doesn’t mean you can be verbose, be straight to the point and use action words.
These tips were brought to you by PAG Careers:
Penske Automotive Group has a variety of positions and career paths nationwide. In addition to the employee benefit programs offered by our company, Penske Automotive Group consists of a diverse group of 170 dealerships and franchises operating throughout 17 states where you can begin an exciting career. We combine this scale with a culture of integrity and customer satisfaction to create the most outstanding benefit of all – the opportunity to grow.
PAG benefits include programs to ensure the well-being of you and your family, such as, Medical and Dental coverage (including Vision and RX), Life Insurance, 401(k) with Company Match, Flexible Spending Accounts, Employee Assistance Program and generous Paid Time Off Policies.
Visit our websites to learn more about us:
http://www.youtube.com/PAGcareers
http://twitter.com/PAGcareers
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pagcareers
We invite you to begin the employment process by visiting:
http://www.penskeautomotive.com/career-center.aspx?isstep1=true
