lies your career center told you

10 pieces of outdated career advice

July 11, 2011

As regular readers know, I’m fond of ranting about outdated career advice that somehow continues to circulate. Over at U.S. News & World Report today, I talk about 10 pieces of career advice that are outdated and that you should ignore.

And #1 will seem awfully familiar to the 155 of you (!) who weighed in on the heated landline versus cell phone debate here last week.

You can check it out here.

{ 8 comments }

should recent grads have a resume objective?

June 4, 2011

A reader writes:

I am well aware that you do not like resume objectives. However, I read on numerous websites and blogs that you should only include a resume objective if you are a recent graduate or changing careers. Do you agree or disagree with that statement?

With that being said, I fall into the category of recent graduate. I think its ok to use one if it’s written for that specific company and position. I customize each objective for every specific company and position that I apply to directly on their website. How does this sound for an objective? I’m going to include the actual name of the company so you know what I mean.

Research assistant position at Boston Biochem where excellent laboratory and technical skills can aid the company in its commitment to providing its customers with quality Ubiquitin Proteosome Pathway products.

Get rid of it.

What exactly does that add to your candidacy? They already know what position you’re applying for, and they already know that they (apparently) have a commitment to providing customers with quality Ubiquitin Protesome Pathway products.

So you’re basically just using up valuable resume real estate restating the obvious, and also making yourself look kind of blah in the process.

As for the advice you’ve seen saying that recent grads might benefit from including an objective: Well, first, that advice sucks. But secondly, I’m guessing that they’re saying that because recent grads generally don’t have enough of a career history to make their job search objective inherently clear. But an objective that just says that your objective is to get the position you’re applying for? Believe me, that’s already been made clear by the fact that you’re applying.

Your resume should be a concise, easily scannable account of what you’ve accomplished, organized chronologically by position, plus any particularly notable skills. That’s it. Get rid of the objective.

{ 18 comments }

don’t call to “schedule an interview”

December 4, 2010

A reader writes:

Somewhere out there, somebody is telling kids that they should be “proactive” and call a company to “schedule an interview” as soon as they apply. I’m beseeching you to do a public service announcement to tell them to STOP. There is no way this is a good idea, and I am getting very, very tired of telling people in my nice voice that unless somebody from the company has already contacted them, there is no way I am going to schedule an interview for them, and that they have been sadly misinformed about how an application process works.

I don’t mind nearly as much a “did you get my application, I would really like to work there!” phone call. At least I don’t come out of the phone call feeling like you’re a pushy jerk with boundary issues and an inflated sense of your own self worth! Kids, (and it has mostly been young applicants) sometimes your career center is wrong.

I’ve gotten these calls too. They are not a good idea — because job-seekers don’t get to decide to schedule the interview; employers do, and it’s inappropriately pushy, not “good salesmanship” or whatever some of those awful job-hunting books claim, to pretend otherwise.

There are some career centers and some job-search books out there (and some well-meaning friends and relatives, I suspect) that are really steering people wrong, often with what I suspect is advice that worked decades ago but is no longer effective or relevant in today’s market. It’s infuriating, because they’re doing job-seekers such a disservice.

{ 14 comments }

Posted in job searching, lies your career center told you

why do so many college career centers suck?

November 8, 2010

Preemptive apologies to any college career center that doesn’t fit this description — but every time I hear about a campus career center, it’s about the bad advice they gave someone: insisting you need to have an objective on your resume, recommending salesy interview answers instead of genuine ones, giving our commenter Rob bad advice about how to email his resume, and so forth.

What’s up with this? I suspect it’s because they haven’t done a lot of hiring themselves and are relying on outdated advice from job-hunting guides from the last century. But if colleges are supposed to be preparing students for the workforce, maybe it’s time for a new type of career center, especially when their grads are going to be facing a crappy job market like this one.

Has anyone had a good experience with your college career center that you want to share?

{ 33 comments }

Posted in lies your career center told you, students

5 bad pieces of career advice

August 4, 2008

I’m sometimes unnerved by some of the bad career advice that gets repeated over and over in job-hunting guides and career columns. At U.S. News & World Report today, I talk about five particularly bad pieces of advice that I cringe every time I see. Head on over and leave your own additions in the comments.