When Writing Resumes, Local Expert Says Cut the Fluff

When it comes to resume faux pas Dobbs Ferry headhunter Peter Herzog has seen it all.

An example:

"My name is Maria D. and here is another resume for your collection. Are you looking for a delinquent, consistently dedicated employee...?

No, you didn't misread (and I didn't mis-type); it said delinquent.

Since the late 1980's Herzog—who lives with his wife Amy and children Jenna, 9, and Ryan, 6, in Dobbs Ferry—has worked as a headhunter, working to place qualified job-seekers predominantly in banking and finance roles.

Throughout the years, Herzog has amassed a collection of truly jaw-dropping resume snafus—which he has recently strung together in the self-published book: How to Prolong Your Job Search: a Humorous Guide to the Pitfalls of Resume Writing.

"This book came to fruition after many years of reading resumes," Herzog said. "When I went to a bookstore to peruse the job search section, I realized most of the books on resume-writing were 200 pages long. I wanted to write a short and humorous book that would help show people how to write successful resumes by highlighting what not to do."

Which is exactly what Herzog did.

Though the book was rejected by a number of publishers, Herzog was not deterred. When an intern at his NYC firm The HBC Group suggested self-publishing, Herzog decided to give it a go. He went to the Amazon website createspace.com and published his own book.

So what are the pitfalls of resume writing?

According to Herzog, the key is to be "clear, concise and to the point." In his book, he suggests writing as if every manager and HR person reading it were picking up your resume at 4:55 p.m. on the Friday before a two-week vacation.

"Be simple and to-the-point without all the bells and whistles," he said. "I once read a resume where the profile said the applicant 'always had a constantly-replenished jar of Oreo cookies in his office.' What does that say about his skills in finance?"

However, another applicant—who had taken off a few years to raise her children—was able to leverage that experience to fill an otherwise unexplainable gap in her resume.

"That, I thought was creative and resourceful," Herzog said.

Though many many job-seekers, especially in the current economy, are spending hundreds of dollars to have their resumes and cover letters finessed by professionals, Herzog said those additions to resumes often hurt people in the field.

"Managers definitely see through all of it," Herzog said. In his book, he offers many examples of recent college grads who fill two-page resumes with two years of experience. "They just come off sounding cocky," Herzog said.

Here are some other tips Herzog offers in his book:

• Don't be cute.
• Skip the objectives section.
• Be specific about what, exactly, you did at your last job; and use bullet-points to separate those tasks.
• Choose verbs from a list of "resume buzz words" he provides in the book.

You can order "How to Prolong Your Job Search" on Amazon here. You can also download it on your Amazon Kindle.