{"id":756,"date":"2011-10-07T01:58:11","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T05:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/careertipster.com\/?p=756"},"modified":"2015-03-17T11:36:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T15:36:29","slug":"career-advice-cliches-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/careertipster.com\/careerdev\/resumeadvice\/career-advice-cliches-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Career Advice Cliches (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my “Career Advice Cliches (Part 1)<\/a>” article, I talked about the career advice cliche I disliked the most. \u00a0I hear career advice cliches often and I dislike them because the advice is typically vague, tends to over-simplify things, or it is outdated but people have heard it so much, they continue to perpetuate it. \u00a0So, part 2 of my rant on cliches I dislike the most is about resumes.<\/p>\n

When Writing Your Resume, List Experience in Reverse Chronological Order<\/strong>
\nResumes are advertisements so every design decision must be made strategically. \u00a0I don’t know how many times I’ve seen resumes that had experience listed in reverse chronological order when it didn’t make sense only to hear from the candidate that someone told them they were “supposed to do it that way.” \u00a0Relevant experience is what should be emphasized for jobs regardless if it fits a reverse chronological format. \u00a0In fact, I often advise people who have past relevant experience to emphasize it by creating a “Relevant Experience” section on their resume which allows them to list it first regardless of where it falls in a time frame. \u00a0Any non-relevant experience, which is still valuable information, can be put in an “Additional Experience” section near the bottom of the resume to place less emphasis on it. \u00a0Knowing people read from top to bottom and left to right, a decision to design one’s resume in this fashion would at least be a strategic choice with good reasoning opposed to simply hearing that it “should be done that way”.<\/p>\n

This is merely one example of why this clich\u00e9 advice may not make the most sense for a candidate. \u00a0If one were to have a “Relevant Experience” section, the information in that section should be in reverse chronological order but when this cliche advice is given, it makes people think that their resume, in its entirety, must be written like a timeline. \u00a0Resumes are not timelines and they are not summaries so more thought must go into the design which may mean that not everything is in perfect, reverse chronological format. \u00a0There are so many idiosyncrasies to be considered that this cookie-cutter advice is to general to really think that everyone should follow it. \u00a0The only good resume is the one that is targeted and there are too many potential variations depending on the candidate and the specific job for which they are applying to say a resume should always have experience in reverse chronological order. \u00a0Good ad design requires flexibility and strategic decision-making and this advice is typically given in general terms making it oversimplified. \u00a0It can lead to a clich\u00e9 resume.<\/p>\n

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