Because when you start with 0, and you add 3 people, you’re growin’ fast 🔥
Saturday, February 17, 2018 (hangover edition)
By Colin McIntosh, Sheets & Giggles CEO and former head hunter turned bedding mogul
Stop sending us your resumes.
Since Sheets & Giggles announced our business plans a month ago, we’ve been inundated with tens of thousands of resumes and cover letters. More or less. (For those who can't read sarcasm, mostly less.)
In any case, they’re all just... awful. (In format, not content ;p)
So, as a former recruiter, I figured you could all use some help with your resume formatting.
Unfortunately, we can't do anything about job applications that ask you to upload your resume, only to immediately force you to painstakingly type in everything anyway. Sorry. You should probably just avoid those companies.
If you want to get all the tips of the trade, make sure you read to the end of this quick post – there's a fun surprise waiting for you down there.
“Why is a bedding CEO writing about resume formats?”
Well, technically I am not just a CEO (I am a human being, you see). Back in the day before I slung sheets, I was a recruiter for some of the largest and most successful companies in the world. Additionally, I'm a frequent redditor in my spare time, with unmedicated ADHD. Put these things together, and baby, you got a stew goin'.
Anyway, there was a recent post on Reddit where someone was lamenting that they had sent out dozens of applications, but hadn't heard back from anyone. I commented and told them they probably had a bad resume format and to PM me with it so I could review it for them, and about 50 other redditors ended up sending me their resumes to review. I don't have time to do all of them, especially not for free, so I sat down and wrote a long reddit post about resume advice and formatting, which I've republished here to disseminate further to help even more people.
You're lucky – I usually charge for this, but I like you.
General resume advice:
- Use a gmail email address. Delete your hotmail with extreme prejudice.
- Don't put an objective section or summary. It'll be skipped, and it's space that can be used better.
- Unless you have 20+ years' experience, make it 1 page. You can do it.
- Don't put your full address. "City, State" is enough.
- Name your resume "FirstName LastName Resume" and that's it. Never submit it with "(Project Management)" or "Final" or "2018" or literally anything else in the file name.
- Always submit it as a PDF, never as a Word doc. You never know how wonky a Word doc will look on someone else's machine.
- Try to read it in 10 seconds or less and see what you take away from it. That's about the initial screen time before someone makes an initial up/down decision, so you'll want to examine it from that perspective.
- Interests are important because it gives the interviewer something to connect with you on, and it makes you more than just a faceless resume. If you put Seinfeld, I promise someone will ask you what your favorite episode of Seinfeld is (mine's the Soup Nazi).
That's the most important stuff.
You’re still reading. Nice 🍕
You’re now one of the few to know that this Thursday (2/22), Sheets & Giggles will start our first #FreePizzaFriday contest at 4pm ET on our Instagram and Facebook. Whatever pic we post, just like it and tag someone who may also want free pizza. At midnight, we’ll pick one of the commenters and deliver 2 free pizzas to them that weekend! We might even throw in cheesy bread if we're feeling magnanimous.
Keep an eye out; nobody knows about this yet except for you... and anyone else reading this. So just you.
Now get out there and nail that interview. Maybe one day you'll even realize your dream of working at S&G in an unpaid entry-level role (10+ years' experience required, must work on weekends, no benefits). Wouldn't that be something? Your mom would be so proud.
ICYMI: our last blog on how to start a business
Or travel into the future and read about S&G's benevolence.
I can’t wait to try out this template. I’ve been at the same company for 20 years and I’m a bit paralyzed when I think about writing a resume. My job title has changed a lot over the years (I don’t even remember all of them) but the type of work I’ve done has been fairly consistent. Any advice?
So helpful. I’m needing to update my resume and hated the previous format. This is perfect. Straight to the point and no fluff.
Can’t tell if it’s a website issue or not but if it’s the latter I am flabbergasted at the absence of comments. Anywho just wanted to thank you for this article. I came here from Reddit and I definitely found your advice useful. I’m a current undergrad about to graduate soon so it goes without saying that I needed to read this BADLY. Hopefully this can help me score me some internships and eventually a career in the future. I’m really glad you took the time to write this! Thank you!
I love the resumé advice. I’d send you mine, but I have no idea whether you guys want to do a Spanish-language version of the site and materials…
Well, maybe by the time you guys are really going, I’ll have my work permit, if not green card, and we’ll talk.
Thanks! Great advice, It helped me with some obvious mistakes I had made on my resume. Any advice on how to tweak this resume style for someone who has worked for the same company for 17 years? The last decade I have been an IT PM so my job title hasn’t changed but the level of projects I have worked on has. Oh, also I have taken the last year and a half off work to bicycle tour North America, Any advice on how to best frame that? Thanks!