Don’t Let Weak Areas in Your Resume Keep You from Getting a Great First Job

Is there a weak area in your resume? Maybe your GPA sagged during one semester, or you were unemployed for a time after you quit a job that didn’t work out. Perhaps you are bit older than other college grads who are now competing for jobs. The list of possible problems could go on and on, but are they really problems?

Issues like those might be very troubling to you, but everyone has them. In nearly every case, those perceived weaknesses will not turn out to be a problem at all because hiring companies are looking for good employees, not perfect people.

How to Deal with “Weak” Areas:

Don’t try to hide anything

Instead, be open and honest. If your grades slumped during one semester in school, for example, simply explain why that happened. Perhaps one of your parents was ill or you had chosen the wrong major and were switching.

Or if you are competing for a job against other applicants who are younger than you are, explain that you are a veteran, or that you had to take time off from college to earn money to pay for your studies. If you explain your story with no apologies, you will put any troublesome issues in perspective.

Be positive and explain any problem in an upbeat way

One good approach is to explore valuable lessons that you learned from your past challenges. Working a job while you were in school was not a hardship, for example, but an opportunity to learn to handle stress and learn skills you will need in your professional life.
If possible, explain how the lessons you learned will equip you to perform the job you are hoping to get. You can say that you learned to multitask, think on your feet, handle stress better, bounce back from setbacks, or gained other specific skills you will need in your new position.

In Summary . . .

The key traits to demonstrate when to talking about any weak areas are . . .
Honesty . . . Openness . . . Confidence . . . Common Sense

Those qualities, after all, are exactly what companies are looking for in the people they hire.

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