Great Tips From Your Recruiter - Resume Writing Tips
Not all resumes are created equal. While a format that contrasts the traditional resume design will stand out in a pile of fifty pieces of paper, it is well organized content that will land you an interview. What should constantly be in the forefront of your mind when creating your resume is that most employers will not spend more than 30 seconds examining what you have submitted to them. Your resume is but one of fifty or even a hundred that are vying for the attention of this employer. This paper had better be good, and just as importantly, succinct. Otherwise it will likely be thrown out or recycled into an environmentally friendly greeting card with 95% of the others.To avoid wasting time, there are some points to consider before you ever begin writing.
First, you should be the one to write your resume. It is highly recommended that one individual, if not several people, other than yourself proofread the work, but a resume is a true representation of you, and no one knows you better. (see below for some tips on gathering content) Exaggerations, or even bold-faced lies, are not uncommon in resumes, but such embellishment is not a good idea. False merits might win you a visit to the company's offices, perhaps even the position if the employer doesn't check your background, but claiming to do something you're not capable of will cost you dearly in the end.
By polishing the description of what you really have done instead of lying, you can avoid the potential awkward unveiling of the truth and subsequent issuing of a pink sheet later on. One more mistake to avoid is including superfluous personal data. Don't reveal your height, weight, ethnicity, religion, political party affiliation, marital status or age on the resume. Not only could this make you subject to discrimination, but also (with only rare exceptions) it is illegal for an employer to solicit this information from you. Another item that should be absent from resumes is any reference to salary.
Leaving out the banal and inappropriate items does not make one resume better than another, however. What you need to do is make the document reader-friendly, which may mean sacrificing style for content (read: no silly fonts or abstract layouts). If an interviewer can quickly learn about relevant work experience and what you bring to the table, the resume is more likely to end up in the "keep" pile. The key to catching the eye of an employer is to make it easy for them to find the qualities they are looking for in you. Clean resumes with no fluff for content are the way to go.
THE OBJECTIVES STATEMENT; Should It Be There?
Following the prominent display of your name and contact information at the top of the page, there is sometimes a brief "introduction" to the resume known as an objective statement. The value of adding such a statement is debatable. When done improperly, it can do more harm than good and cause an employer to toss your resume faster than she can say "not qualified." If used correctly, it can create a unifying theme for the rest of the resume to build off of. There are some who insist that since cover letters are customized for every job you apply to, this theoretically eliminates the need for objective statements. Should you decide to use an opening statement, steer clear of vague declarations of ambition such as "to find a job where I can use and develop my marketing skills to the fullest extent," and opt for a more clearly defined objective that references the specific position you desire, and relates past experience or educational background to it. Here the axiom of doing it right or not at all definitely applies.
TYPE OF RESUMES
There are several standard sections of a resume that most employers will expect to see (education, work experience, computer skills, and miscellaneous/additional), but how you format them is entirely up to you. The most popular is chronological, wherein you would list your experience in a time sequence, starting with the most recent and working backward. More unconventional, and useful to an employer, is the functional format, but job seekers beware, for this method is inherently more time consuming. Functional resumes are categorized by areas of expertise and skill, rather than job title, allowing you to hand pick the section headings as would be most appropriate for the position in question, possibly adapting the entire resume every time you submit it.Whether you decide to take the path less traveled or not, there are guidelines that apply to both formats. The terminology you use is often what makes or breaks a resume. This does not mean that you should fill your resume with big words; in fact, using esoteric language will only portray you as presumptuous, but you do need to consider how to phrase things. Large paragraphs are not easy for employers to scan (remember: 30 seconds), so most resumes don't even feature very many, if any, complete sentences. When writing a resume, leave out personal pronouns and accentuate the action verbs. Start descriptions with "designed," "created," or "managed" and forget about "I assisted in," or "I was responsible for organizing." Whenever possible, quantify your achievements as well. You should definitely include a college G.P.A. if it is higher than 3.0, and saying that sales consistently went up in your region at least 10% every quarter you were there is more definitive than "improved sales."
EDUCATION SECTION
In a traditional resume, there should be a section detailing your academic history, and another to show your "real world" training. Since you need to prioritize everything, which section comes first is dependent upon your situation. Recent college grads are not likely to have extensive experience, so the education information ought to be at the top of the page. Conversely, if you are nine years removed from college, one would hope you have more recent and notable achievements than your overall G.P.A. and which scholarship you received. But nearly everyone should have an education section, and the list should start with your most recent schooling. Include what degree you obtained, which university you attended, what your major(s)/minor(s) concentrations were, and any distinguishing honors you received while you were a student. If your G.P.A. is not indicative of your true performance, there are ways around that. For example, you can just offer your major G.P.A. from the last 4 semesters if you had trouble at the start of college, or you can list particular classes that an employer may find relevant. It is assumed that if you have a degree, you also have a diploma or G.E.D., so do not include this data.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Writing the work experience segment of your resume is certainly more intricate than the education part. Here you must prove you've learned something during previous employment and confirm that you would be more than suited for the position opening. In addition to the strong action verbs, you should insert specific keywords and industry buzzwords; do this enough to demonstrate your proficiency in the field, but temper it enough so that your writing doesn't become incomprehensible to those not in the know. When displaying your wide breadth of knowledge and work experience (save the details for an interview), don't forget to mention if you worked with or reported to someone high on the corporate ladder. Just by association, this makes you seem important. For those of you who actually are higher on the food chain, it is a rule of thumb that only work experience from the last 10-15 years is worthy of space on a resume; of course, there are exceptions when a former occupation is especially pertinent to the position you seek.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
The most important objective is to ensure that the employer knows...
"HOW YOU CAN SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM"
Of course, not ever one of these questions should be answered on a resume. These questions are intended to stimulate your thought processes to garner good info that could be included in the answer to the employer's question "How You Can Solve My Problem".
What experience, skills, aptitudes, or traits do you have, or think you might have, that could be of someuse to some employer in solving their problem?
How do you market the product? (if applicable) a short marketing strategy What was your deal flow? How was your production compared to others in your market? What skills have you developed, at least to some degree, that you have never used at work? Do others, at work or elsewhere, come to you for any particular kind of help? What kind? Do you have military experience (include Coast Guard and merchant marine)? Branch, grade, Specialty? Activeduty, reserves, national guard? Discharge? Duties? Accomplishments? Medals, citations, commendations?
Promotions ahead of schedule?
Have you ever published an article, report, or anything, even as a volunteer, even in your company professionalassociation newsletter?
Have you ever given a talk, speech, or presentation, or provided training to anyone at work or elsewhere?Think about the specifics.
Computer literacy and related skills:? What programs are you familiar with (ACT, Distinctive Solutions,etc·); office suites (Suite; Microsoft Office; Word Perfect Office); LAN or WAN system software?
What foreign languages do you know at least somewhat, and what is your level of skill in each, i.e., nativespeaker; fluent; moderate; phrase-book; write easily for professional purposes?
What planning or analytical tools are you familiar with (Critical Path, ACT, etc·) ? Do you have any special travel experience, domestic or foreign? If you studied, lived, or worked in a foreigncountry, how long were you there?
Responsibilities, Activities: How many people did you supervise? Orient? Hire? Train? How large a budget did you manage? Who do you report to? What was the highest level in the company that you reported to or communicated with directly? Did you coordinate anything? Serve as liaison between groups or key individuals? Mediate between groups or individuals? Resolve any conflicts? Serve as mentor to anyone? Did you do, or participate in, strategic planning? Did you set or evaluate or participate in the setting or evaluation of policy? Did you evaluate any individual or group performance, or any task or project research? How did your function relate to the product offering? Did you communicate with customers? How? Were you on any proposal teams, in-house or with a customer or subcontractor? Did the proposal succeed? What was your function on the team, or your contribution to winning? Your team's percentage of wins? Did you communicate with clients, brokers, etc· Ever serve as a troubleshooter? In what area? Did you back up someone? Who? Did you do any surveys or other research or studies? Determine requirements? Prepare recommendations? Design or manage any processes, systems, or projects? Organize any events, conferences, meetings? How many? Did you administer anything? Consult for anyone, inside or outside the organization? Did you gain experience in any special use software? Analytical or evaluative procedures? Equipment or hardware? What kind of writing did you do, for yourself or someone else (loan packages, e-mail, correspondence, memos,reports, concept papers, plans, proposals, office newsletter, etc.)? What did you write about? Did
you write any that was delivered to a customer as a product, or part of one?
Achievements, Accomplishments: How much reduction in costs or increase in profits did you contribute to? What did you do? Did you add any smoothness, quality, or economy of operation that noticeably improved the way things werebefore you assumed responsibility?
Any concrete or specific signs of the gain you achieved? Did you propose, suggest, or initiate any programs, changes, or improvements that were implemented at leastpartly because of your initiative?
What positive results occurred? What did you do as a volunteer, beyond the regular duties of your position? Whether you were paid for it or not, what were you particularly good at that made a difference in how theoffice (job, project, assignment) progressed from day to day?
Awards, Recognition: Were you praised, recognized, or given a pat on the back for anything-a particular assignment, a methodof working, a trait of character? How? By whom?
Were you promoted ahead of schedule? Selected for any special responsibilities or programs?TECHNOLOGICAL SKILLS
Becoming increasingly more important every day is a person's technological aptitude. Hardly worth a mention ten years ago (unless entering a high tech field), a computer skills section is now imperative, even if it is limited to Microsoft Office applications. If you are more than proficient at some programs, qualify it with words like "advanced" or "expert" rather than merely listing what you are familiar with. Another option for those in highly specialized careers would be to just make this a professional skills section where you can showcase your capabilities with certain equipment or fluency in foreign languages.
THE FINALE
Once you've written the resume, checked for misspellings, and think you have finished, go through and check it all again. Never rely solely on your word processor's spell checker to catch all the mistakes you undoubtedly made. Homonyms and grammatical errors can easily slip through unnoticed, which is why you need to do an old-fashioned spelling and grammar check, then have at least one other competent person look at it. Remember that English major geek in college who always had his nose buried in a book? That's the guy you want to look over your resume. Aside from a complete lack of qualifications, there is no other more sure-fire way to have your resume passed over than to have it ridden with typos. But having everything typed correctly does not guarantee readability. While it is important to convey information about yourself, do not underestimate the power of white space: don't cram sections or lines together, and have margins no smaller than 1" on the top and bottom and 1.25" on each side. This can be difficult when trying to keep the document to a single page, but you should expand onto a second page if necessary.Using these tips as your guide, you should have an impeccable resume. The time spend doing this correctly will yield dividends. Just remember that you are selling yourself with these words, so be positive and accentuateWe have provided a "Resume Builder" on our website for your convenience.
