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RESUME TIPS
The resume is visually enticing, a work
of art. Simple clean structure. Very easy to read. Symmetrical. Balanced.
Uncrowded. As much white space between sections of writing as possible; sections
of writing that are no longer than six lines, and shorter if possible.
There is uniformity and consistency in the use of
italics, capital letters, bullets, boldface, and underlining.
Absolute parallelism in design decisions. For example, if a period is at the end
of one job's dates, a period should be at the end of all jobs' dates; if one
degree is in boldface, all degrees should be in boldface.
As mentioned above, the resume's first impression is most important. It
should be exceptionally visually appealing, to be inviting to the reader.
Remember to think of the resume as an advertisement.
There are absolutely no errors. No
typographical errors. No spelling errors. No grammar, syntax, or punctuation
errors. No errors of fact.
All the basic, expected information is included.
A resume must have the following key information: your name, address, phone
number, and your email address at the top of the first page, a listing of jobs
held, in reverse chronological order, educational degrees including the highest
degree received, in reverse chronological order. Additional, targeted
information will of course accompany this. Much of the information people
commonly put on a resume can be omitted, but these basics are mandatory.
Jobs listed include a title, the name of the firm,
the city and state of the firm, and the years. Jobs earlier in a
career can be summarized, or omitted if prior to the highest degree, and extra
part-time jobs can be omitted. If no educational degrees have been completed, it
is still expected to include some mention of education (professional study or
training, partial study toward a degree, etc.) acquired after high school.
It is targeted. A resume should be
targeted to your goal, to the ideal next step in your career. First you should
get clear what your job goal is, what the ideal position or positions would be.
Then you should figure out what key skills, areas of expertise or body of
experience the employer will be looking for in the candidate. Gear the resume
structure and content around this target, proving these key qualifications. If
you have no clear goal, take the skills (or knowledge) you most enjoy or would
like to use or develop in your next career step and build the resume around
those.
Strengths are highlighted / weaknesses de-emphasized.
Focus on whatever is strongest and most impressive. Make careful and
strategic choices as to how to organize, order, and convey your skills and
background. Consider: whether to include the information at all, placement in
overall structure of the resume, location on the page itself or within a
section, ordering of information, more impressive ways of phrasing the
information, use of design elements (such as boldface to highlight, italics to
minimize, ample surrounding space to draw the eye to certain things).
It has focus. A resume needs an initial
focus to help the reader understand immediately. Don't make the reader go
through through the whole resume to figure out what your profession is and what
you can do. Think of the resume as an essay with a title and a summative opening
sentence. An initial focus may be as simple as the name of your profession
("Commercial Real Estate Agent," "Resume Writer") centered under the name and
address; it may be in the form of an Objective; it may be in the form of a
Summary Statement or, better, a Summary Statement beginning with a phrase
identifying your profession.
Use power words. For every skill,
accomplishment, or job described, use the most active impressive verb you can
think of (which is also accurate). Begin the sentence with this verb, except
when you must vary the sentence structure to avoid repetitious writing.
LIST
OF POWER WORDS
Show you are results-oriented. Wherever
possible, prove that you have the desired qualifications through clear strong
statement of accomplishments, rather than a statement of potentials, talents, or
responsibilities. Indicate results of work done, and quantify these
accomplishment whenever appropriate. For example: "Initiated and directed
complete automation of the Personnel Department, resulting in time-cost savings
of over 25%." Additionally, preface skill and experience statements with the
adjectives "proven" and "demonstrated" to create this results-orientation.
Writing is concise and to the point. Keep
sentences as short and direct as possible. Eliminate any extraneous information
and any repetitions. Don't use three examples when one will suffice. Say what
you want to say in the most direct way possible, rather than trying to impress
with bigger words or more complex sentences. For example: "coordinated eight
city-wide fund-raising events, raising 250% more than expected goal" rather than
"was involved in the coordination of six fund- raising dinners and two
fund-raising walkathons which attracted participants throughout St. Louis and
were so extremely successful that they raised $5,000 (well beyond the $2,000
goal)."
Vary long sentences (if these are really necessary)
with short punchy sentences. Use phrases rather than full sentences
when phrases are possible, and start sentences with verbs, eliminating pronouns
("I", "he" or "she"). Vary words: Don't repeat a "power" verb or adjective in
the same paragraph. Use commas to clarify meaning and make reading easier.
Remain consistent in writing decisions such as use of abbreviations and
capitalizations.
Make it look great. Use a laser printer
or an ink jet printer that produces high- quality results. A laser is best
because the ink won't run if it gets wet. It should look typeset. Do not
compromise. If you do, your resume will look pathetic next to ones that have a
perfect appearance. Use a standard conservative typeface (font) in 11 or 12
point. Don't make them squint to read it. Use off-white, ivory or bright white 8
1/2 x 11-inch paper, in the highest quality affordable. If you are applying for
a senior-level position, use Crane's 100% rag paper and make sure the water-mark
is facing the right way. Use absolutely clean paper without smudges, without
staples and with a generous border. Don't have your resume look like you
squeezed too much on the page.
Shorter is ususally better. Everyone
freely gives advice on resume length. Most of these self-declared experts say a
resume should always be one page. That makes no more sense than it does to say
an ad or a poem should automatically be one page. Your resume can be 500 pages
long if you can keep the reader's undivided attention and interest that long,
and at the same time create a psychological excitement that leads prospective
employers to pick up the phone and call you when they finish your weighty tome.
Don't blindly follow rules! Do what works. Sometimes it is appropriate to have a
three pager. But unless your life has been filled with a wide assortment of
extraordinary achievements, make it shorter. One page is best if you can cram it
all into one page. Most Fortune 500 C.E.O.s have a one- or two-page resume. It
could be said that, the larger your accomplishments, the easier to communicate
them in few words. Look to others in your profession to see if there is an
established agreement about resume length in your field. The only useful rule is
to not write one more word than you need to get them to pick up the phone and
call you. Don't bore them with the details. Leave them wanting more. Remember,
this is an ad to market you, not your life history.
Length of consulting resumes. In a
consulting resume, you are expected to shovel it as deep as you possibly can. If
you are selling your own consulting services, make it sizzle, just like any
other resume, but include a little more detail, such as a list of well-known
clients, powerful quotes from former clients about how fantastic you are, etc.
If you are seeking a job with a consulting firm that will be packaging you along
with others as part of a proposal, get out your biggest shovel and go to town.
Include everything except the name of your goldfish: A full list of
publications, skills, assignments, other experience, and every bit of
educational crapola that you can manage to make sound related to your work. The
philosophy here is: more is better.
Watch your verb tense. Use either the
first person ("I") or the third person (''he," "she") point of view,but use
whichever you choose consistently. Verb tenses are based on accurate reporting:
If the accomplishment is completed, it should be past tense. If the task is
still underway, it should be present tense. If the skill has been used in the
past and will continue to be used, use present tense ("conduct presentations on
member recruitment to professional and trade associations"). A way of "smoothing
out" transitions is to use the past continuous ("have conducted more than 20
presentations...").
Break it up. A good rule is to have no
more than six lines of writing in any one writing "block" or paragraph (summary,
skill section, accomplishment statement, job description, etc.). If any more
than this is necessary, start a new section or a new paragraph.
Experience before education...usually.
Experience sections should come first, before education, in most every case.
This is because you have more qualifications developed from your experience than
from your education. The exceptions would be 1) if you have just received or are
completing a degree in a new professional field, if this new degree study proves
stronger qualifications than does your work experience, 2) if you are a lawyer,
with the peculiar professional tradition of listing your law degrees first, 3)
if you are an undergraduate student, or 4) if you have just completed a
particularly impressive degree from a particularly impressive school, even if
you are staying in the same field, for example, an MBA from Harvard.
Telephone number that will be answered.
Be sure the phone number on the resume will, without exception, be answered by a
person or an answering machine Monday through Friday 8-5pm. You do not want to
lose the prize interview merely because there was no answer to your phone, and
the caller gave up. Include the area code of the telephone number. If you don't
have an answering machine, get one. Include e-mail and fax numbers, if you have
them.
POSSIBLE REASONS TO HAVE A RESUME
RESUME LOOKS LIKE
THE
EVIDENCE SECTION - HOW TO PRESENT YOUR WORK HISTORY, EDUCATION, ETC
Evaluate Your Resume
POWERWORDS
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