The resume. For many applicants it is their only chance to show potential employers why they deserve an interview. Most resumes will be looked at for approximately 30 seconds. That's 30 seconds to show your qualifications and get their attention based on your prior work experience. No pressure, right?
I have always thought that my resume was well organized and a clear example of my qualifications for the jobs that I have applied for. Over these past few months, as I've received rejection letter after rejections, I've begun to wonder why I haven't had the success I thought I would have. In my graduate classes, we are a small close group and we talk about our lives frequently. This semester, I'm lucky to have a professor who has over 20 years experience as a Human Resources Manager. Over the weeks, as I've become more frustrated, she offered to take a look at my resume and cover letters and give some advice. I thought sure, why not?
When I received the feedback from her, I was in shock. I've been making many resume mistakes. Some of the feedback were things that I had thought about changing but some were things that I've been told in the past not to do. Either way, I'm working on redoing my resume so that I can continue applying to jobs with a new and improved resume and hopefully have better results.
I know that resumes can be done in many ways and every HR professional will want to see different things on a resume but I wanted to share her advice on here (she did give her permission). So here it is:
RESUME WRITING EXERCISE
If you are making a career change or are a young person who is new to the
job market, you are going to have to be especially creative in getting across
what makes you stand out. This brainstorming exercise provides a great way to
help you mine the raw material you will need to write a resume that grabs the
attention of prospective employers. It does this by helping you focus your
writing on what employers are looking for and what you have to offer. Do this
exercise BEFORE you begin writing your resume.
The goal
is to broaden your thinking so you can discover some new connections between
what you have done and what the employer needs and wants. Don’t confine yourself to work-related
accomplishments. Use examples from your entire life experience. If Sunday school
is the only places you have had a chance to demonstrate your ability to teach
or lead, great! The point is to cover all possible ways of thinking about and
communicating what you do well. What are the talents you bring to the market
place? What do you have to offer prospective employers?
1.
Write your answers to the question, "What would
make someone the perfect candidate?"
2.
Prioritize your answers based on those qualities or
abilities you think would be most important to the person doing the hiring.
3.
Then, beginning with the top priority you identified, brainstorm
about why you are the person who best fulfills the employer's needs. Write down
everything you can think of that demonstrates that you fit with what is wanted
and needed by the prospective employer.
RESUME WRITING ADVICE
- Write from the intention to create interest, to persuade an
employer to call you. If you write with that goal in mind, the result of your
resume writing will be very different than if you write only to inform or
catalog your job history. Ask yourself: What would make someone the perfect candidate?
What does the employer really want? What special abilities would this person
have? What would set a truly exceptional candidate apart from a merely good
one?
- Resume Objective: This section, usually at the very
beginning of a resume, tells
a prospective employer what job you are applying for or whether you are
submitting your resume for any job that fits your qualifications. As
needed, your objective should be rewritten every time you apply for a job, so
it is directed at a particular job. For those times you need to submit a
generic resume, include your primary areas of focus,
which I suspect would be such things as instructional design, learning and
development, training, organizational development, etc. If there are any other specific fields or
industries you want to target in your job search, include those as well.
- The most proper/professional resume writing style is to avoid using the
words ‘am/have/I' etc. and start your
sentences with the appropriate adjective/action word. For instance, in the “Objective,”
start with the word 'seeking.' Also, use present tense (vs. past tense)
adjectives. For instance, use 'Gather' instead of 'Gathered.' This is proper resume writing protocol.
- 'Awards' and 'Volunteer Experience' sections are not relevant if greater than
10 years old. Also, this kind of information is typically only included in
recent college graduate resumes; not the resumes of people with 5+ years work
experience.
- Use the term 'Relevant Experience' instead of 'Work Experience' and the term
'Other Experience' instead of 'Other Employment.'
- If you plan to look for teaching work, include information about all related
certifications.
- Consider adding a 'Skills/Abilities' or 'Strengths'
section that includes a list of your most significant attributes as they relate
to the kind of jobs you are seeking such as 'Analytical Problem-Solving,' etc.
In my case, I include a two-column bullet list of the HR areas I have
significant experience in (i.e., Organizational Development, Performance
Management, etc.). Now days, companies also scan resumes for 'key words'
related to skills/abilities.
- Create and use a generic, professional sounding email address that you only
use for job search purposes. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I see a job
candidate with an email address such as ‘hotchick10@yahoo.com, because it
projects a very unprofessional image.
- Ensure that all bullet points are as succinct as possible with no extraneous,
unnecessary words.
- Consider using a 'Qualifications Summary' section that includes some succinct
bullet points about your experience. This section could incorporate and take
the place of an 'Objective' section, in some instances.
- Bulleted
lists:
Emphasize skills and areas of achievement with bulleted lists. Standard bullets
include the disc, the circle, and the square, however many symbols will serve
as bullets. Whatever type of bullet style you choose, keep the look
professional and consistent throughout your resume.
- Skills: Organize skills into the order they are most
relevant to your job, or subdivide them into categories so that an employer can
easily see what attributes you bring to the job.
- Consider
including a ‘Qualifications Summary.’ This is a short statement of why you feel
you are an appropriate candidate for the job. This section is an optional
section.
The skills resume begins with a list of skills that relate
to the job for which you are applying. The skills resume format is
exceptionally useful when 1) you are applying for a job in a different field
than your work experience, 2) you have large gaps in your work experience or 3)
you have little or no paid work experience.
If you’re tailoring your resume for a specific job, then
read over that job description and look for key words that are used frequently
or unusual words that reveal what the employer is looking for in an employee.
Even if you’re not tailoring your resume for one job, chances are that if
you’re looking in a certain job field, desired skills will remain fairly
consistent within the field. If you’re submitting your resume electronically, a
computer scanner may search your resume for key words. Scanners then filter out
resumes that a human employer will look at, while other resumes may be deleted
without ever being read by a human.
The active voice makes almost any writing style sound
better, including resume style. Transforming phrases from the passive to the
active voice is usually not that difficult, but it can make a big difference
because this technique makes it sound like you have actively pursued your work
– which is true.
Write and edit until
you have a well-organized document that emphasizes your most relevant
qualifications for the position you seek. Maintain a separate document
containing all extra information that you sometimes, but not always, like to
include in your resume when you are applying for various different jobs.
‘Experiences’ may include coursework,
jobs, volunteering, internships, externships and other relevant experiences.
Demonstrate qualifications for a given
position by always tailoring your resume to the description of the position for
which you are applying.
RESUME WRITING
A resume is a
marketing tool that highlights the aspects of your background you wish to draw
to an employer’s attention. It is often an employer’s initial contact with you
and they typically base interview decisions upon the content of this document.
Resume writing is important and deserves an investment of time. You must be
willing to write and edit until you have a well-organized document that
emphasizes your most relevant qualifications for the position you seek. On average an employer will initially spend
less than thirty seconds reviewing your resume. In this short time you need to
convince the reader you are impressive enough to be invited for an interview.
Tips for writing about your experiences:
Always keep your objective in mind when deciding what
experiences you will include and highlight!
Also, use category
headings as appropriate to the job. Examples include “Relevant Experience,” “Cross
Cultural Experience,” “Teaching Experience,” “Training Experience,” or
“Leadership Experience.”
1.
Start by creating a list of all positions and activities in which you have been
involved. Review the list to identify those that relate most to your objective
and/or the job for which you are writing a resume.
2. Refer to the
list of action verbs below and identify words that relate to your experiences.
Begin each of your descriptive statements with one of these words. Never begin statements with “Responsible
for…” and do not use personal pronouns (i.e. I, my, our, we). A tip you can
use to be sure you have worded your statements properly is to put an imaginary
“I” in front of the statement. If it makes sense with the “I,” you have
probably written the statement correctly.
3.
Ask yourself questions for each experience such as Who? What? When? Why? How?
How many? How often? Results? For instance, if you chose “tutored” from the
list of action verbs you can enhance your statement by indicating who you
tutored, how many, what subjects, how often, and so on. You’ll end up with a
statement such as: Tutored three at-risk junior high students in science and
math on a weekly basis.
4.
Include numbers (quantities, dollar amounts, percentages) whenever possible.
This information makes your resume much more informative because it highlights
the scope of your responsibility and/or accomplishments.
Action Words
accomplished, achieved, activated, adapted, addressed, adjusted, administered, adopted,advertised, advised, allocated,analyzed, anticipated,applied, appraised, approved,arbitrated, arranged, assembled, assessed, assigned, assisted,attained, audited, balanced, budgeted, built, calculated, catalogued, chaired, charted, classified, coached, collected, communicated, compared, compiled, completed, composed, computed, conducted, confronted, conserved, consolidated, constructed, consulted, contracted, contributed, controlled, coordinated, corresponded, counseled, created, critiqued, defined, delegated, delivered, demonstrated, designed, detailed, detected, determined, developed, devised, diagnosed, directed, dispensed, displayed, dissected, distributed, diverted, drafted, drew, edited, educated, effected, eliminated, enforced, enlisted, entertained, established, estimated, evaluated, examined, exhibited, expanded, expedited, explained, expressed, facilitated, familiarized, figured, filed, filtered, formulated, forwarded, founded, gathered, generated, governed, guided, hired, identified, illustrated, implemented, improved, improvised, increased, indexed, informed, initiated, innovated, inspected, installed, instituted, instructed, integrated, interpreted, interviewed, introduced, invented, inventoried, investigated, judged, lectured, led, located, maintained, managed, mapped, marketed, measured, mediated, modeled, moderated, modified, monitored, motivated, negotiated, observed, obtained, operated, ordered, organized, originated, oversaw, participated, perfected, performed, persuaded, photographed, planned, played, predicted, prepared, prescribed, presented preserved, presided, printed, prioritized, processed, produced, programmed, projected, promoted, proposed, protected, provided, publicized, published, quoted, raised, reasoned, recommended, reconciled, recorded, recruited, reduced, referred, regulated, rehabilitated, reinforced, reorganized, repaired, replaced, reported, represented, researched, resolved, responded, restored, retrieved, reviewed, revised, rewrote, saved, scheduled, selected, served, shaped, simplified, sketched, sold, solved, specified, spoke, stimulated, straightened, streamlined, strengthened, studied, succeeded, suggested, summarized, supervised, supplied, supported, surveyed, synthesized, systematized, tabulated, taught, tested, trained, transcribed, translated, transmitted, treated, tutored, updated, upgraded, visualized, wrote
I know this helped me see some of the obvious errors on my current resume. Time to fix it up and apply to some more jobs. The search continues. What resume tips have you received or would you give for someone on the job hunt???