Writing a Successful Resume

1
Writing a Successful Resume

• Jessica Nelson
• WSUV Career Services
• MMC 24
• Nelsonje_at_vancouver.wsu.edu

2
Eight Keys To Getting Noticed

• Pick the format that is the best fit
• Showcase your skills
• QUANTIFY
• Be Specific
• Be Honest
• Design a good layout
• Target your Audience
• PROOFREAD

3
Two Basic Layouts

• Chronological
• List jobs in chronological order
• List specific tasks and skills associated with
  that position
• Functional
• Pick Specific Skill Sets and outline your
  accomplishments/knowledge in these areas
• Separately list job titles

4
Chronological

• This format is good for folks with several years
  of work history
• It is easy to read and to understand the duration
  and context of the listed skills
• It is the standard and is widely accepted

5
Functional

• This format is a good fit for folks without
  significant work history
• One can easily incorporate skills and knowledge
  gained in the classroom or in non- work
  activities
• It is less widely used. Some employers prefer a
  chronological format

6
Showcase Your Skills

• Showcase your skills from
• Related work / internships
• Work in other fields
• Class projects or assignments
• Other facets of your life
• volunteer work with religious organizations
• student organizations
• sports

7
Quantify

• How Much
• Money did you raise for your charity
• Did sales increase
• How many
• People did you manage
• Pizzas did you deliver
• Attendees came to the event

8
Be Specific

• What
• Skills did you use?
• Impact did you have?
• Process did you perform?
• Where
• Explain the context
• Retail
• Eight Phone Lines
• Who
• Did you supervise?
• Serve?
• Work for or with?

9
Be Honest

• Do
• Clearly articulate the thinking and higher
  level elements of your job
• Performed some HR processing for more than 300
  student workers
• Do Not
• Overstate your responsibilities
• Coordinated HR functions for a staff of 300
• Change your title
• Say anything that your supervisor would not back
  up 100

10
Format your Resume Effectively

• Your resume is a sample of your work as much as
  its a showcase of your skills
• Use the white space- too much or too little blank
  page can detract from your message
• Create Balance- your resume should not be
  lopsided or bottom heavy
• Be consistent dont change fonts or headings
• The most important content should be in the first
  third of the page first 20 second average

11
Target Your Audience

• Review position descriptions for the job(s) you
  are targeting
• Arrange bullet points so that skills and
  achievements most closely related to the position
  are at the top
• Dont focus on elements of past experiences that
  are less relevant to the job you are seeking

12
PROOF READ!

• Use spell check
• This will catch many errors
• Do not rely on spell check
• It cannot catch some of the worst errors
• Pubic/public
• Misspelled or wrong company name
• Basic grammar errors
• Your / your
• An / and
• Have others review it
• Set it down and come back to it for further
  review