Why the Resume Matters

1
(No Transcript)
2
Why the Resume Matters
Every employer and many graduate schools will
expect one. It helps you get an interview in the
first place. It guides the interviewer to what is
important about you. It represents you in your
absence to those who do not interview you. This
is a life skill to master, not a one-time task
3
Preparing the Resume
FACT

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that college
  graduates today can expect to change jobs an
  average of nine times after college (most of us
  in the career field think this is an
  underestimate).

4
Resume-Writing Guidelines

• You must tell the truth
• It is your job to sell yourself in your resume
• A resume is about your future, not your past
• You put the information in order of interest to
  your reader

5
Our Process for Today

• Imagine your future (job, career path, life)
• Because you have to know where youre going to
  get there
• Catalog what assets you have to offer to that
  future
• Experience, knowledge, skills, abilities,
  personality traits
• Write your resume one easy step at a time
• Answer queries and follow a standard format

6
STEP 1
Imagining Your Future
7
How to Define a Job

• Industry be as narrow as you can
• As in aerospace, construction, banking,
  elementary education,
• Function be as narrow as you can
• As in sales, accounting, training, production,
  distribution,
• Title you have to know its name to seek it
• An Assistant Editor is very different from an
  Editorial Assistant

8
Other Things to Consider

• Where is this job? Region? State? City?
• How large or small is the company?
• What do you wear to work?
• What hours do you work? How many?
• Who do you work with?
• What would a typical day be like?

9
Imagine the Ideal Candidate

• What knowledge, skills, and abilities would be
  critical to be an outstanding performer?
• What kind of person or personality would thrive
  in this position?
• What skills would be critical for continued
  advancement?
• If you were hiring for this position, what would
  be most important for you?

10
STEP 2
Cataloguing What You Have to Offer
11
Catalog Your Relevant Experience

• Employment
• Every job youve ever had
• Volunteer and community service
• All of it, even one-day stuff
• Student activities
• Paid, unpaid, volunteer, appointed, elected,
  casual,
• Coursework
• Not just whole classes but even specific projects

12
More Relevant Experience

• Sports
• Varsity, intramural, and just for fun
• Hobbies
• Besides watching TV
• Religious, political, and community activities
• Travel
• Honors and Awards
• Going all the way back to high school, or before

13
Even More Relevant Experience

• Technical skills or other special skills
• Laundry list your computer or laboratory skills
• Languages
• Fluent, proficient, basic,
• Publications, presentations, academic and
  professional meetings, affiliations
• Everything youre going to do between today and
  when the job or grad school begins

14
STEP 3
Writing Your Resume
15
Five Writing Tips

• Use an exact figure whenever you can
• 9870 7 clients 23 days 45
• Use a superlative whenever you can
• First, only, most, best, fastest, largest,
• Focus on accomplishments, not routine duties
• Accomplishments sell, duties bore

16
Continued

• Write long on your first draft
• You can edit back on later versions
• Use ACTION verbs
• Created, launched, pioneered, motivated,
  promoted, revitalized,

17
The Heading - Your Name

• Place it right in the center at the top of the
  page in large type
• It is recommended that you use your full legal
  name
• There are a lot of Chris Johnsons out there,
  but maybe only a few R. Reginald Austermeyers
• You can use a nickname if everybody calls you by
  that name
• Theobald Harrison Wally Wallace

18
Continued

• If your reader will not know your gender, place a
  small Mr. or Ms. in parentheses after your
  name.
• Carroll Ward (Mr.)

19
The Heading Your Contact Info

• Select among school, permanent, and local address
  options, or list all three
• Email is absolutely essential, so choose an email
  address that you check daily and will keep
• No weird phone messages! No weird home page
  content!

20
Listing Your Education

• Feature the school granting your current or most
  recent degree consider omitting others
• If the degree is ongoing, you can specify so like
  this ongoing, expected 2002, or just say
  you are a B.A. Candidate.
• Many schools have a rule that you have to list
  your GPA to interview on campus, but off campus
  this is optional

21
Continued

• List Coursework relevant to your career
  interests, usually in a table of bulleted
  listings
• List honors, awards, and student activities that
  are not featured in your experience section

22
Listing Your Experience

• Consider all your experience paid, unpaid,
  part-time, full-time, formal, casual, sports,
  activities, and service
• List the most relevant experience in reverse
  chronological order, move less relevant material
  to an additional section lower down, or omit it
  altogether

23
Continued

• Consider dividing your experience listings into
  sections
• Related Experience and Additional Experience
• Sales Experience and Management Experience
• Professional Experience and Student
  Employment

24
Continued

• Put dates on the right. Left-hand dates went out
  more than twenty years ago
• If your job title is not descriptive, consider
  adding a functional title in parentheses
• Student Worker II (Assistant Manager of the
  Chemistry Lab)

25
Continued

• Favor hard accomplishments over soft claims
• Sold 17 more widgets than any other rookie,
  vs. improved relations with account base.
• As mentioned before, start each sentence with an
  action verb created, launched, pioneered

26
Adding an Objective Statement

• You dont have to have an objective at all -
  especially if you are not sure what type of job
  you will seek, or how you will use the resume
• You can use multiple resumes, each with a
  different objective statement
• Objectives go at the top, first thing under your
  heading

27
Continued

• Mention the type of job you want, and when
  possible, the name of the company that will
  receive your resume
• Objective A copy writing position with
  Altruistic Advertising
• Avoid vacuous demands like A challenging and
  rewarding position with a progressive company
  offering opportunity to advance

28
Profile vs. Objective

• Profile sections take the place of an objective,
  and feature the skills and abilities you want to
  apply in your next position
• Profiles sections can be named Profile,
  Strengths, Expertise, Areas of Knowledge
  Ability
• Profiles serve as mini-advertisements for the
  rest of the resume

29
Profile Example

• Strengths include excellent sales skills, record
  of effective team play, and demonstrated strong
  work ethic.

30
Additional Sections

• Go at the bottom of the resume
• Computer skills, laboratory and other technical
  skill sets, any other special skills
• Publications, presentations, honors and awards
  not mentioned above, professional and academic
  affiliations
• Language skills, hobbies, travel, sports
• Summaries of experience not mentioned above

31
Personal Sections

• Go at the very bottom of the resume
• Resumes used abroad usually include a Personal
  section with date of birth, place of birth, and
  marital status
• Always omitted on domestic resumes, except

32
Continued

• Foreign nationals may want to mention
  right-to-work status Citizen of Portugal, U.S.
  Resident Alien, valid Green Card, qualified for
  immediate employment anywhere in the E.U. or
  U.S.A.
• If your paperwork is not current, its probably
  best not to mention it until the interview stage.

33
Congratulations!You Just Wrote a Resume!

• Edit it down until everything you see is
  interesting and pertinent, whatever the length.
• Make all your editing decisions by following this
  rule Put your information in order of interest
  to your targeted reader.

34
Postscript - design

• Prepared by Donald Asher, presentation designed
  by Scott Svatos Douglas Miller for monsterTRAK,
  monster.com.
• ? 2000 -2001. Donald Ashers books include From
  College to Career, The Overnight Resume, and
  Ashers Bible of Executive Resumes.