CREATING AN EFFECTIVE RESUME

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CREATING AN EFFECTIVE RESUME
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How to Write an Effective Resume Title

• Select a name that is memorable and professional
• Goal is to get employer to keep reading your
  resume
• Include resume objective and your strongest
  qualification
• Ex. Years of experience, an industry credential
  desired job target or job-related skill

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OVERVIEW OF BASICSECTIONS

• THE OBJECTIVE SECTION
• EDUCATION
• EXPERIENCE
• SKILLS
• HONORS AND ACTIVITIES
• CONTACT
• NOT ALL SECTIONS ARE NEEDED

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RESUME OBJECTIVE SECTION

• A short section (1-3 lines), often in form of a
  sentence fragment, immediately below contact
  information.
• What are you trying to accomplish, your career
  objective
• Is this section needed, no, but information used
  here could be put somewhere else

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Tips for writing objective statement

• Focus on how you would benefit employer
• Dont be vague
• Keep it concise and targeted
• Emphasize key qualifications, skills and/or goals
• Makes a good first impression
• Relate company goals to personal goals

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A good objective statement answers questions!

• What position(s) are you applying for?
• What are your main qualifications?
• What are your career goals?
• What is your professional identity?
• How can you help the company?

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Instant Objective Statements

• For practice fill in the parts in brackets
• An opportunity to professional goal in a type
  of organization, work place or field
• Position title with emphasis in areas of
  expertise
• To utilize my qualifications, strengths, or
  skills as a position title
• A position as a position title for company
  name allowing me to develop my qualifications,
  strengths, or skills

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CONTACT INFORMATION

• Usually located at top of resume page
• Info for prospective employer to contact you
• Includes
• Name
• Address (city, state, zip)
• Phone (home and/or cell)
• Email
• Web address
• Any other means of contact

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WRITING A WINNINGEMPLOYMENT HISTORY

• TIPS
• Ditch the Job Description (its boring)
• Prove Your Value
• Emphasize your accomplishments
• Provide proof of your potential value
• Quantify Results
• Include measurable results of your work
• Use numbers and percents

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• Employment History cont.
• Which statement had more impact?
• Significantly increased revenues and grew client
  base between 2005 and 2008.
• Increased revenues from 250,000 in 2005 to 1.5
  million in 2008 and tripled client base from
  2,500 to 7,000.

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ARE YOU UP TO PAR?

• Stands for-PROBLEM, ACTION, RESULTS
• Think about your accomplishments
• What type of challenges did you face?
• What actions did you take to overcome it?
• What were the results of your efforts? Did your
  accomplishments benefit the company?
• Write down a list of your PAR outcomes
• Incorporate the most impressive ones into your
  resume

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LEAD WITH YOUR WORKS OUTCOMES

• Write the results of your work before listing the
  problems and action. This allows you to lead
  with the most compelling aspect of your
  accomplishment.
• For example Reversed an annual 2 million
  decline in market share by streamlining the
  benchmark process and building a top-flight sales
  team.

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MAKE IT READABLE

• Use a combination of paragraphs and bullets
• Provide brief paragraph that details your
  responsibilities
• Then create a bulleted list of your top
  contributions
• Use heading like KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OR
  SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS

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TARGET YOUR EXPERIENCE TO YOUR GOAL

• RESUMES ARE MARKETING TOOLS
• Employment history should market you for current
  job objective
• Use accomplishments that relate to your goal
• Remove job duties and etc that do not support
  your objective

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USE POWER WORDS

• Select your words carefully
• Avoid dull or stale phrases like
• Responsible for
• Duties included

• BE HONEST
• ALWAYS BE TRUTHFUL ABOUT YOUR BACKROUND!

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EDUCATION SECTION

• Use your education section to outshine your
  competition
• Where to place education?
• Place experience before education if 5 or more
  years related to your goal
• Place education before experience if recent
  graduate or with less than 5 years work
  experience
• Which is stronger? Education or experience??
• Place strongest closest to top of the page

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THE GPA

• STUDENT OR RECENT GRADUATE
• List GPA if 3.0 or higher
• Lower GPA if very challenging program
• Add your Major GPA if higher than overall GPA
• If scale is not standard 4.0, list the scale
• e.g. GPA 4.1/4.5

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HONORS

• Include academic honors to show you excelled

• NEW GRADS
• Students and new grads with little relate job
  experience make education the center piece of
  your resume
• Showcase academic achievements
• Extracurricular activities
• Special projects and related courses (to job
  objective)

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• College Name Payson, AZ
• BA in Communications, concentration in
  advertising, anticipated graduation 2013
• Senior Project Mock Advertising Campaign for
  Coca-Cola
• Billboard/print/TV/radio ads, direct mail
  campaign and press releases
• Related course work Advertising, Ad writing,
  Direct mail, Media Plans in Advertising and
  Marketing, Public Relations

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EXPERIENCED JOB SEEKERS

• List basic facts regarding your degree
• Institution name
• Location
• Degree
• Major and date
• Ex. The College of New Jersey-Trenton, NJ
• MA in Education May 1986

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HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION

• Include all relevant HS information just like
  college info was entered
• List related courses
• Conferences or training
• Professional development
• If you have college credits, remove references to
  high school

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BARE BONES EDUCATION SECTION

• Schools you have attended, including
  universities, community colleges, technical
  schools, etc.
• Location of schools
• Date of graduation (actual or anticipated)
• Degree(s) earned or pursued
• GPA
• Courses taken outside of typical major classes
  that may add to qualifications of job.

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• Example
• M.A. in Education
• The College of New Jersey
• Trenton, New Jersey
• Graduation 1986
• GPA 3.96 / 4.0

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WHAT ELSE MAY BE INCLUDED?

• EXTRA INFO ABOUT YOUR DEGREE
• Major, minor, or selected GPAs, funding sources,
  honors,etc.) usually listed or included in ( )
• SPECIALIZATIONS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS list or
  describe briefly
• OTHER RELEVANT SKILLS AND TRAINING (relevant
  course work, computer skills, language
  proficiency, certificates etc.

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QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

• Major or minor GPAs
• Any honors related to degree
• What are my areas of specialization, emphasis,or
  concentration
• What special course or degree-related projects
  may be relevant

• What courses have I taken that are related to my
  career goals?
• With what computer programs am I most familiar?
• What languages am I good in?
• Any certifications or licenses?
• Any on-job-training?

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SHOWCASE MARKETABLE SKILLS IN YOUR RESUME SKILLS
SECTION

• Great opportunity to show employer youve got the
  right skills for the job.
• Consider skills important for the job
• Search job postings in newspaper or on-line
  employment sites
• Find ideal requirements in the ads and list
  frequently repeated skills
• Create list of your matching skills, put in your
  resume. Your skills can come from your work
  experience, education, hobbies, extracurricular
  activities, volunteer work and even self study.

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3 TYPES OF SKILLS

• JOB RELATED SKILLS
• Relevant to a specific job
• TRANSFERABLE
• Skills learned in one field that can be used in
  another, data( research, synthesize information)
  and people (instruct, manage, lead, negotiate)
• ADAPTIVE
• Adaptive skills include reliability, ability to
  get along with colleagues, honesty productivity

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ADDING YOUR SKILLS TO YOUR RESUME

• Job relate and transferable are most desirable on
  your resume
• Indicate your skill level and years of experience
  for each skill
• Be honest
• Guideline for skill level
• Beginner- you have exposure but lack experience
• Intermediate between beginner and expert
• Expert Highly developed skill level. Solid
  experience and understand advanced concepts. You
  demonstrate proficiency and superior skill level

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HOW MANY SKILLS DO I LIST?

• Employers quickly scan resumes, so long lists are
  not likely to be read
• Select 10 to 15 of strongest, most desirable
• Short bulleted list more effective

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ADDING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Ad information that supports and reinforces your
  qualifications
• Honors and Awards
• List or awards add to Honors and Awards section
• One or Two list under corresponding job
• Academic honors Education section
• Testimonials
• Adds credibility and validate accomplishments and
• personal traits and area of expertise mentioned
  in resume

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• Publications
• Career related articles, books, blogs
• Shows you are an expert in your field
• Demonstrates good written communication skill
• Add to Career Highlights section
• Speaking Engagements
• Employers value good verbal communicators
• Include topic, where and when done
• Add to Career Highlights section
• Volunteerism
• Demonstrates dedication community and reflects
  positively on your character
• Include in Career Highlights section

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• Affiliations
• Professional memberships especially in career
  field
• Make sure it is an active membership
• Hobbies
• Ask yourself if your hobby will help employers
  see you in a better light, if so include
• Include in Interests and Hobbies section
• All of these go into the last section of your
  resume
• Can be omitted if there is a lack of space or
  relevant information

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WHAT GOES INTO IT?

• Draw three columns, one for each of the following
• Titles or positions
• Sponsors or affiliated organizations
• Dates of involvement (M/Y _ M/Y or Y Y)
• VISUAL DESIGN
• Simple list,
• Columns
• List with bulleted descriptions
• Coordinate with other sections

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EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

• Can be used to show commitment
• As important a component of your overall
  experience as any part-time job or internship
• Look for skills developed in these activities
  that can relate to the job you want.
• Look for leadership opportunities, employers
  love leadership experience

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DESIGNING YOUR RESUME

• USE DESIGN STRATEGIES
• Picking fonts
• Serif
• Sans serif
• Using layout
• Alignment
• Columns
• Coordinate with the rest of the resume!!!

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COORDINATE DESIGN STRATEGIES

• Match design with rest of resume
• Use same font types
• Use consistent layout
• AIM FOR A PROFESSIONAL PACKAGE

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PROOFREAD WITH A MAGNIFIYING GLASS

• TRIPLE-CHECK FOR ACCURACY
• SPELL CHECK
• ONE TYPO COULD COST YOU AN INTEVIEW!