3

Seven Steps to Resume-Writing Success

Just like those popular home-repair shows that teach you to follow well-conceived plans to minimize costs, eliminate errors, and maximize outcomes, this chapter provides you with the blueprint for a great resume. It details do-it-yourself steps, identifies quick fixes, and addresses issues for job seekers who might need special tools.

The Process

Resume writing is not as difficult as many believe. Creating your resume is an opportunity to identify the positive things about very important aspects of your life. The process can be simplified to seven easy steps (those outlined in Chapter 2) that you can use to update or create resumes in just a day. Here are the steps again, in brief:

• Review samples.
• Determine format, content, and order of information.
• Identify objectives and target your audience.
• Inventory your qualifications and achievements.
• Analyze your competencies and capabilities.
• Draft and critique your resume.
• Duplicate it, post it, and distribute it.

Chapter 2 also outlined which steps are most important for certain job seekers. Pay particular attention to those steps, but don't ignore any of the steps.

Reviewing Samples

Break out the pens, highlighters, and sticky notes and start examining the samples that appear throughout this book. Analyze them like the knowledgeable and focused job seeker you are. Instead of thinking critically, identify the qualities you like.

Prospective employers look for certain things as they review resumes. (You can read some of their comments in Chapter 10.) The first thing employers and recruiters do when they want to fill a position is to list the qualifications the job requires. They list these traits in order of priority, according to which are essential, which are optimal, and which are merely desirable (or optional).

Once the employer decides on the qualities he or she is looking for — such as capabilities, areas of expertise, character qualities, employment history, and educational background — candidates are encouraged to apply, screened, and, ultimately, interviewed and selected. Sometimes job descriptions and postings include detailed qualification criteria. More often, however, these preferences are expressed vaguely in broad descriptions.

It is helpful to understand the employer's perspective, and it is a good idea to review other resumes. Just remember, this is your resume. You, and not anyone else, are responsible for success.

No matter how inaccurately they express their defined criteria, employers are always aware of them. Employers review resumes and cover letters, conduct interviews, and make their offers with those qualification criteria clearly in mind. In particular, they use written profiles of their desired qualifications for keyword scanning (described in Chapter 5) and behavioral interviews (Chapter 8).

While the job seeker might wish otherwise, employers almost never share detailed qualification criteria, nor do they thoroughly analyze the resumes they receive. The employer is not responsible for digging through a mass of poorly organized, badly written resumes to find the perfect job candidate. As the job seeker, you are responsible for conveying your goals, objectives, and a clear sense of job purpose. You must create a powerful resume that mirrors your qualifications and follow that up with an interview that impresses the employers with your capability to perform the job.

Format, Content, and Order of Information

Pick out your two or three favorite sample resumes. Examine them from top to bottom. Here are some basic questions to consider:

• What first impression does the resume generate? How is it formatted?
• What appears first on the page?
• How does the resume identify the candidate? Does it include a street address, an e-mail address, and a phone number?
• Does the resume include a brief yet effective objective and a qualification summary?
• Does the resume present educational information before or after a qualification summary? Before or after experience? How will you present this information?
• How does the resume order information about the candidate's work history, qualifications, and objectives?
• Does the resume use as few lines as possible, reserving most of the page for critical content?
• Does the resume use columns, with dates on the left and descriptions on the right, or a block format?
• Are headlines centered or left justified?
• Does relevant information appear under clearly phrased and focused headlines?

You may have been told that it was bad to write in books, but in this book you should write your response to the sample resumes as you review them. Anyone's first response to a resume is often purely visual; therefore, as you read, note the ways in which you can give your resume a greater visual impact.

Look at the answers to these questions, and let them guide your resume writing. The resumes you selected jumped out at you for a reason, and you can use the aspects you like to form your own resume.

Formatting Basics

The font you choose is the key to a well-formatted resume. Fonts should be traditional, easy to read, and common. You don't want to create a beautiful resume in some obscure font that will be replaced on your reviewer's computer by an automatic bad font substitution (probably destroying all your careful line spacing and other formatting work as well).

The Best Fonts and Point Sizes for Resumes

Bookman Antiqua, 9-Point	Palatino, 8-Point
Bookman Antiqua, 10-Point	Palatino, 9-Point
Bookman Antiqua, 11-Point	Palatino, 10-Point
Century Schoolbook, 9-Point	Times, 9-Point
Century Schoolbook, 10-Point	Times, 10-Point
Century Schoolbook, 11-Point
	Times New Roman, 9-Point
Garamond, 10-Point	Times New Roman, 10-Point
Garamond, 11-Point	Times New Roman, 11-Point

For headlines, increase the font size two points at a time until the headline is emphasized but not disproportionate. You can highlight important elements with CAPITALIZATION, boldface, and italics, as well as with indentations, line spacing, and bullet points. At one time, e-mailed resumes had to be formatted so they could be easily scanned. Today, PDF is more common. PDF, or portable document format, is a file format that anyone can read using special viewing software (free from software maker Adobe).

Most current word-processing systems let you save documents directly as PDFs. Your software should explain how you can do this. The beauty of PDF's is that they allow you to use more creative formatting, such as graphics. Just keep in mind that a cluttered page will confuse your reader; use only those elements that help you present yourself effectively.

Consistency is the key to readability and effectiveness. Resumes are rarely read very thoroughly at all. Most employers say they review each resume for less than a minute before keeping it live or filing it. You want employers to be able to pick up important information just by scanning your page. Review the samples for illustrations of effective and not-so-effective highlighting techniques.

Identify Yourself

Maybe you don't need an eye-catching logo, but you do need to begin your resume consistently. Letterhead is the best and easiest way to do this. You can design your own very simply, using the features in any word-processing program. Letterhead features your name on the first line.

Letterhead includes your full mailing address, the telephone number(s) where you can be reached during business hours, and your e-mail address. By the way, lose any cutesy or gimmicky e-mail monikers like Partyallnight@ or Muscleman@; it's hard to take such names seriously. Set yourself up with a free address at a major search engine to keep your job search correspondence easier to track. This keeps it separate from your personal e-mail or your work e-mail.

Never use a current employer's e-mail address. You don't want your prospective employer to think (or know) you aren't giving 100 percent to your job while you're working. Also, take the time to review your voicemail messages on the phone numbers you include on your resume, both home and cell. While you're in the job market, refrain from music, clever hellos, or other weird greetings. Try not to think of this formality as stifling your personality, but rather as improving your chances for getting the interview.

The point is to make it as easy as possible for your reader to recognize you and to contact you with minimal effort. Use the same letterhead for all your job-related documents, including cover letters, thank-you notes, or submissions of reference information. This is also part of creating your personal brand, as defined in Chapter 1.

Summarize Yourself

Targeted resumes use qualification or achievement summaries to present objectives and goals. Summaries follow or even replace the statement of objectives, depending on what you learn in your self-assessment and goal research (steps four and five). Sometimes these sections come at the end, providing the resume with a solid bottom line. Chapter 4 details issues related to objectives, as well as qualification and achievement summaries.

Putting Your Experience in Order

The best resumes present the job seeker's most significant experiences first. Entries are grouped under headlines. They include undergraduate and graduate degrees, specialized training, and work history. Education can come at the top, as the first or second category, or last. Candidates with plenty of valuable on-the-job experience generally list that first, saving the bottom of the page for a summary of their education.

Most recent graduates put their education at the top of their resumes. Your academic achievements may be significant, but you should think about where and how you want them to appear. Don't list education first just because you think you should; you might make important work history, projects, and other achievements look less important by bumping them farther down the page.

Academic achievements and honors can be presented in a bulleted list. To figure out what belongs on this list, think about courses, papers, and projects with special relevance to this field. You might also have pertinent extracurricular or community experience. In general, these activities should follow your education and employment entries. Most good resumes do not have a personal interests section. Include yours only if you're sure it emphasizes your goals and qualifications in the field.

Finally, it is important to note that your resume does not need to end with “References available upon request.” That's a given.

Identify Your Objectives and Your Audience

This critical step is too often overlooked. You must identify your objectives and your target audiences. What do you aim to achieve with your resume? Answer that question, and you will define your goals. You must also define, as best you can, who will read your resume. Your reviewers belong to the field. They use particular words, phrases, and other field-focused terminology when they talk about their work. By using the proper language, you project the sense that you can do the job.

Your resume should clearly state your career objectives, but not necessarily with a designated career objective line. Instead, the content of your resume should convey the career objective. Too often old-fashioned career objectives were pure fluff. They were vague or did little to enhance the job seeker's qualifications or goals. Look through the samples in this book. When a sample resume includes a career objective line it is very targeted, meaning it clearly focuses on a specific field and, within that field, on a certain job function.

Inventory Your Qualifications and Achievements

Why do so many resume-writing and job-search guides ask you to list your ten most significant achievements? The answer has to do with the power of positive thinking. With your greatest achievements in mind, you are more likely to think about — and represent — yourself as a valuable job candidate, full of potential.

It's not so easy to draft a summary of your qualifications, and don't worry if it takes some time. Start by asking yourself this question: What skills have I demonstrated in the past that will make me valuable in my chosen field in the future? Think of problems you have solved, instances of collaborative teamwork, or projects you managed with great success.

The best way to pick out your important achievements is to think in terms of the job or field you're aiming to enter. Freeform lists of random accomplishments are not as effective. You don't want to rely on your reviewer to figure out or analyze the significance of anything in your resume; it's your job to make your value clear.

Achievement summaries are the heart of any good resume. That's what makes a resume content-rich. They should be enough to convince the reviewer of your commitment, your qualifications, and your obvious value. It's important not to skimp on the time or energy you put into summarizing your past accomplishments; to a potential employer, your past has everything to do with the future.

Analyze Your Competencies and Capabilities

It may be physically impossible to look backward and forward at the same time, but the world of resume writing follows different rules. Great resumes reflect past achievements and, via qualifications summaries, look ahead to future roles and responsibilities. You are not limited to talking about what you have achieved in the past. Instead, your resume is the perfect platform to express your confidence and competence in tackling the future.

Drafting and Critiquing Your Resume

Your first draft should be inspired by the sample resumes you've reviewed and analyzed. They will probably influence your choice of content and the order of your information. Let them. Later on, you can go back and determine the best order of presentation, and omit unnecessary entries.

Resume Software

You'll find plenty of resume-building software to tempt you as you create your draft. Resist the temptation and use a basic word-processing application. Most, like Microsoft Word, come with resume templates. While attractive, these lock you into a format, and that can limit how you present yourself. Also, prospective employers have seen these templates used over and over. You might eliminate yourself from consideration just because a hiring manager dislikes a particular format. Give yourself the greatest control over your resume by starting with a blank page.

The Internet has hundreds of listings for professional resume writers. Do your best to resist! Your resume is your responsibility; nobody can present you better than you can. If you are still dissatisfied with your finished product, you may consider a professional resume writer (see Chapter 6 for guidance). Your drafts will be a good basis for your consultation with an expert.

The First Draft

As you put your first draft together, don't worry about keeping it to any particular length. If anything, it is better to start long and edit it down later. Write as spontaneously as you can. Don't rewrite as you go; that's a sure way to inhibit your creativity and there will be plenty of time for rewriting when your draft is complete.

Your finished resume should be concise. If it is still longer than one page after your best editing efforts, so be it! Employers do read two-page resumes as long as they are well organized, with the most important information on the first page. The one-page resume rules are part of the old way of job hunting.

When drafting, aim just to get the information down. Jot descriptive phrases to help you capture your thoughts quickly. You don't have to use articles (the, an, a), and you can leave the pronouns out. It's unnecessary to say, “I completed the survey” in a resume — “completed survey” gets the point across. Without shocking your English teacher, you can feel free to use sentence fragments.

Reviewing the Draft

Begin your critique only when you have a complete draft in hand. Some people like to see their resume on paper, and they edit with the old red pen technique. Others revise and edit onscreen. Work the way you're most comfortable, being sure that your method helps you polish your draft to perfection. Critiquing does not mean criticizing. Your revisions are meant to transform your resume into its most powerful form. Be positive. Make immediate changes as you need to, and be prepared to make future changes as your job search progresses.

Mass Production, E-mail, and Distribution

At one time, people worried about things like typesetting and having a clean ribbon in the typewriter. Then it was a good laser printer, picking the right paper, and finding matching envelopes. That eventually moved into fax machines and now e-mail. Each era comes with its own advantages and pitfalls.

Most of your resumes will probably go out via e-mail or be posted to the Web, though you will still need a printed version as well. In either case, it's important to make a good first impression. Make your resume effective with strong format, very simple graphics (as long as they contribute to your statement), and an attractive design.

Most resumes are created or updated using word-processing software and duplicated on paper using quality printers and photocopiers. It's best to use standard portrait orientation (with the resume reading top to bottom on the page), and while you've probably seen creatively formatted resumes — horizontal style, foldouts, or brochures, for instance — it's really best to stick with the standard.

For paper copies, use a top-quality laser printer or photocopier, and use bond or linen paper. White, ivory, natural, and off-white are your best color options. The content and format of your resume will make your document stand out; the color of your paper does not matter. If you have your resumes copied, get extra paper and matching envelopes. Use the same paper for your cover letters and other correspondence. Brand yourself; a professional image contributes to your marketability.