In case you haven’t kept up with the news, times are tough, jobs seekers are plentiful, and good jobs are not so easy to come by. Now the good news, you have a great opportunity to showcase your skills, education, and training by reducing it all to a reader-friendly, 8×10 1/2 page of type. Here are five things you need to know in order to write a resume that will get you invited to a job interview:
1) Hiring managers don’t spend a lot of time reading resumes. Face it, some managers will only scan a resume for less than 10 seconds and may only be looking for certain key words such as the name of their hometown, alma mater (or the rival school, ask any UF or FSU alums). You will definitely spend more time writing/preparing your resume than anyone will spend looking at it. Even so, make sure that you use good quality paper, laser printing (never dot matrix), and leave enough white space so that it is reader friendly and not overcrowded. Visually, is your finished product appealing and professional looking? If not, take it back to the editing process.
2) A resume is like a lottery ticket - you can’t win if you don’t enter. Your goal is to "win" an invitation for a job interview (even a phone interview). An inert piece of paper has got to "do the talking" for you until you can get the chance to tell your own story. Resist the urge to list every job and skill you’ve ever acquired and list only the most relevant, most recent experiences for the last five years, if you have that much time in the job market. If you’re fresh out of school, list your experiences first, then your education. Nothing screams "recent grad" more than listing your Education first - unless you’re applying in the Education field, or for a Fellowship, managers are looking for people to go to work, not people trying to further their schooling. Some of the best workers come from "average" schools because they don’t have a sense of entitlement and they had to work harder to get to where they are now.
3) Pick a font type that is readable, "clean" looking, and big enough to be seen unaided. Most managers are wearing corrective lenses because they’ve got experience and if your resume is so packed with tiny 8-point font type, they’re not going to break out a magnifying lens. In the same vein, use common language, no acronyms, jargon, or slang. Make sure your grammar, punctuation, and spelling (sic) are 100% correct. Now do you see how even one misspelled word can hurt your image and credibility? "I have great attention to detail." — Yeah, right! Get a trusted friend or relative to "proofread" your finished product before you send it out. Be careful - some college "friends" can turn into your toughest job competition.
4) Have more than one "resume" depending on your skills, interests, and financial abilities. To use the lottery analogy again, you ideally want to have a "general purpose" resume that you can send out broadly and a few "tailored" resumes that are targeting specific employers, career fields, or job titles. There are plenty of good books that elaborate on this concept. Basically, don’t spend all your money on 500 finely printed resumes that all say the same thing. Also, save your best copies (and any multiple page resumes) for when you actually GET the interview - that way you can leave the potential employer with more information after you’ve impressed them with your personal interview presentation.
5) Avoid like the plague ( or the H1N1 Flu?) the following "stunts" - using colored or scented paper, photos (self or pets!), two-sided printing, graphics, hand writing (unless the job announcement requires you to submit a hand written narrative, usually to prove foreign language proficiency), Landscape printing, or anything else that may seem to be "cute" but non-conformist. Remember, hiring managers are looking for someone professional, who can fit in with the team, follow business rules, and convey a positive company image. Jobs that encourage non-conformity or require unusual personal attributes usually don’t ask for resumes anyway.
Stick to a professional looking, simply worded, and easy to follow format and you’ll be glad you did, because you will be quizzed on it during your interview. Whether you go chronologically, functionally, or follow another format, you’ll want you resume to cover your most relevant experiences and skills, show that you can get results, and that you understand (or that you’re willing to learn) what the employer’s needs and expectations are.
One final thought: resist any temptation to "inflate" or puff up your education, accomplishments, or past job titles. Honesty is the only policy: many employers will eventually check out your claimed credentials and if you are caught in a lie, you have just blown your chance for that job. For federal jobs, lying on a job application can be grounds for immediate dismissal and possible prosecution for making a false statement, a felony. And if you think the job market is tough now, try entering it with a criminal record.
Stay positive and again, like the lottery, keep "buying tickets" until you achieve your immediate goal: getting the job interview. More on what to do in that step in a future Factoidz post.
