| Length
A resume should be long enough to cover important details
and accomplishments, but short enough to attract and keep the reader's
attention. Only on rare occasions should a resume be more than two
pages. If you need more information, then end the resume with "Additional
information and references readily available." Academia is the exception
to this rule, but in commercial settings, hold to two pages.
Style
There are functional, chronologic, and reverse chronologic.
Functional resumes highlight your skills and accomplishments and
work best when you have been doing the same type of work for many
years. Start with an objective, then a summary, a section on your
education or professional training, follow with a skills or accomplishments
section, then end with a job history.
Chronologic resumes are still the most common and easiest to read.
Use this format unless you have a need to use another. Start with
a well-written objective, then job history or education (education
first if you have less than 5 years professional experience), a
skills section will finish this nicely.
Reverse Chronologic resumes almost always throw the reader a curve
ball. Only use this style when you need to tell a story or when
your most applicable experience was early in your career.
Quantify and Qualify
Engage the reader of your resume. Tell a good story with
lots of details. When you say that you were responsible for something,
describe the size or otherwise qualify the statement.
Examples
Which shows the candidate in the best light?
- Responsible for hiring, supervising, and training the sales
force along with sales, loss prevention and merchandising the
store.
- Recruited and developed a staff of over 100 in a 100,000 sq.
ft. store with $11M in sales. Improved loss prevention by 10%.
Won company wide award for store presentation.
Use details to enhance your resume. Don't exaggerate; just provide
the facts.
What if my resume makes me look old?
If you would prefer to not disclose your age, document the
last 20 years or so, then add a section entitled "Earlier Experience".
In this section use a few sentences to highlight any work you did
that is not on the resume. You didn't hide anything, but you didn't
give anything away unnecessarily. Additionally, list your education,
but leave the years off.
Should I use an objective?
Absolutely. I have interviewed thousands of candidates during
my career and can tell you the most important question in each of
my interviews is "Tell me what is going to be important about your
next position."
If there is a reason for you to create a resume, there is an objective.
Your objective will come out eventually and if your priorities don't
match with the employers, you're not going to get the job anyway.
Tell them what you want in the first paragraph of your resume, doing
so will expedite the process if you are a fit.
Example
Objective: To apply my 10 years of government related sales
management experience to a position as a Director of Business
Development with an aggressive Government Services Provider.
This will keep you from getting some calls, and you can thank me
for it. Now all the foodservice companies in Baltimore won't call
you, but you can bet you will attract the attention of the government
services companies.
I have worked for companies no one has heard of.
Always assume the reader never heard of your employers.
Every company does at least one thing well. Take this opportunity
to tell the reader. Use this in your description.
Example
Director of Recruiting
| Continental Search & Outplacement, Inc.,
|
Baltimore, MD |
1996- Present |
| CS&O is a boutique recruiting firm specializing
in hard-to-fill assignments. |
Executive Recruiter
| Futures Personnel Services, Inc., |
Towson, MD |
1991-1996 |
| Futures was an established employment agency
and an Inc. 500 award winner. |
In the example the reader has the (accurate) impression that the
candidate worked for two first-rate organizations instead of two
small businesses that would be unknown to most people.
Most important tips
- Tell how you positively impacted the organization you were with,
list accomplishments, awards, quantify & qualify. Don't list
a job description.
- Explain what you actually did in terms anyone could understand.
The use of acronyms, heavy use of technical jargon may be impressive
to the person that will hire you, but a recruiter's assistant,
researcher, or worse yet, a Human Resources intern might be the
first person in the recruiting chain to read your resume. If they
don't understand that you are a fit, no one else will ever see
your credentials.
- Tell the truth, but do it in good taste. Liars get caught and
fired.
- Leaving something off your resume, (like a short time with a
lousy employer), is ok if you describe your JOB HISTORY as CAREER
HIGHLIGHTS and use years as time markers and not months. Tell
the story when you are interviewing, hiring managers will be more
understanding face to face. It is never ok to leave a job off
your employment application.
- If there might be any question of your citizenship or clearance
status, then list it in the first portion of the resume or at
the very end. If you are on a VISA, put it on your resume, it
simply saves time getting to the information. It does not help
you get the job.
- If your name might be considered male or female, (like Sandy
or Jean) consider putting Mr. or Ms. in front of your first name.
This has nothing to do with sexual discrimination; it is simple
courtesy.
- Remember to put your contact information on the resume and include
a professional sounding email. If your email address could be
considered offensive, silly or hard to remember, get a yahoo or
hotmail account with a more appropriate address.
- Keep these things off your resume
o Religious status, (unless applying for a job with a religious
organization and you think it will help).
o Marital status, (it is no one's business and organizations don't
want to know)
o Race
o Date of birth
o Ages of your children
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