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Resumes

Rules of thumb:

You have between 7 to 14 seconds to empress upon someone you have the talents and expertise they are seeking.

A page of a resume needs to be treated as a valuable piece of property

proof read - proof read - proof read; caps count and so does spelling.

 

Contact Information

Unless the situation dictates, you should never volunteer personal information such as age, ethnicity, religion, marital status and physical attributes on your resume. All contact information to include current phone and/or fax number (s), your postal address, and your email address at the top of your resume, and leave it at that. For example:

 

SCOTT GREAT

sgreat@ucanachive.com

100 Scott's Kando Drive, · Freeport, Illinois 61032

Tel: (815) 555‑1212 · Fax: (815) 555‑1222 · Cellular: (815) 555‑1223

 

An additional page (s) should at minimally  contain name and address

 

Objective

An objective statement should be direct and show employers that you know what you want and you know how to get it. An objective should be targeted, professional, and free of personal pronouns words such as ( "I,","my", and  "me"). Avoiding other colorful word or flowery details.

Example:

"Objective: Industrial sales position capitalizing on 15 years' experience in retail management and commercial administration."

Of course, your objective can be longer or shorter than this example. Ultimately this depends on your situation, your level of experience, and your desired position.

 

Another method is to list the title below your contact information. A very direct method keeping, but time and space saving.

Example :

 

SCOTT GREAT

sgreat@ucanachive.com - 100 Scott's Kando Drive, · Freeport, Illinois 61032

Tel: (815) 555‑1212 · Fax: (815) 555‑1222 · Cellular: (815) 555‑1223

 

Personal Account Representative

 

Summary of Skills

Use the summary statement to emphasize the most important qualities, achievements and abilities you have to offer an employer. Include professional characteristics that could help you later during the interview; for example, "team‑oriented," "skilled at problem‑solving," "committed to excellence." Then, during the interview, be prepared with anecdotes so you can elaborate on each of these statements. Here's an example:                     

"Sales professional with proven background in retail management and hospital administration. Design, coordinate and enhance sales and marketing activities and relationships to identify business customers. Effective communicator, able to develop comprehensive networks for continuing organization visibility and sales revenues. Desire career growth based on performance and accomplishments."

 

Professional Experience

Go back 10‑15 years, and list every position you've held in reverse chronological order. Even though age discrimination is illegal, many candidates with substantial experience worry about falling victim to it. So, if you've been in the field for more than 15 years, you can add a section titled "Prior Relevant Experience" and just refer to your additional important jobs without mentioning specific dates.

 

If you've held multiple positions within the same company, list every position—you'll want to show that you've progressed.

Finally, concentrate on the description of each position—the meat and potatoes of this section—to show that you've gotten results and solved problems within the organization. For example:

"2/93 ‑ Present: East Coast Business Systems, New York, New York.

Hospital Marketing Representative Represent

major expanding medical diagnostic reference laboratories testing program to hospitals and health systems in the sales of services and information systems.

 

Create marketing and strategic selling plans. Establish network within hospital marketplace for upstart division. Comprehensive knowledge of managed care and physician group, and clinical trials market."

 

Education

Include the institution's name and location, along with your degree and the year you obtained it.

 

Beyond that, you can include

Educational honors, seminars and certifications, and list achievements such as projects, awards, and grade‑point averages. (A GPA of 3.0 or above is worth mentioning.)

Finishing Up

 

After you've finished the professional experience and education areas of your resume, you can add additional sections for additional pertinent information, such as professional honors, awards and affiliations.

While you might need to provide your recruiter with professional references, it's not necessary to include these on your resume—after all, if you're in the middle of a career search, it's pretty clear that you've developed some professional relationships along the way. However, if you do add a references section, make sure it says more than "References available upon request." Also, check with your references beforehand to make sure you can include them on your resume. You don't want anyone to be surprised when the recruiter calls.

 

You may also wish to include professional skills, such as languages spoken and proficiencies with computer software or hardware, in this section. Other possibilities include professional training, appointments and licenses. However, you should never include hobbies (e.g., "I like to read") or list personal interests (e.g., "music, books, art") anywhere on your resume.

 

Tips from Recruiters

Recruiters have highlighted 12 of the career accomplishments that most interest employers. It's possible that you've accomplished some of these in your current job—think of how you might include them on your resume. Approach each one from the viewpoint of a recruiter: How can this past accomplishment benefit a potential employer?

  1. Increased revenues

  2. Saved money

  3. Increased efficiency

  4. Cut overhead

  5. Increased sales

  6. Improved workplace safety

  7. Purchasing accomplishments

  8. New products/new lines

  9. Improved record‑keeping process

  10. Increased productivity

  11. Successful advertising campaign

  12. Effective budgeting

What Job Seekers Need to Know

 

In an information age,  technology drives most interactions, resumes sent via E-mail and traditional paper are likely to be scanned for key information by a machine, not a human being. Human are limited by time to view a resume and you must at all times put your best foot forward within  7 - 14 seconds.

Your resume maybe scanned by a machine using

 

A text-searching - artificial intelligence software. The software searches for skills that match a job description. Such systems are important because they significantly lessen the time it takes to search for qualified applicants to fill a job. They also help employers create a resume pool

Every word in a resume is important in the selection process, because computers are programmed to search for keywords. This software can also reads important information to include your name, address, work history, experience and skills. A clear and clean resume allows the scanner to obtain a good image to maximize the matches.
 

To Prepare a for Scanning

Use a standard typeface such as Courier, Helvetica, Futura, Optima, Universe or Times with a point size of 10-14.
 

Use black ink on white 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. (Not Colored Paper)

 
Use only capital letters or boldface to emphasize important information.

Do not use italics, underlining, boxes, graphics, or horizontal or vertical lines.
 

Avoid a two-column format or resumes that look like newspapers or newsletters.
 

Use only a laser-quality printer.
 

Do not fold or staple pages.
 

If faxing, use fine resolution and follow up with a mailed original.
 

Avoid "formatting peculiarities." If you use E-mail, save your file as "text only" or "ASCII" to avoid the possibility that your word processor and your prospective employer's word processor are incompatible. E-mail a copy of your resume to yourself to make sure it looks the way you meant it to look.
 

Use "key-words" phrases, terms, jargon, and titles to describe your abilities. Describe your experience with concrete words rather than vague terms.  Be sure to use state-of-the-art terminology to describe yourself.

 

Always look to the company and  mimic their words in the help-wanted ads.

Be concise and truthful.  & Use more than one page if necessary to get the attention of robotic and human readers.

 

A resume only gets you to the interview you do the rest.

 

Use keywords: if you are uncertain about keywords look to the advertisement and other advertisements of the same job titles.

Examples:

BS in XXXX  - Management  - Team work - Leadership - Internships experience - AutoCAD

Job search you may choose to have two versions of your resume:

One to send for the computer to read

One for people to read during an interview

    •   Copyright © 2003 Vets4Veterans