Reprinted from:
San Jose Mercury News, Sunday April 13, 2003 Section 1PC
Original title of article:
Powerful resume as easy as A-B-C
Breathe new life into this all-important document with 26 simple steps
- Accomplishments: Although it's important to
sum up your experiences, you should do more than list your achievements. Explain how
you accomplished your goals.
- Benefit: Research the company you're applying
to and tailor your resume to indicate the skills you can use to benefit its bottom
line. In other words, tell them what you can do for them.
- Coordination: Decide on a format and stick
with it. Group your experiences in chronological order or based on certain job skills.
Just be sure everything makes sense in relation to the rest of the document.
- Decorations: Refrain from using clip art,
borders, photos and other images on your resume.
- Everything: If it's relevant to the skills
needed for the job you're applying for, put it on there. Rebecca Zucker, a San
Francisco-based executive coach who works with clients throughout the Bay Area, says
to leave only items that are applicable to the job. "The thing to remember is that a
resume is not a laundry list of everything you've ever done," she says. "It is a way
of selectively high-lighting your experience in a way that is compelling to the hiring
manager.
- Facts: Tell the truth. Make something up - even
the smallest detail - and it could come back to haunt you.
- Growth: Show how accomplishments from one
job led to a promotion or a new job with a different company.
- Hubris: The good old greek word for pride.
Boast about relevant accomplishments only. You may be proud of your title of
co-captain on your high school basketball team, but you're 38 years old.
Move on.
- Individualized: Don't be afraid to change
your resume for each job you're applying for. If you have access to a computer and
a printer, there's no excuse for using a boilerplate resume.
- Justify: There's no need to explain gaps in
employment on a resume. If questions come up during an interview, there will be ample
time to address any concerns about your situation.
- Knack: If you have a special skill or talent,
mention it on your resume. Companies are always looking for employees who can help
out in more ways than one.
- Letter: Keep your resume limited to one to
three fonts, and keep the various sizes to a minimum.
- Money: Avoid mentioning your salary history or
expectations on your resume. If a help wanted ad requests salary history, include
it in your cover letter.
- Name: Always be formal. No nicknames, no
Johnny or Chuck. There's plenty of time to make informal connections with new
co-workers.
- One page vs. two: If you've just graduated from
college or have limited work experience, don't try to stretch out your accomplishments
to two pages. But for experienced workers, it's more important to have a resume
that goes beyond one page than to exclude important information.
- Paper: "People go to a lot of trouble to
select different shades of paper, but a resume on heavy white paper is as formal as
you can get," says Jonathon Adler, a career consultant in Jackson, Miss.
- Quick: Make sure your resume is a fast read.
You're not writing an epic novel about your life. Bullet points tell the story of your
career in a reasonably short amount of time.
- Readability: Use margins and spacing to keep
the resume clean and distinctive. A resume should be pleasant to look at and easy to
read.
- Stains: Accidents happen so if you don't want
to hand over a coffee-stained resume to the vice president of human resources, keep
your resumes in a protective sleeve or folder.
- Tacky: Stay away from jargon and shoptalk,
unless it's universal in the industry. Buzzwords like "synergy" and hackneyed phrases
like "think outside the box" are overused and lack real meaning.
- Unsolicited: Don't send your resume to every
company in the phone book. Tailor your resume to relevant companies. According to
Zucker, direct resume mailing is useless. "Your time is better spent talking to
people - networking your way into your targeted companies," she says. "A resume passed
along to a hiring manager through a contact is more likely to get read than a resume
that is sent in blindly.
- Voice: List your accomplishments with
confidence, using language that you would use during an interview.
- When: Timing is everything when sending out
your resume. Don't wait too long to create the perfect document. You still may be
agonizing over Times Roman or Helvetica fonts while the company you want to work for
is scheduling second interviews.
- Xerox: Make a few copies to bring to your
interview. There's a good chance your interviewer will need a copy to look at while
he or she is discussing the job with you.
- You: Keep your resume focused on how you
helped achieve your company's goals. Employers are less interested in the fact that
you worked for a Fortune 500 company than they are in what you did to help make
it one.
- Zenith: Highlight the pinnacle of your
professional career. If you had a great deal of success at one job in particular,
lead with it.