Resume Content : What to include

Ingredients of a Resume:

There is no magic recipe for an effective resume. Just a few basic ingredients and you'll have a document worth presenting to an employer.

You do not have to spend tons of money to end up with a presentable and professional resume that will serve the purpose.

Career changers and those job-seekers with varied work experiences and accomplishments may want to utilize a functional resume style (we'll cover that tomorrow in part II).

A basic type of resume that will suit both entry level and career seekers without an extensively long list of jobs is known as a chronological resume. Here are the key elements:

Name and contact details:

This will be the information by which employers or recruiters will reach you. Keep this up to date at all times.

Include your name, address, phone number(s), and e-mail address.

Ensure that if you include a phone number you want that phone number used (ie. a work number is not always well advised). Also, people often change cell numbers or don't keep their cells on. It is preferable to offer a home and cell if possible. Keep your email addresses professional - some emails may be funny to friends but would lift an employer's eyebrow on a resume (I could share some "funny" email addresses that weren't so funny on a resume). Make sure it is appropriate to what you are trying to present. Bold your Name and centre the whole section.

Job Objective
If you choose to include this keep it short and sweet. Come at this with the attitude of what you want to offer as a contribution to the position or the employer's organization.

Key Accomplishments

Think of this section as an executive summary of your resume; identify key accomplishments that will grab the attention of an employer. Do this in bullet points if at all possible. An extremely long paragraph summarizing everyting will lose the impact of important accomplishments.

Education and Experience:

You can choose to do these two sections next, in either order. If you only have a small amount of experience because your a new grad you'll want to start with education. If you have 2 or more years of related experience start with experience first and follow with education.

Education
The education section will include include school(s) attended (including years of attendance), majors, degrees, and honors and awards received. If your degree happens to be from a country outside where you are applying include and equivalency testing results that you have received from authorities within the country where the job is located. Make sure your dates and facts are correct as this is often part of the fact checking when an offer is being considered. You should expect that an employer will ask for evidence of education presented on your resume.

Include additional designations and certificates that you have completed in the education section. If you do have an additional designation go ahead and use it after your name in the contact information area. This makes your qualifications easier to identify right off the top.

Employment Experience

This section should include company name, your job title, dates of employment, and major accomplishments. List experiences in reverse chronological order, starting with your most current experience (just a little tip, don't go backwards it will confuse everyone! Trust me). A helpful addition that I particularly like is a one sentence description of the company's product or service. If I'm looking for someone with a food background but I don't know that's what ABC company does because it is not apparent in their name this will help you get it across.

List your responsibilities and accomplishments in bullet format (rather than paragraph format).
Use action words/verbs when describing your accomplishments.

Affiliations/Interests

You can include this if you want. It isn't required.

References
"References will be made available upon request" - (This will conclude your resume)

Writing a Resume

Resume Writing 101

Perhaps you've been out of the job market for a while and need a resume, or feel that the resume you've been using isn't getting the results that you want. It may be time to update your resume or even start from scratch. There are a few different way that you can go about producing a resume.

1. Write Your Own:

Find a book on resume writing and a word editing program (Microsoft word for example) and a friend or family member (or two) who is willing to proofread what you have written. You can use the online templates on Word and suggestions from the book to put together something that looks professional. Just make sure that you have someone proofread your finished product to make sure it does look professional (no typos, grammatical or spelling errors) A good resume guide is Knock 'em Dead Resumes: Features the Latest Information on: Online Postings, Email Techniques, and Follow-up Strategies (Resumes That Knock 'em Dead)


2. Use a Resume Writing Software Package:

Check out your local office supply store or online bookstore. They will have off the shelf resume writing software such as Resume Maker.

3. Use A Resume Writing Service:

If you don't feel you can produce a resume that is as creative and unique as you would like using templates or off the shelf software you might want to use a resume writing service.

This will require some research to make sure that you are getting what you are paying for.

• Check out the website first and make sure you can review samples. Also make note of the the written copy on the website. I have come across sites that are actually using broken English - this is not how you want your resume to turn out.
• Check the price. If it is extremely low you are not going to be getting one on one attention and, more than likely, they are just using the same template you could have gotten for free.
• Check their credentials. The resume writing firm should have some credentials. The most common one is the Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) designation that indicates they have passed certain required standards.
• Look at their samples. If you don’t like their samples, you surely won’t like their work. Look to see if they are focusing on your specific skills and accomplishments as opposed to just listing job duties. Ideally there will be a questionnaire and a phone interview.
  
• Do they offer a guarantee? Is there some seal of approval? Look for the BBB Online Reliability seal that shows they are a safe and reliable site.
  

RESUME TIPS

RESUME WRITING TIPS


Where to Start? Every job search should start with a well Written resume. Here is an article that will give you some ideas and suggestions to get you started.

Jim Price was looking for a new position after nine years with one employer. It seemed likely that his employer was going to merge with another company in the same field, and due to the overlap in job function Jim suspected there would be extensive cuts to his department. Not wanting to be left unprepared for the upcoming changes, he started to research the job market and trying to find out what else was available in his area of expertise.

Jim found several potential employers where he could apply. But before he could make an application he needed to supply a resume. As Jim had been with one employer for quite sometime he needed to prepare a completely new resume as the resume he used to attain his current employment was desperately out of date.

He began to search the web and also picked up some current books to help him with this seemingly daunting task. Here are some of the tips he discovered and used to produce an impressive resume:

Presentation:Your aim is to look professional. Do not use graphics, unusual colours of paper or ink. Stick to neutral ivory, white or grey paper (you'll be emailing it more often than not anyway) with a clear font such as Times Roman, Arial or Sans Serif. Boxes or lines can be used sparingly to separate areas within the resume.

Format:

Do not cram too much information on the page. The individual selecting potential candidates may have reviewed many resumes, leaving enough white space allows the important information to be clear and noticeable on the initial scan of your resume.
If providing a hard copy of your resume ensure that the printer you are using is good quality. If using an email version use a standard current program that can be opened readily, such as Word.
Use a font size of 10 or 12. Do not try and fit more information on the page by decreasing the font size. You will make the reviewer want to stop reading if they are getting eye strain.
Keep the paragraphs short and to the point. Use Bold font to highlight headings of categories. Use bullets to offset individual points.
Think about your format from a reviewer’s standpoint. Make it easy on the eyes so that the most important information gets across.
Important Technicalities (spelling and grammar):Pay attention to your spelling and grammar. Use spell check and grammar check, proofread it yourself and then have it proofread by several other people. A resume with spelling and grammar errors will stop you from getting an interview. The resume is an introduction of you and your work; you do not want to make a bad first impression.

Content: When listing your former positions include the information the reviewer needs - and don't sell yourself short. You know how big your former employers were and what they produced, but don't assume the reviewer does. You should name the company, location, years worked with the company, the size and what the company did. Following that, describe the responsibilities of the role and finally highlight important achievements (use figures, percentages, quantifiable results) that you had while in that position.You do not have to list all the jobs that you have held. Go back only to the most recent and relevant positions. You do not have to list jobs that were held fifteen or twenty years ago, especially if they have no relevance to the position at hand.

Focus:Begin the resume with a brief summary of who you are as a professional.

Selling:Don't be lazy about your selling your accomplishments. Just listing your function will not let the reviewer know why you are the best at what you do. You will need to distinguish yourself by drilling down to what you have done to make yourself marketable in your field. Say what you did and how you did it well. Think about your past roles and challenges in a results oriented fashion. Prove that you did it well by listing the results. For example:

Managed and directed a staff of 25 to increase sales at the location by 200%, resulting in a growth of 10 million from the 1st to third quarter.
Launched a new marketing program in the Mid West Market accounting for a 142% increase in new orders within the target market.
Launched a new Workplace Health and Safety Program and weekly staff meetings reducing the Workplace injuries by 22% within the first year of the program.
Once Jim was able to use his new resume to submit himself for positions he was able to start a new, higher paying position, just weeks before job cut-backs were announced at his former employer. The proactive approach and little bit of extra work he put into preparing an excellent resume paid off.

When preparing your resume ensure that you use a current resource book. A good place to start for ideas and sample formats is:

There is Resume Magic--Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer by Susan Britton Whitcomb (JIST Works). For executive-level ideas, Wendy Enelow's Best Resumes for $100,000+ Jobs (Impact Publications) or Donald Asher's Bible of Executive Resumes (Ten Speed Press) are both outstanding.