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Resumes that Win Interviews
Overview
Having a well-prepared, hard hitting resume can do wonders for your interview effectiveness and job search results. Far too many job seekers hurriedly throw together a resume and run off to the job interview expecting they will do well. The results can often be disappointing if not disastrous.
You will find, in many cases, employers rely heavily on the resume as a focal point for the interview discussion. Many interviewers, in fact, use the resume as an interview guidepost, systematically working their way through your background, one job at a time. They will query you about your job title, reporting relationship, size and scope of the position you held, as well your functional responsibilities and key accomplishments.
A well-organized resume will make it easy for the interviewer to review your overall credentials and quickly understand where you've been and what you have done. This leaves much more time for the employer to focus on those specific skills and accomplishments of greatest interest that will most influence the hiring decision. On the other hand, if the resume is poorly organized, employers will waste far too much time looking for basic information, leaving less time to explore the knowledge, skills, and abilities most critical to job success.
If resume organization or format is so important to job interview success, what is the best format for the job seeker to use?
Resume Format
Over the years there has been considerable debate over what constitutes an effective resume format. If you haven't already, take time to browse the numerous resume books in the career section of your favorite bookstore and you will come away with your head spinning from the huge variety of resumes formats and styles recommended by various authors.
Unfortunately, many authors of resume books lack credible credentials and, although meaning well, provide a plethora of misguided information that can serve to undermine an otherwise carefully planned job-hunting campaign. It seems today that almost anyone who has conducted a job search can suddenly become a self-proclaimed expert on resume preparation. It is clear that the shelves of bookstores are piled high with books written by such self-proclaimed experts, and there is little to separate the wheat from the chaff.
As someone who has spent better than 30 years in the human resources field and hired hundreds of individuals, it would seem to me that the best source of resume advice is employment professionals, those who have spent years actually reading resumes and interviewing job candidates. Since these are clearly the experts whom your resume must impress, you will want to heed their advice and avoid the many would-be experts whose ability to use the computer to craft a sentence is about their only qualification to render professional employment advice.
Advice From Employment Experts
Although I am a heavily experienced employment professional and have authored 12 best-selling job-hunting books, I think it is important to share not only my own opinion on resume preparation but also to support my recommendations with advice from other knowledgeable experts in the staffing field.
A good source for solid information regarding employment matters is the Employment Management Association (EMA). The EMA is a professional emphasis subgroup of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and is comprised of hundreds of employment professionals from a wide variety of companies and professional staffing firms. The EMA is widely recognized as the preeminent professional association to which staffing professionals belong and is highly regarded as the major authoritative source when it comes to expert opinion pertaining to employment matters.
In 2000, SHRM published an extensive survey on resumes and cover letters entitled SHRM 2000 Cover Letters and Resume Survey. This study was sent to 2,500 randomly selected members of the EMA, with some 582 human resource professionals responding. A copy of the full survey can be ordered directly from the SHRM Store by calling (800) 444-5006 (Item # 62.17032). I occasionally reference this study to further validate several of the resume recommendations I will be making with regard to effective resume writing.
Reverse Chronological Resume―The Preferred Resume Style
By far, the most popular resume format, and the one most preferred by employment professionals, is the reverse chronological resume. Although this has been widely acknowledged by employment experts for quite some time, the EMA survey documents that some 74 percent of human resource respondents view this particular format favorably. It is the most universally preferred and accepted resume style for use by job seekers.
The reverse chronological resume format (see pages 260 and 261) lists jobs in reverse chronological order, displaying the most recently held position first. This is followed by the second most recently held position, then the third most recently held position, and so on, with the last position shown on the resume being the first job held by its author.
It should stand to reason that employers are most interested in knowing about positions recently held, since these reflect your most current skills and abilities. Since these jobs highlight your most saleable qualifications, they deserve to be showcased at the very beginning of your resume document. With rare exception, positions held 10 or 15 years ago are of considerably less interest to the employer and, thus, do not deserve prime billing. Such positions should clearly be reserved for inclusion on the second or perhaps even third page of your resume.
Single versus Multipage Resume?
Over the years, there has been considerable debate about the proper length of a resume. For some reason there is a prevalent myth that has persisted for a number of years suggesting that a resume should never exceed a single page in length. Quite frankly, this is hogwash!
Although it is true that job seekers with only three or four years of experience should strive to produce a single-page document, those who have held two or more positions, or have several years of experience, should feel free to spill over onto a second page. In fact, according to the EMA survey, some 91 percent of human resource professionals find two-page, single-sided resumes quite acceptable.
Be careful, however, not to overdo it! Although, on rare occasions, it may be necessary to include a third page to your resume, this is not recommended. If you find it absolutely necessary to do so, however, make sure that you don't fill the entire third page of the document. This will distract from your candidacy. Keeping it to a quarter page or at worst no more than a half page is strongly recommended!
The EMA survey shows 62 percent of employers view resumes of greater than two pages in length negatively and would much prefer a shorter resume document. There are probably two good reasons for this. First, busy employers already have too many resumes to read and don't have time to wade through a lengthy document to glean the candidate's most relevant qualifications. Second, there is normally little or no interest in positions held several years ago, so why spell these out in detail? Simply showing employer name, job title, and employment dates on these earlier-held positions is all that is necessary.
Developing the Reverse Chronological Resume
Although there are some slight variations, there appear to be some fairly uniform standards when it comes to formating the reverse chronological resume document. The standard resume layout normally includes the following four sections, which are almost universally presented on the resume in the order shown:
1. Resume Heading.
2. Profile (sometimes called Summary or Qualifications Summary).
3. Professional Experience.
4. Education.
Although these four sections should be considered mandatory, there are three additional resume sections that are commonly added following Education. These added sections, however, are optional and include:
5. Professional Memberships.
6. Patents (show relevant patents only).
7. Recognition and Awards.
Despite the fact that the recommended resume formating normally shows Education as the fourth section of the resume, there are some circumstances that dictate that the Education section be positioned third, just after Profile. If your education or degree is relatively recent and is relevant to the position for which you are applying, it is recommended that you position it just after the Profile section of your resume. Additionally, if your degree is from a prestigious school, considered a leading institution in the field for which you are applying, then, by all means, highlight this qualification by positioning it as the third item on your resume, directly following Profile. However, if you received your degree several years ago, you might not want to highlight your age by positioning this fact at the beginning of your resume. In such cases, you will want to downplay your age by positioning Education as originally recommended (i.e., after Professional Experience).
Things to Exclude From Your Resume
There are certain things that should be excluded from your resume document and for good reason. These include:
1. Hobbies (unless directly relevant to job qualifications).
2. Extracurricular Activities (unless directly relevant to job qualifications).
3. Religious Affiliations (unless applying for a position in the field of religion).
4. Political Affiliations (unless applying for a position in the field of politics).
5. Racially-Oriented Affiliations (unless directly relevant to position you seek).
6. Personal Data (i.e., age, height, weight, marital status, medical data, etc.).
Employers are simply not interested in extraneous data that has little or no relevance to the position for which you are applying, so the best advice is to exclude these items from your resume entirely! They serve no practical purpose and may, in fact, distract from your overall qualifications reducing or eliminating further interest in your employment candidacy.
Constructing an Effective Reverse Chronological Resume
To assist you in writing an effective reverse chronological resume, I will systematically walk through each key resume section (as outlined above), starting with the resume Heading. Before we start, however, I recommend you take a few moments to carefully study the sample resume on pages 260 and 261, so that you will have an overall understanding of both the layout and general content normally incorporated into an effective reverse chronological resume document. As I describe each resume section, I will also incorporate an example so that you can visually see the key elements and relate them to the sample resume contained on page 261.
Section 1: Heading
Before beginning a description of the resume Heading, a few words are needed about type fonts to be used throughout the resume document. The best advice here is too stick with standard, commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman, Times Roman, or Arial. Avoid use of fancy script, bold block, or other unusual type styles that may prove distracting to the reader. Except as noted, stay with 11 or 12 point as your type size.
The resume Heading typically includes five components:
1. Name.
2. Address.
3. Home Phone.
4. Cell Phone.
5. E-mail Address.
Take a moment to carefully study the following sample resume Heading, as well as the Heading shown on the sample resume (see page 260).
DAVID B. BRADFIED
125 East Main StreetWilmington, NC 17456 <Davbrad@AOL.com> (315) 552-7963 Home(315) 473-9546 Cell
As illustrated in the above example, you will want to employ 12-point type size for the entire Heading. Since you will also want your name to stand out from the rest of the script, however, it is recommended that you use boldface type. Additionally, it is also recommended that you capitalize all letters of your name. You can readily see the effect this creates from the sample resume Heading.
To add some contrast and interest to the resume Heading, I suggest using italics when typing your e-mail address as done in the sample Heading.
Section 2: Profile
The Profile section of the resume document is generally the section where there is the most disagreement among employment professionals. Two other commonly used titles for this resume section are Qualifications Summary or simply Summary. It is your choice as to which title you prefer to use. Any of the three options is perfectly acceptable and makes very little difference to the average resume reader.
For the most part, there are two schools of thought among the experts concerning best use of this resume section by the job seeker. I will present both viewpoints here, and then provide my own thoughts on how to get the most mileage from this resume component.
Approach 1: Summary of Level and Type of Experience
According to one school of thought, the Profile section of the resume document is best used to provide a brief summary of the author's level and type of experience. If well-crafted, proponents of this approach believe it will serve two purposes.
First, it will grab the reader's attention by providing just enough information to determine the author's key qualifications without the need to read the entire resume. Without such a summary, supporters of this approach argue, the reader will be forced to read much of the resume document to ascertain whether or not the job applicant has the basic qualifications being sought. Many won't bother! They will simply move on to the next resume in the stack.
Second, many proponents believe by using the Profile section to provide an interesting portrayal of the job seeker's level and type of experience, the reader will feel compelled to actually read the full resume document.
Approach 2: Key Word Highlighting
Advocates of this approach argue that the use of certain key words in the Profile section will immediately grab the reader's attention, generating sufficient interest to compel the employer to read the balance of the resume document. Additionally, proponents argue that many employers electronically scan or import resumes via the Internet, then use keyword search technology to automatically identify prospective candidates by keying in on only those resumes containing the designated key words selected by the employer.
Although it is true that an increasing number of employers are using keyword search technology to identify desirable candidates, the use of automated keyword search is still pretty much in its infancy. For example, according to the EMA survey, some 88 percent of employers still screen resumes manually rather than rely on electronic means. Thus, the keyword search argument does not seem to be well supported by survey results. It also suggests that the majority of employers do not believe that automated keyword search is a reliable method for identifying qualified candidates.
A further complicating factor to consider when using the resume Profile section to highlight certain key words is choosing the right words to include. How do you know what specific items to highlight? Is it certain personal traits and characteristics? Is it specific skills and competencies? Is it a certain type or level of experience? Is it experience working in a particular type of work environment? Is it experience with specific industries, with particular products, with certain processes, with specific markets? How do you decide which of these factors to highlight? If you choose one to the exclusion of another, could this automatically eliminate further consideration of your employment candidacy? If you choose to emphasize certain factors not of interest to a given employer, will this automatically screen you out?
As you can see, use of the resume's Profile section to highlight or emphasize certain of your qualifications is truly a "hit-or-miss" proposition. By selecting only certain factors, you may be excluding other qualifications in which the employer may have a great deal of interest. To use the Profile section in this fashion is akin to playing the employment equivalent of Russian roulette.
Approach 3: A Balanced Approach
Although I cannot cite specific survey data to support this recommendation, in my judgment, the Profile section of the resume document should be a blend of Approaches 1 and 2. It should reflect level and type of experience but also include certain key words that best describe what you consider to be your strongest technical functional and personal attributes. This serves the employer's need by highlighting the level and type of experience sought. It also serves your personal needs by facilitating your selection for positions which are a good match for your personal profile and natural preferences.
The following are some examples of some well-written Profile statements:
Example 1
Profile
Skilled Marketing Manager with proven ability to successfully develop and lead specialty and industrial chemical businesses to profitable market growth. Expertise in strategic planning, competitive analysis, and new product development leading to significant revenue growth. Superior leadership, team building, customer relationship, and presentation skills.
Example 2
Profile
Talented mechanical Project Engineer with five years experience in the successful design, installation, and start-up of tissue and towel paper machines. Strong project management skills with excellent reputation for bringing projects in on time and under budget. Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
Example 3
Profile
Senior Sales Executive with proven history of establishing brands as the premiere market leader in the highly competitive consumer products industry. Reputation for developing exceptional, motivated sales teams who consistently exceed sales goals and build a strong, loyal customer base. Expertise in both the food and personal product sectors.
Review of these three examples shows that the word Profile is set in 12-point type, while accompanying text uses 11-point type. This treatment provides good visual separation of resume elements and enhances resume appearance as well as ease of reading. You might also want to "justify" margins, as shown, to avoid ragged edges and dangling text that distracts from overall resume appearance.
Section 3: Professional Experience
The third resume component is Professional Experience section. This is the guts of the resume document and serves to highlight your specific employment experience. Since we are designing a reverse chronological resume, this section of the resume document begins with your current or most recently held position. It then continues to systematically highlight each previously held position, going back in time, such that your first job is the last position listed on the resume document.
There are seven key components comprising the Professional Experience section of the resume. These are:
1. Company Name.
2. Company Description.
3. Dates Employed by Company.
4. Job Title.
5. Job Dates.
6. Job Description (including reporting relationship and functional accountability).
7. Key Accomplishments.
From the interview perspective, this is perhaps the most important section of the resume document. How well this section of the resume is written can have significant impact on interview results. If carefully crafted and presented, it will greatly enhance the probability of a successful interview outcome. Conversely, if poorly developed, it can seriously cripple or even destroy employment chances. You will want to pay careful attention to the preparation instructions contained in this section.
Section Format and Content
Before proceeding with a detailed discussion of the content of this section of the resume, it is important that you pay particular attention to the format used in displaying this important component of the resume document. To do this, I strongly recommend that you first spend a few minutes carefully studying the format used in the Professional Experience section on the sample resume presented on page 260.
Note the positioning and treatment of company employment dates in relationship to job dates. Company employment dates are positioned at the right margin of the resume page and are highlighted in bold type. Job dates, on the other hand, are positioned in parenthesis immediately to the right of the job title and are in normal rather than bold type. Following this simple rule eliminates any possible confusion on the part of the resume reader. Failure to make this visual distinction, however, could lead employers to confuse job and employment dates, causing the reader to falsely conclude that you have been a "job hopper," suggesting that you might be a relatively high employment risk.
Note the difference in the treatment between company names and job titles. Although both employ bold type, company names are set in all capital letters while position titles employ both capital and lowercase letters, with the first letter of each word contained in the job title set in capital letters. This treatment highlights the company name and provides an appropriate visual separation between these two resume elements, facilitating ease of reading and understanding by the employer.
When you have held more than one position with the same employer, company description is normally inserted immediately below company name. When a single job has been held with the same company, however, a brief description of the company can be inserted a single time in the first line of the resume following the job title. In such cases, company description can easily be incorporated as part of the initial statement reflecting your reporting relationship. The following examples should help clarify this point.
Example 1: Multiple Jobs with Same Employer
BRISTOL PAPER COMPANY, Mobile, AL 1996-2004
A $3.5 billion market leader in the manufacture and sale of sanitary tissue products including consumer towels, napkins, and facial tissue.
Example 2: Single Job with Same Employer
BRISTOL PAPER COMPANY, Mobile, AL 1996-2004
Director of Marketing (2001-2004)
Report to Vice President of Sales and Marketing of this $3.5 billion manufacturer and market leader in the field of sanitary tissue products. Direct staff of 25 with leadership responsibility for new product development, brand management, market research, advertising and promotion ($35 million annual budget). Products include consumer towels, napkins, and facial tissue.
In studying these two sample company descriptions, note the difference in font size. Both company name and position title use 12-point type, while company and job descriptions employ 11-point type. This creates a pleasing visual contrast between resume elements, enhancing both general appearance and ease of readership. Additionally, you may also want to justify text margins to avoid a sloppy, ragged appearance and ensure that right margin text is neatly aligned. This will also enhance the overall appearance of the resume document.
As illustrated in these examples, company description normally includes such items as organization size, products manufactured (or professional services provided), and annual sales volume. Prospective employers want to know what size and type company you worked for so they can assess your probable fit with their own organization. An employer who is a flooring manufacturer, for example, will want to know whether or not you have had experience in the flooring industry. If you fail to provide this information, the employer is likely to pass over your resume in favor of others with flooring industry experience.
You should not automatically assume employers are familiar with your company. Even when working for large companies such as DuPont or General Electric, you will still want to show the products manufactured by the division in which you were employed. Failure to provide this information as part of the company description may place you at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who have done so. There is clearly a consistent trend among employers to prefer those with same industry experience, since this cuts down on training time and ensures that the new hire will "hit the ground running."
The next component of the Professional Experience section of the resume is the job description. There are five key elements that should be incorporated into the job description component. These are:
1. Job Title.
2. Job Dates (i.e., dates employed in that position).
3. Reporting Relationship (i.e., title of person to whom you reported).
4. Size and Scope of Position Held (i.e., described in quantitative terms).
5. Functional Responsibility (i.e., specific functions performed or managed).
Although we have previously discussed the treatment and positioning of job titles on the resume, it is important to comment further on this subject. In recent years, many employers have elected to use unusual job titles when naming positions. Often this is done in an attempt to better integrate the title chosen with some strategic initiative or organizational culture shift. For example, an employer focusing on creating a team-based culture might call an Engineering Project Manager a Technology Team Facilitator or some other title not commonly used.
Since your resume must communicate with external sources, use of the title Technology Team Facilitator may confuse those unfamiliar with this terminology. Since you want to effectively convey a clear understanding of the position you held, you may wish to substitute the generic job title of Engineering Project Manager to ensure that prospective employers clearly understand the nature of job you held. This is perfectly acceptable practice when writing a resume. When making this kind of change, however, be sure to choose a generic title commonly used and understood within your profession.
When writing a resume, you have a certain amount of license in conveying clear understanding. This is not the case with an employment application, however, where you will need to use exact job titles rather than the generic ones. If ever questioned by an employer about the discrepancy between the job title used on the resume and that used on the formal application, the response is quite simple. Simply explain that you felt use of the generic title better communicated to the outside world the nature of the work you were performing.
When describing your position on the resume, bear in mind that employers will want to know how closely the position you have held parallels the position they are attempting to fill. Key information such as reporting relationship, job size and scope, and functional responsibilities are essential to facilitating this comparison. Take a moment or two to again study the sample job descriptions, as well as those contained in the sample resume contained on page 260, observing how this information is presented.
Begin the job description section by describing your reporting relationship. Starting this section with the words "report to" or "reported to" and then following with your manager's title will simplify the task.
Next, provide a concise description of your functional accountabilities, the key things you were responsible for doing. If you are in a management position, you should list the functional areas you manage. For example, "Functional responsibility includes market research, product development, brand management, advertising, and promotion." If a professional, sole contributor rather than manager, on the other hand, simply cite the key functions you are accountable for performing. For example, "Functional responsibility includes engineering design, installation, start-up, and debugging of consumer tissue and towel papermaking equipment." Administrative support personnel, for example, might state, "Functionally responsible for providing key administrative support including typing and proofing monthly financial statements, preparing PowerPoint presentations, screening incoming mail and e-mail correspondence, arranging executive travel schedules, and meeting setup and coordination."
Future employers will need to have a clear understanding of your functional job responsibilities to determine if you have performed the same or similar work to the position they are filling. The ability to easily make this comparison offers the prospective employer some assurance that you possess the requisite skills and experience essential to successful performance of the position offered.
When formulating your position description, it is also important to include a quantitative description reflecting the size and scope of positions held. Doing so will effectively communicate the scope and complexity of your previous positions. In most cases, the employer is seeking evidence that you have successfully handled positions of comparable size and complexity, enhancing the employer's level of comfort that you are capable of successfully performing the existing job.
If a manager, for example, quantitative descriptions might include the size of your staff, size of budget managed, number of divisions managed, sales volume for which you are accountable, and so on. If you are an Administrative Assistant, for example, the quantitative description might include size of staff served, volume of correspondence processed, volume of records handled, and the like. Such quantitative descriptors will more accurately communicate the size, complexity, and demands of your job, providing the perspective employer with valuable information needed to better assess your fit for the current job opening.
In viewing the sample resume contained on page 260, you can readily see how easy it is to effectively incorporate quantitative data into job descriptions. Note, in particular, how concisely and succinctly this information is presented. There are no wasted words, and yet the employer can quickly grasp the nature and extent of your work experience including reporting relationship, functional responsibilities, and size and scope of positions you have held. The concise way in which this information is presented facilitates ease of readership and yet provides the employer with a clear understanding of the critical elements essential to assessing your qualifications for employment.
The final element in completing the Professional Experience section of the resume document is the Key Accomplishments section. This immediately follows the Job Description and is highlighted through the use of bullet points. From the interview perspective, this is clearly the most important section of the resume when it comes to "making the sale."
In years past, it was sufficient to provide employers with a simple description of your job duties, however, this is no longer the case. In today's competitive environment, managers are heavily focused on employee contribution and productivity. They don't simply want to know "what you are responsible for," they want to know what you have actually done! A simple job description, with no accompanying list of specific accomplishments, is likely to screen you out before you've even begun. Lack of specific resume statements reflecting results you have achieved will place you at a distinct competitive disadvantage.
On the other hand, a resume reflecting a record of continuous accomplishment and significant results will go a long way to "making the sale." It will not only get you in the door, but will also have a major impact on interview results once you are there. Highlighting each of these accomplishments with bullet points will grab the interviewer's attention and focus much of the interview discussion around the key skills and competencies essential to job performance. This is exactly where you want to be. You don't want to waste valuable interview time by requiring the interviewer to dig for this important information.
Because of the critical nature of this resume component, you will want to put considerable thought and effort into developing it. The following directions should help you get off to a good start.
To start the process rolling, list each of the positions you have held on a sheet of paper. Below each job title, list a minimum of four to six major accomplishments or improvements you have achieved while in the position. Copies of old performance evaluations or salary increase summaries should come in handy if you need to jog your memory.
This is often one of the more difficult exercises in resume writing. Often job seekers have difficulty remembering specific achievements and get stuck in the process. If this should happen to you, let me suggest a technique that many, who I have helped write resumes, have successfully used in getting unblocked.
Think about the general state of the position when you first entered it as a new incumbent. What key problems or challenges existed? What improvements were needed? What did you do to address these needs? What specific actions did you take, and what were the results of your efforts?
Once identified and written down on paper, rearrange these accomplishments in relationship to their importance for the type of position you are seeking. List the most important accomplishment first, the second most relevant accomplishment second, the third most important third, and so on, until all have been sorted in accordance with their level of importance to the position you seek. This is the same order in which you will want to list these items on your resume document.
A review of the sample resume on page 260 will illustrate just how easy it is to write key accomplishment statements. There is a formula for writing these accomplishment statements that results in a high level of effectiveness. First, start the accomplishment statement with a verb. This will force you to be concise. A list of common verbs has been provided on the next page. Carefully select the verb that best describes the action you took, such as led, supervised, developed, invented, improved. Try to be as precise as possible in selecting just the right word that best conveys the exact role you played in bringing about a certain end result.
Action Verbs
Management Skills
administered coordinated increased reviewed
aligned delegated organized systematized
analyzed developed oversaw scheduled
attained directed planned strengthened
chaired evaluated prioritized supervised
contracted executed produced
consolidated improved recommended
Communication Skills
addressed drafted mediated recruited
arbitrated edited moderated spoke
arranged enlisted motivated translated
authored formulated negotiated wrote
corresponded influenced persuaded
developed interpreted promoted
directed lectured publicized
Research Skills
analyzed diagnosed identified investigated
clarified evaluated inspected organized
collected examined interpreted reviewed
critiqued extracted interviewed summarized
surveyed
Technical Skills
assembled
built devised operated repaired
calculated engineered overhauled solved
computed fabricated programmed trained
designed maintained remodeled upgraded
Teaching Skills
adapted coordinated explained instructed
advised developed facilitated persuaded
clarified enabled guided set goals
coached encouraged informed stimulated
communicated evaluated initiated
Financial Skills
administered audited computed marketed
allocated balanced developed planned
analyzed budgeted forecasted projected
appraised calculated managed researched
Creative Skills
acted directed instituted performed
conceptualized established integrated planned
created fashioned introduced revitalized
designed founded invented shaped
developed illustrated originated
Helping Skills
assessed counseled expedited referred
assisted demonstrated facilitated represented
clarified diagnosed familiarized trained
coached educated guided
Clerical or Detail Skills
approved dispatched operated retrieved
arranged executed organized screened
catalogued generated prepared specified
classified implemented processed systematized
collected inspected proofread tabulated
compiled monitored purchased typed
recorded validated
Second, use quantitative results statements that clearly convey to the employer the degree of improvement you brought in each instance. For example, simply stating that you increased sales has little impact on the reader. Telling the employer that you increased sales by 200 percent over the first two years, however, is bound to get the reader's attention. There is a huge difference. With this example, you can readily see how much more powerful an accomplishment statement becomes when it is supported by quantitative dimensions that convey the level or degree of improvement you brought.
If you experience difficulty remembering an exact number or percentage, qualify the statistic by using the words approximately or about, so long as you know the numeric you are using is "in the ballpark." For example, you could state, "Reduced operating costs by approximately 30 percent in the first year." This is far better than simply stating, "Reduced operating costs in the first year."
When reviewing the sample resume at the end of this chapter, you will note that each accomplishment statement is preceded by a bullet. This highlights the statement, drawing the reader's attention.
If you have been thoughtful in crafting your accomplishment statements, you are likely to realize the full benefit of your efforts during the course of your employment interviews. Since employers frequently use the resume as an interview roadmap, systematically probing each position held and results achieved, your extra effort is bound to pay large dividends. As employers probe these key accomplishments in greater detail, you are afforded an excellent opportunity to showcase your strongest skills and competencies.
If written particularly well, these achievement statements will do most of the selling for you. The resume will automatically document a solid history of achievement and results, providing a convincing and compelling story that should encourage the employer to hire you.
Since you will want to commit most of the resume to describing your most recent positions, it is unnecessary to provide much detail on positions held earlier in your career. In fact, earlier positions are of little interest to employers so they deserve no more than a simple listing of job titles and dates. There is no need to include a description of the position and list of accomplishments. Doing so serves no real purpose other than to lengthen the resume and present a greater barrier to readership.
If, in fact, you are an older worker, listing early positions along with employment dates is a dead giveaway to your age, inviting age discrimination. If this is your situation, you may want to give consideration to eliminating these earlier positions from the resume entirely. In this way you can disguise your age, all but eliminating the possibility of age discrimination and increasing the probability of landing job interviews. If later questioned by an employer as to why you didn't list these positions on the resume, your answer is both honest and simple. Tell the employer, "Since there is limited space on the resume, I felt it important to use this space to more fully describe my most recent positions, rather than to list positions that have little or no relevance to my current job search objective. Additionally, quite frankly, I wished to eliminate the possibility of age discrimination. I'm sure you can appreciate this." Such explanation is likely to cause the issue to evaporate rather quickly.
Section 4: Education
As illustrated on the sample resume on page 260, the Education section of the resume lists the degree and major, followed by school and date of graduation. List highest level degree first. Additionally for esthetic purposes, I recommend you center the educational data under the Education heading as shown in the following example:
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Physical Organic Chemistry, University of Colorado. 2002
M.S., Organic Chemistry, University of Utah, 1999
B.S., Chemistry, Bucknell University, 1997
Section 5: Professional Memberships
As stated previously, Professional Memberships is an optional resume component. Avoid listing extraneous memberships that have no relevance to the position for which you are applying. Stick to job relevant professional memberships only. As with the Education section, you will want to center the professional memberships under the Professional Memberships component as shown below:
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
National Pest Management Association, President, 2001-2002
National Pest Management Association, Member, 1996-2002
Professional Lawn Care Association, Member, 1990-2002
Gold Course Superintendents Association, Member, 1990-2002
This section of the resume might also be used to list professional certifications earned, professional awards received, special recognition received, offices held in relevant professional or trade associations, and other appropriate items lending testimony to your qualifications as a professional in your field. You may want to change the resume section heading to a title that more appropriately fits the category. Optional titles might include Professional Affiliations, Professional Recognition, Honors and Awards, or other appropriate titles.
Section 6: Patents
If you are a technical professional and hold relevant patents, you will want to show these on your resume. This provides strong testimony to your technical genius and creativity. This is particularly true if multiple patents have been issued in your name.
On the other hand, if the only patents you hold were issued many years ago and you have not been awarded a patent in recent years, you may want to think twice about even listing patents on the resume at all. To do so might well suggest to a prospective employer you are no longer the technical genius you once were, or that you have contributed little to your employer in recent years. You want to avoid the possibility of being labeled a "has been," and should consider dropping the Patents section from your resume entirely or simply not show dates of patent issue.
As with the Education and Professional Memberships sections of the resume, you will want to center patent listings under the Patents heading, rather than flush with the left margin. Patent listings should include both the patent number and title as shown in the following example:
PATENTS
US Patent 7,249,247 - Gravity Feed Conveyor System with High-Speed Process Capability
US Patent 7,189,232 - Bar Code Palletizing System with Computerized Sorting Control
US Patent 6,994,249 - Transpiration Sheet Drying Using Through-Air Conveyor System
Section 7: Awards and Recognition
As with previous resume sections, if you decide to list special awards and recognition received, list only those that are truly relevant to the position for which you are applying. Also, as with the Patents section, do not show only those awards received years ago, especially if you have had no special awards or recognition in recent years. Absence of recognition in recent years may give the wrong message to a prospective employer, suggesting you are no longer the high performer you were earlier in your career. This is not a message you want to send!
Also, if you are midcareer, don't show that you were named captain of your high school football team 30 years ago. This is utter foolishness and will suggest to employers that you lack appropriate judgment and common sense. Likewise, if you were named president of the local school board, don't show this on your resume if you are applying for a job as a research scientist. There is no relevance to the position for which you are applying. Cite only job-relevant honors and awards.
Your listing of special recognition and rewards should be centered under the Awards and Recognition section of the resume. The typical way of presenting this data is to simply list the name of the award or recognition, and the awarding organization, followed by date received. The following is an example of a typical Awards and Recognition resume presentation:
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
President's Award for Outstanding Contribution, Procter & Gamble, 1998, 1999, 2004
Employee of the Year Award, Procter & Gamble, 1999
Top Sales Producer, East Coast Division, Kimberly Clark Corporation, 1996, 1997, 1998
Writing Tricks and Techniques
Careful review of the sample resume at the end of this chapter shows that certain writing tricks and techniques were employed to make this resume a brief, concise, and relatively forceful document. Note how the resume's author employed these techniques and apply these same simple approaches when writing your own resume document. You should find these techniques particularly beneficial in improving the overall quality and impact of your resume document.
§ Use of articles (e.g., a, an, and the) is unnecessary and should, for the most part, be eliminated. They add no real meaning or clarity to the resume.
§ Eliminate use of personal pronouns (i.e., he, she, me, you, they, them, us). Such pronouns are unnecessary in a resume and tend to distract from its impact and forcefulness.
§ There is no need to use complete sentences when writing a resume. Highly descriptive phrases and clauses can communicate quite effectively, and consume far less space.
§ Be concise. Eliminate all unnecessary words from the resume. If a word adds little meaning or clarity to a statement, simply delete it. It adds no real value to the document.
§ Begin most resume sentences and statements with a verb. Doing so will force brevity and conciseness.
Hopefully this chapter has provided you with a good understanding of what is important in preparing an effective resume document. You will find the advice presented to be professionally sound and, if followed, your resume document will significantly enhance your overall interview effectiveness. I have provided the same resume advice to thousands of job seekers who have gone through our corporate career transition programs, and can tell you that many hundreds have specifically commented that their resumes played a key role in landing job offers.
CATHERINE S. DAVIDSON
1604 Riverside DriveIrvine, CA 18274 <Cadav@AOL.com> (816) 557-0925 Home(816) 957-4075 Cell
PROFILE
Senior marketing executive with consistent success in developing and establishing new and existing chemical brands as market leaders in their product category. Strong market research, brand management, advertising and promotional expertise. A strategic thinker noted for outstanding leadership, team-building, customer relations, and presentation skills.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
BAXTER CHEMICAL COMPANY, Oceanside, CA 1996-Present
Leading, $6.5 billion, 28,000 employee manufacturer and distributor of chemical specialties with 8 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and distribution facilities in over 35 countries worldwide.
Vice President of Marketing (2002-Present)
Report to the President and CEO with functional responsibility for product development, market research, brand management, advertising and promotion for over 130 specialty chemicals sold principally to the steel, automotive, and electronics markets. Direct staff of 30 professionals with annual budget of $130 million.
§ Led development of 12 new specialty products sold to the cable industry, generating $380 million in new revenue in just under 2 years.
§ Revamped steel industry marketing strategy, propelling Baxter from #4 industry supplier to #2, resulting in over $240 million in new sales within 1 year.
§ Spearheaded sale of paint chemicals division to Wilson Paint Specialties for $180 million, reducing corporate overhead by over 15% and dropping nearly $20 million annually to the bottom line.
§ Led breakthrough effort in the automotive specialties market, capturing 3 major accounts (GM, Ford and Chrysler), accounting for $10 million annual revenue increase.
§ Reorganized marketing division reducing headcount by 10% ($2 million savings).
Director of Marketing -Steel Specialties (1999-2002)
Reported to Vice President of Marketing with full marketing responsibility for chemical specialties sold to the steel industry ($2.1 billion annual sales). Functional responsibility for product development, market research, brand management, advertising, and promotion (12 professionals, $62 million budget).
§ Led development and market introduction of 6 new chemical specialties for steel coating, generating $420 million in new revenue and capturing nearly 25% market share in 3 years.
§ Convinced management to re-price the entire steel coating product line, offering tiered volume discounts that resulted in a 20% increase in sales volume and 5% increase in sales revenue.
§ Implemented sophisticated competitor tracking and intelligence gathering process, allowing company to predict and counter major shifts in competitor marketing strategy before they occur.
§ Reorganized department, building strong, cohesive, effective team that significantly upgraded the image of the marketing department and increased its credibility with the senior management team.
Senior Brand Manager - Steel Specialties (1996-1999)
Hired by Director of Marketing - Steel Specialties to focus on the declining steel coatings market with the goal of improving market position and increasing sales. Managed 2 Brand Managers and a $6 million budget.
§ Implemented new strategic initiatives that raised company's market leadership position from # 6 to # 4 and increased market penetration by 18%.
§ Increased sales by 15% in less than 1 year.
§ Introduced new market analysis software and improved methodology that greatly enhanced accuracy of market analysis and projections, bringing increased credibility to the function.
WILSON CHEMICAL SPECIALTIES, INC., Cherry Hill, N.J. 1992-1996
A $950 million, 4,500 employee manufacturer and distributor of specialty chemicals to the electronics industry.
Brand Manager (1994-1996)
Reported to Director of Marketing with responsibility for developing and implementing new brand strategies for the company's specialty chemicals sold to the computer and telecommunication industries.
Associate Brand Manager (1992-1994)
EDUCATION
M.B.A., Marketing, Michigan State University, 1992
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan. 1990
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Chairman's Award for Outstanding Performance, Baxter Chemical, 2001 & 2003
Employee of the Year Award, Wilson Chemical, 1996
Wilson Chemical Academic Scholarship Award, 1987, 1988, & 1990
Overview
Having a well-prepared, hard hitting resume can do wonders for your interview effectiveness and job search results. Far too many job seekers hurriedly throw together a resume and run off to the job interview expecting they will do well. The results can often be disappointing if not disastrous.
You will find, in many cases, employers rely heavily on the resume as a focal point for the interview discussion. Many interviewers, in fact, use the resume as an interview guidepost, systematically working their way through your background, one job at a time. They will query you about your job title, reporting relationship, size and scope of the position you held, as well your functional responsibilities and key accomplishments.
A well-organized resume will make it easy for the interviewer to review your overall credentials and quickly understand where you've been and what you have done. This leaves much more time for the employer to focus on those specific skills and accomplishments of greatest interest that will most influence the hiring decision. On the other hand, if the resume is poorly organized, employers will waste far too much time looking for basic information, leaving less time to explore the knowledge, skills, and abilities most critical to job success.
If resume organization or format is so important to job interview success, what is the best format for the job seeker to use?
Resume Format
Over the years there has been considerable debate over what constitutes an effective resume format. If you haven't already, take time to browse the numerous resume books in the career section of your favorite bookstore and you will come away with your head spinning from the huge variety of resumes formats and styles recommended by various authors.
Unfortunately, many authors of resume books lack credible credentials and, although meaning well, provide a plethora of misguided information that can serve to undermine an otherwise carefully planned job-hunting campaign. It seems today that almost anyone who has conducted a job search can suddenly become a self-proclaimed expert on resume preparation. It is clear that the shelves of bookstores are piled high with books written by such self-proclaimed experts, and there is little to separate the wheat from the chaff.
As someone who has spent better than 30 years in the human resources field and hired hundreds of individuals, it would seem to me that the best source of resume advice is employment professionals, those who have spent years actually reading resumes and interviewing job candidates. Since these are clearly the experts whom your resume must impress, you will want to heed their advice and avoid the many would-be experts whose ability to use the computer to craft a sentence is about their only qualification to render professional employment advice.
Advice From Employment Experts
Although I am a heavily experienced employment professional and have authored 12 best-selling job-hunting books, I think it is important to share not only my own opinion on resume preparation but also to support my recommendations with advice from other knowledgeable experts in the staffing field.
A good source for solid information regarding employment matters is the Employment Management Association (EMA). The EMA is a professional emphasis subgroup of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and is comprised of hundreds of employment professionals from a wide variety of companies and professional staffing firms. The EMA is widely recognized as the preeminent professional association to which staffing professionals belong and is highly regarded as the major authoritative source when it comes to expert opinion pertaining to employment matters.
In 2000, SHRM published an extensive survey on resumes and cover letters entitled SHRM 2000 Cover Letters and Resume Survey. This study was sent to 2,500 randomly selected members of the EMA, with some 582 human resource professionals responding. A copy of the full survey can be ordered directly from the SHRM Store by calling (800) 444-5006 (Item # 62.17032). I occasionally reference this study to further validate several of the resume recommendations I will be making with regard to effective resume writing.
Reverse Chronological Resume―The Preferred Resume Style
By far, the most popular resume format, and the one most preferred by employment professionals, is the reverse chronological resume. Although this has been widely acknowledged by employment experts for quite some time, the EMA survey documents that some 74 percent of human resource respondents view this particular format favorably. It is the most universally preferred and accepted resume style for use by job seekers.
The reverse chronological resume format (see pages 260 and 261) lists jobs in reverse chronological order, displaying the most recently held position first. This is followed by the second most recently held position, then the third most recently held position, and so on, with the last position shown on the resume being the first job held by its author.
It should stand to reason that employers are most interested in knowing about positions recently held, since these reflect your most current skills and abilities. Since these jobs highlight your most saleable qualifications, they deserve to be showcased at the very beginning of your resume document. With rare exception, positions held 10 or 15 years ago are of considerably less interest to the employer and, thus, do not deserve prime billing. Such positions should clearly be reserved for inclusion on the second or perhaps even third page of your resume.
Single versus Multipage Resume?
Over the years, there has been considerable debate about the proper length of a resume. For some reason there is a prevalent myth that has persisted for a number of years suggesting that a resume should never exceed a single page in length. Quite frankly, this is hogwash!
Although it is true that job seekers with only three or four years of experience should strive to produce a single-page document, those who have held two or more positions, or have several years of experience, should feel free to spill over onto a second page. In fact, according to the EMA survey, some 91 percent of human resource professionals find two-page, single-sided resumes quite acceptable.
Be careful, however, not to overdo it! Although, on rare occasions, it may be necessary to include a third page to your resume, this is not recommended. If you find it absolutely necessary to do so, however, make sure that you don't fill the entire third page of the document. This will distract from your candidacy. Keeping it to a quarter page or at worst no more than a half page is strongly recommended!
The EMA survey shows 62 percent of employers view resumes of greater than two pages in length negatively and would much prefer a shorter resume document. There are probably two good reasons for this. First, busy employers already have too many resumes to read and don't have time to wade through a lengthy document to glean the candidate's most relevant qualifications. Second, there is normally little or no interest in positions held several years ago, so why spell these out in detail? Simply showing employer name, job title, and employment dates on these earlier-held positions is all that is necessary.
Developing the Reverse Chronological Resume
Although there are some slight variations, there appear to be some fairly uniform standards when it comes to formating the reverse chronological resume document. The standard resume layout normally includes the following four sections, which are almost universally presented on the resume in the order shown:
1. Resume Heading.
2. Profile (sometimes called Summary or Qualifications Summary).
3. Professional Experience.
4. Education.
Although these four sections should be considered mandatory, there are three additional resume sections that are commonly added following Education. These added sections, however, are optional and include:
5. Professional Memberships.
6. Patents (show relevant patents only).
7. Recognition and Awards.
Despite the fact that the recommended resume formating normally shows Education as the fourth section of the resume, there are some circumstances that dictate that the Education section be positioned third, just after Profile. If your education or degree is relatively recent and is relevant to the position for which you are applying, it is recommended that you position it just after the Profile section of your resume. Additionally, if your degree is from a prestigious school, considered a leading institution in the field for which you are applying, then, by all means, highlight this qualification by positioning it as the third item on your resume, directly following Profile. However, if you received your degree several years ago, you might not want to highlight your age by positioning this fact at the beginning of your resume. In such cases, you will want to downplay your age by positioning Education as originally recommended (i.e., after Professional Experience).
Things to Exclude From Your Resume
There are certain things that should be excluded from your resume document and for good reason. These include:
1. Hobbies (unless directly relevant to job qualifications).
2. Extracurricular Activities (unless directly relevant to job qualifications).
3. Religious Affiliations (unless applying for a position in the field of religion).
4. Political Affiliations (unless applying for a position in the field of politics).
5. Racially-Oriented Affiliations (unless directly relevant to position you seek).
6. Personal Data (i.e., age, height, weight, marital status, medical data, etc.).
Employers are simply not interested in extraneous data that has little or no relevance to the position for which you are applying, so the best advice is to exclude these items from your resume entirely! They serve no practical purpose and may, in fact, distract from your overall qualifications reducing or eliminating further interest in your employment candidacy.
Constructing an Effective Reverse Chronological Resume
To assist you in writing an effective reverse chronological resume, I will systematically walk through each key resume section (as outlined above), starting with the resume Heading. Before we start, however, I recommend you take a few moments to carefully study the sample resume on pages 260 and 261, so that you will have an overall understanding of both the layout and general content normally incorporated into an effective reverse chronological resume document. As I describe each resume section, I will also incorporate an example so that you can visually see the key elements and relate them to the sample resume contained on page 261.
Section 1: Heading
Before beginning a description of the resume Heading, a few words are needed about type fonts to be used throughout the resume document. The best advice here is too stick with standard, commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman, Times Roman, or Arial. Avoid use of fancy script, bold block, or other unusual type styles that may prove distracting to the reader. Except as noted, stay with 11 or 12 point as your type size.
The resume Heading typically includes five components:
1. Name.
2. Address.
3. Home Phone.
4. Cell Phone.
5. E-mail Address.
Take a moment to carefully study the following sample resume Heading, as well as the Heading shown on the sample resume (see page 260).
DAVID B. BRADFIED
125 East Main StreetWilmington, NC 17456 <Davbrad@AOL.com> (315) 552-7963 Home(315) 473-9546 Cell
As illustrated in the above example, you will want to employ 12-point type size for the entire Heading. Since you will also want your name to stand out from the rest of the script, however, it is recommended that you use boldface type. Additionally, it is also recommended that you capitalize all letters of your name. You can readily see the effect this creates from the sample resume Heading.
To add some contrast and interest to the resume Heading, I suggest using italics when typing your e-mail address as done in the sample Heading.
Section 2: Profile
The Profile section of the resume document is generally the section where there is the most disagreement among employment professionals. Two other commonly used titles for this resume section are Qualifications Summary or simply Summary. It is your choice as to which title you prefer to use. Any of the three options is perfectly acceptable and makes very little difference to the average resume reader.
For the most part, there are two schools of thought among the experts concerning best use of this resume section by the job seeker. I will present both viewpoints here, and then provide my own thoughts on how to get the most mileage from this resume component.
Approach 1: Summary of Level and Type of Experience
According to one school of thought, the Profile section of the resume document is best used to provide a brief summary of the author's level and type of experience. If well-crafted, proponents of this approach believe it will serve two purposes.
First, it will grab the reader's attention by providing just enough information to determine the author's key qualifications without the need to read the entire resume. Without such a summary, supporters of this approach argue, the reader will be forced to read much of the resume document to ascertain whether or not the job applicant has the basic qualifications being sought. Many won't bother! They will simply move on to the next resume in the stack.
Second, many proponents believe by using the Profile section to provide an interesting portrayal of the job seeker's level and type of experience, the reader will feel compelled to actually read the full resume document.
Approach 2: Key Word Highlighting
Advocates of this approach argue that the use of certain key words in the Profile section will immediately grab the reader's attention, generating sufficient interest to compel the employer to read the balance of the resume document. Additionally, proponents argue that many employers electronically scan or import resumes via the Internet, then use keyword search technology to automatically identify prospective candidates by keying in on only those resumes containing the designated key words selected by the employer.
Although it is true that an increasing number of employers are using keyword search technology to identify desirable candidates, the use of automated keyword search is still pretty much in its infancy. For example, according to the EMA survey, some 88 percent of employers still screen resumes manually rather than rely on electronic means. Thus, the keyword search argument does not seem to be well supported by survey results. It also suggests that the majority of employers do not believe that automated keyword search is a reliable method for identifying qualified candidates.
A further complicating factor to consider when using the resume Profile section to highlight certain key words is choosing the right words to include. How do you know what specific items to highlight? Is it certain personal traits and characteristics? Is it specific skills and competencies? Is it a certain type or level of experience? Is it experience working in a particular type of work environment? Is it experience with specific industries, with particular products, with certain processes, with specific markets? How do you decide which of these factors to highlight? If you choose one to the exclusion of another, could this automatically eliminate further consideration of your employment candidacy? If you choose to emphasize certain factors not of interest to a given employer, will this automatically screen you out?
As you can see, use of the resume's Profile section to highlight or emphasize certain of your qualifications is truly a "hit-or-miss" proposition. By selecting only certain factors, you may be excluding other qualifications in which the employer may have a great deal of interest. To use the Profile section in this fashion is akin to playing the employment equivalent of Russian roulette.
Approach 3: A Balanced Approach
Although I cannot cite specific survey data to support this recommendation, in my judgment, the Profile section of the resume document should be a blend of Approaches 1 and 2. It should reflect level and type of experience but also include certain key words that best describe what you consider to be your strongest technical functional and personal attributes. This serves the employer's need by highlighting the level and type of experience sought. It also serves your personal needs by facilitating your selection for positions which are a good match for your personal profile and natural preferences.
The following are some examples of some well-written Profile statements:
Example 1
Profile
Skilled Marketing Manager with proven ability to successfully develop and lead specialty and industrial chemical businesses to profitable market growth. Expertise in strategic planning, competitive analysis, and new product development leading to significant revenue growth. Superior leadership, team building, customer relationship, and presentation skills.
Example 2
Profile
Talented mechanical Project Engineer with five years experience in the successful design, installation, and start-up of tissue and towel paper machines. Strong project management skills with excellent reputation for bringing projects in on time and under budget. Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
Example 3
Profile
Senior Sales Executive with proven history of establishing brands as the premiere market leader in the highly competitive consumer products industry. Reputation for developing exceptional, motivated sales teams who consistently exceed sales goals and build a strong, loyal customer base. Expertise in both the food and personal product sectors.
Review of these three examples shows that the word Profile is set in 12-point type, while accompanying text uses 11-point type. This treatment provides good visual separation of resume elements and enhances resume appearance as well as ease of reading. You might also want to "justify" margins, as shown, to avoid ragged edges and dangling text that distracts from overall resume appearance.
Section 3: Professional Experience
The third resume component is Professional Experience section. This is the guts of the resume document and serves to highlight your specific employment experience. Since we are designing a reverse chronological resume, this section of the resume document begins with your current or most recently held position. It then continues to systematically highlight each previously held position, going back in time, such that your first job is the last position listed on the resume document.
There are seven key components comprising the Professional Experience section of the resume. These are:
1. Company Name.
2. Company Description.
3. Dates Employed by Company.
4. Job Title.
5. Job Dates.
6. Job Description (including reporting relationship and functional accountability).
7. Key Accomplishments.
From the interview perspective, this is perhaps the most important section of the resume document. How well this section of the resume is written can have significant impact on interview results. If carefully crafted and presented, it will greatly enhance the probability of a successful interview outcome. Conversely, if poorly developed, it can seriously cripple or even destroy employment chances. You will want to pay careful attention to the preparation instructions contained in this section.
Section Format and Content
Before proceeding with a detailed discussion of the content of this section of the resume, it is important that you pay particular attention to the format used in displaying this important component of the resume document. To do this, I strongly recommend that you first spend a few minutes carefully studying the format used in the Professional Experience section on the sample resume presented on page 260.
Note the positioning and treatment of company employment dates in relationship to job dates. Company employment dates are positioned at the right margin of the resume page and are highlighted in bold type. Job dates, on the other hand, are positioned in parenthesis immediately to the right of the job title and are in normal rather than bold type. Following this simple rule eliminates any possible confusion on the part of the resume reader. Failure to make this visual distinction, however, could lead employers to confuse job and employment dates, causing the reader to falsely conclude that you have been a "job hopper," suggesting that you might be a relatively high employment risk.
Note the difference in the treatment between company names and job titles. Although both employ bold type, company names are set in all capital letters while position titles employ both capital and lowercase letters, with the first letter of each word contained in the job title set in capital letters. This treatment highlights the company name and provides an appropriate visual separation between these two resume elements, facilitating ease of reading and understanding by the employer.
When you have held more than one position with the same employer, company description is normally inserted immediately below company name. When a single job has been held with the same company, however, a brief description of the company can be inserted a single time in the first line of the resume following the job title. In such cases, company description can easily be incorporated as part of the initial statement reflecting your reporting relationship. The following examples should help clarify this point.
Example 1: Multiple Jobs with Same Employer
BRISTOL PAPER COMPANY, Mobile, AL 1996-2004
A $3.5 billion market leader in the manufacture and sale of sanitary tissue products including consumer towels, napkins, and facial tissue.
Example 2: Single Job with Same Employer
BRISTOL PAPER COMPANY, Mobile, AL 1996-2004
Director of Marketing (2001-2004)
Report to Vice President of Sales and Marketing of this $3.5 billion manufacturer and market leader in the field of sanitary tissue products. Direct staff of 25 with leadership responsibility for new product development, brand management, market research, advertising and promotion ($35 million annual budget). Products include consumer towels, napkins, and facial tissue.
In studying these two sample company descriptions, note the difference in font size. Both company name and position title use 12-point type, while company and job descriptions employ 11-point type. This creates a pleasing visual contrast between resume elements, enhancing both general appearance and ease of readership. Additionally, you may also want to justify text margins to avoid a sloppy, ragged appearance and ensure that right margin text is neatly aligned. This will also enhance the overall appearance of the resume document.
As illustrated in these examples, company description normally includes such items as organization size, products manufactured (or professional services provided), and annual sales volume. Prospective employers want to know what size and type company you worked for so they can assess your probable fit with their own organization. An employer who is a flooring manufacturer, for example, will want to know whether or not you have had experience in the flooring industry. If you fail to provide this information, the employer is likely to pass over your resume in favor of others with flooring industry experience.
You should not automatically assume employers are familiar with your company. Even when working for large companies such as DuPont or General Electric, you will still want to show the products manufactured by the division in which you were employed. Failure to provide this information as part of the company description may place you at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who have done so. There is clearly a consistent trend among employers to prefer those with same industry experience, since this cuts down on training time and ensures that the new hire will "hit the ground running."
The next component of the Professional Experience section of the resume is the job description. There are five key elements that should be incorporated into the job description component. These are:
1. Job Title.
2. Job Dates (i.e., dates employed in that position).
3. Reporting Relationship (i.e., title of person to whom you reported).
4. Size and Scope of Position Held (i.e., described in quantitative terms).
5. Functional Responsibility (i.e., specific functions performed or managed).
Although we have previously discussed the treatment and positioning of job titles on the resume, it is important to comment further on this subject. In recent years, many employers have elected to use unusual job titles when naming positions. Often this is done in an attempt to better integrate the title chosen with some strategic initiative or organizational culture shift. For example, an employer focusing on creating a team-based culture might call an Engineering Project Manager a Technology Team Facilitator or some other title not commonly used.
Since your resume must communicate with external sources, use of the title Technology Team Facilitator may confuse those unfamiliar with this terminology. Since you want to effectively convey a clear understanding of the position you held, you may wish to substitute the generic job title of Engineering Project Manager to ensure that prospective employers clearly understand the nature of job you held. This is perfectly acceptable practice when writing a resume. When making this kind of change, however, be sure to choose a generic title commonly used and understood within your profession.
When writing a resume, you have a certain amount of license in conveying clear understanding. This is not the case with an employment application, however, where you will need to use exact job titles rather than the generic ones. If ever questioned by an employer about the discrepancy between the job title used on the resume and that used on the formal application, the response is quite simple. Simply explain that you felt use of the generic title better communicated to the outside world the nature of the work you were performing.
When describing your position on the resume, bear in mind that employers will want to know how closely the position you have held parallels the position they are attempting to fill. Key information such as reporting relationship, job size and scope, and functional responsibilities are essential to facilitating this comparison. Take a moment or two to again study the sample job descriptions, as well as those contained in the sample resume contained on page 260, observing how this information is presented.
Begin the job description section by describing your reporting relationship. Starting this section with the words "report to" or "reported to" and then following with your manager's title will simplify the task.
Next, provide a concise description of your functional accountabilities, the key things you were responsible for doing. If you are in a management position, you should list the functional areas you manage. For example, "Functional responsibility includes market research, product development, brand management, advertising, and promotion." If a professional, sole contributor rather than manager, on the other hand, simply cite the key functions you are accountable for performing. For example, "Functional responsibility includes engineering design, installation, start-up, and debugging of consumer tissue and towel papermaking equipment." Administrative support personnel, for example, might state, "Functionally responsible for providing key administrative support including typing and proofing monthly financial statements, preparing PowerPoint presentations, screening incoming mail and e-mail correspondence, arranging executive travel schedules, and meeting setup and coordination."
Future employers will need to have a clear understanding of your functional job responsibilities to determine if you have performed the same or similar work to the position they are filling. The ability to easily make this comparison offers the prospective employer some assurance that you possess the requisite skills and experience essential to successful performance of the position offered.
When formulating your position description, it is also important to include a quantitative description reflecting the size and scope of positions held. Doing so will effectively communicate the scope and complexity of your previous positions. In most cases, the employer is seeking evidence that you have successfully handled positions of comparable size and complexity, enhancing the employer's level of comfort that you are capable of successfully performing the existing job.
If a manager, for example, quantitative descriptions might include the size of your staff, size of budget managed, number of divisions managed, sales volume for which you are accountable, and so on. If you are an Administrative Assistant, for example, the quantitative description might include size of staff served, volume of correspondence processed, volume of records handled, and the like. Such quantitative descriptors will more accurately communicate the size, complexity, and demands of your job, providing the perspective employer with valuable information needed to better assess your fit for the current job opening.
In viewing the sample resume contained on page 260, you can readily see how easy it is to effectively incorporate quantitative data into job descriptions. Note, in particular, how concisely and succinctly this information is presented. There are no wasted words, and yet the employer can quickly grasp the nature and extent of your work experience including reporting relationship, functional responsibilities, and size and scope of positions you have held. The concise way in which this information is presented facilitates ease of readership and yet provides the employer with a clear understanding of the critical elements essential to assessing your qualifications for employment.
The final element in completing the Professional Experience section of the resume document is the Key Accomplishments section. This immediately follows the Job Description and is highlighted through the use of bullet points. From the interview perspective, this is clearly the most important section of the resume when it comes to "making the sale."
In years past, it was sufficient to provide employers with a simple description of your job duties, however, this is no longer the case. In today's competitive environment, managers are heavily focused on employee contribution and productivity. They don't simply want to know "what you are responsible for," they want to know what you have actually done! A simple job description, with no accompanying list of specific accomplishments, is likely to screen you out before you've even begun. Lack of specific resume statements reflecting results you have achieved will place you at a distinct competitive disadvantage.
On the other hand, a resume reflecting a record of continuous accomplishment and significant results will go a long way to "making the sale." It will not only get you in the door, but will also have a major impact on interview results once you are there. Highlighting each of these accomplishments with bullet points will grab the interviewer's attention and focus much of the interview discussion around the key skills and competencies essential to job performance. This is exactly where you want to be. You don't want to waste valuable interview time by requiring the interviewer to dig for this important information.
Because of the critical nature of this resume component, you will want to put considerable thought and effort into developing it. The following directions should help you get off to a good start.
To start the process rolling, list each of the positions you have held on a sheet of paper. Below each job title, list a minimum of four to six major accomplishments or improvements you have achieved while in the position. Copies of old performance evaluations or salary increase summaries should come in handy if you need to jog your memory.
This is often one of the more difficult exercises in resume writing. Often job seekers have difficulty remembering specific achievements and get stuck in the process. If this should happen to you, let me suggest a technique that many, who I have helped write resumes, have successfully used in getting unblocked.
Think about the general state of the position when you first entered it as a new incumbent. What key problems or challenges existed? What improvements were needed? What did you do to address these needs? What specific actions did you take, and what were the results of your efforts?
Once identified and written down on paper, rearrange these accomplishments in relationship to their importance for the type of position you are seeking. List the most important accomplishment first, the second most relevant accomplishment second, the third most important third, and so on, until all have been sorted in accordance with their level of importance to the position you seek. This is the same order in which you will want to list these items on your resume document.
A review of the sample resume on page 260 will illustrate just how easy it is to write key accomplishment statements. There is a formula for writing these accomplishment statements that results in a high level of effectiveness. First, start the accomplishment statement with a verb. This will force you to be concise. A list of common verbs has been provided on the next page. Carefully select the verb that best describes the action you took, such as led, supervised, developed, invented, improved. Try to be as precise as possible in selecting just the right word that best conveys the exact role you played in bringing about a certain end result.
Action Verbs
Management Skills
administered coordinated increased reviewed
aligned delegated organized systematized
analyzed developed oversaw scheduled
attained directed planned strengthened
chaired evaluated prioritized supervised
contracted executed produced
consolidated improved recommended
Communication Skills
addressed drafted mediated recruited
arbitrated edited moderated spoke
arranged enlisted motivated translated
authored formulated negotiated wrote
corresponded influenced persuaded
developed interpreted promoted
directed lectured publicized
Research Skills
analyzed diagnosed identified investigated
clarified evaluated inspected organized
collected examined interpreted reviewed
critiqued extracted interviewed summarized
surveyed
Technical Skills
assembled
built devised operated repaired
calculated engineered overhauled solved
computed fabricated programmed trained
designed maintained remodeled upgraded
Teaching Skills
adapted coordinated explained instructed
advised developed facilitated persuaded
clarified enabled guided set goals
coached encouraged informed stimulated
communicated evaluated initiated
Financial Skills
administered audited computed marketed
allocated balanced developed planned
analyzed budgeted forecasted projected
appraised calculated managed researched
Creative Skills
acted directed instituted performed
conceptualized established integrated planned
created fashioned introduced revitalized
designed founded invented shaped
developed illustrated originated
Helping Skills
assessed counseled expedited referred
assisted demonstrated facilitated represented
clarified diagnosed familiarized trained
coached educated guided
Clerical or Detail Skills
approved dispatched operated retrieved
arranged executed organized screened
catalogued generated prepared specified
classified implemented processed systematized
collected inspected proofread tabulated
compiled monitored purchased typed
recorded validated
Second, use quantitative results statements that clearly convey to the employer the degree of improvement you brought in each instance. For example, simply stating that you increased sales has little impact on the reader. Telling the employer that you increased sales by 200 percent over the first two years, however, is bound to get the reader's attention. There is a huge difference. With this example, you can readily see how much more powerful an accomplishment statement becomes when it is supported by quantitative dimensions that convey the level or degree of improvement you brought.
If you experience difficulty remembering an exact number or percentage, qualify the statistic by using the words approximately or about, so long as you know the numeric you are using is "in the ballpark." For example, you could state, "Reduced operating costs by approximately 30 percent in the first year." This is far better than simply stating, "Reduced operating costs in the first year."
When reviewing the sample resume at the end of this chapter, you will note that each accomplishment statement is preceded by a bullet. This highlights the statement, drawing the reader's attention.
If you have been thoughtful in crafting your accomplishment statements, you are likely to realize the full benefit of your efforts during the course of your employment interviews. Since employers frequently use the resume as an interview roadmap, systematically probing each position held and results achieved, your extra effort is bound to pay large dividends. As employers probe these key accomplishments in greater detail, you are afforded an excellent opportunity to showcase your strongest skills and competencies.
If written particularly well, these achievement statements will do most of the selling for you. The resume will automatically document a solid history of achievement and results, providing a convincing and compelling story that should encourage the employer to hire you.
Since you will want to commit most of the resume to describing your most recent positions, it is unnecessary to provide much detail on positions held earlier in your career. In fact, earlier positions are of little interest to employers so they deserve no more than a simple listing of job titles and dates. There is no need to include a description of the position and list of accomplishments. Doing so serves no real purpose other than to lengthen the resume and present a greater barrier to readership.
If, in fact, you are an older worker, listing early positions along with employment dates is a dead giveaway to your age, inviting age discrimination. If this is your situation, you may want to give consideration to eliminating these earlier positions from the resume entirely. In this way you can disguise your age, all but eliminating the possibility of age discrimination and increasing the probability of landing job interviews. If later questioned by an employer as to why you didn't list these positions on the resume, your answer is both honest and simple. Tell the employer, "Since there is limited space on the resume, I felt it important to use this space to more fully describe my most recent positions, rather than to list positions that have little or no relevance to my current job search objective. Additionally, quite frankly, I wished to eliminate the possibility of age discrimination. I'm sure you can appreciate this." Such explanation is likely to cause the issue to evaporate rather quickly.
Section 4: Education
As illustrated on the sample resume on page 260, the Education section of the resume lists the degree and major, followed by school and date of graduation. List highest level degree first. Additionally for esthetic purposes, I recommend you center the educational data under the Education heading as shown in the following example:
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Physical Organic Chemistry, University of Colorado. 2002
M.S., Organic Chemistry, University of Utah, 1999
B.S., Chemistry, Bucknell University, 1997
Section 5: Professional Memberships
As stated previously, Professional Memberships is an optional resume component. Avoid listing extraneous memberships that have no relevance to the position for which you are applying. Stick to job relevant professional memberships only. As with the Education section, you will want to center the professional memberships under the Professional Memberships component as shown below:
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
National Pest Management Association, President, 2001-2002
National Pest Management Association, Member, 1996-2002
Professional Lawn Care Association, Member, 1990-2002
Gold Course Superintendents Association, Member, 1990-2002
This section of the resume might also be used to list professional certifications earned, professional awards received, special recognition received, offices held in relevant professional or trade associations, and other appropriate items lending testimony to your qualifications as a professional in your field. You may want to change the resume section heading to a title that more appropriately fits the category. Optional titles might include Professional Affiliations, Professional Recognition, Honors and Awards, or other appropriate titles.
Section 6: Patents
If you are a technical professional and hold relevant patents, you will want to show these on your resume. This provides strong testimony to your technical genius and creativity. This is particularly true if multiple patents have been issued in your name.
On the other hand, if the only patents you hold were issued many years ago and you have not been awarded a patent in recent years, you may want to think twice about even listing patents on the resume at all. To do so might well suggest to a prospective employer you are no longer the technical genius you once were, or that you have contributed little to your employer in recent years. You want to avoid the possibility of being labeled a "has been," and should consider dropping the Patents section from your resume entirely or simply not show dates of patent issue.
As with the Education and Professional Memberships sections of the resume, you will want to center patent listings under the Patents heading, rather than flush with the left margin. Patent listings should include both the patent number and title as shown in the following example:
PATENTS
US Patent 7,249,247 - Gravity Feed Conveyor System with High-Speed Process Capability
US Patent 7,189,232 - Bar Code Palletizing System with Computerized Sorting Control
US Patent 6,994,249 - Transpiration Sheet Drying Using Through-Air Conveyor System
Section 7: Awards and Recognition
As with previous resume sections, if you decide to list special awards and recognition received, list only those that are truly relevant to the position for which you are applying. Also, as with the Patents section, do not show only those awards received years ago, especially if you have had no special awards or recognition in recent years. Absence of recognition in recent years may give the wrong message to a prospective employer, suggesting you are no longer the high performer you were earlier in your career. This is not a message you want to send!
Also, if you are midcareer, don't show that you were named captain of your high school football team 30 years ago. This is utter foolishness and will suggest to employers that you lack appropriate judgment and common sense. Likewise, if you were named president of the local school board, don't show this on your resume if you are applying for a job as a research scientist. There is no relevance to the position for which you are applying. Cite only job-relevant honors and awards.
Your listing of special recognition and rewards should be centered under the Awards and Recognition section of the resume. The typical way of presenting this data is to simply list the name of the award or recognition, and the awarding organization, followed by date received. The following is an example of a typical Awards and Recognition resume presentation:
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
President's Award for Outstanding Contribution, Procter & Gamble, 1998, 1999, 2004
Employee of the Year Award, Procter & Gamble, 1999
Top Sales Producer, East Coast Division, Kimberly Clark Corporation, 1996, 1997, 1998
Writing Tricks and Techniques
Careful review of the sample resume at the end of this chapter shows that certain writing tricks and techniques were employed to make this resume a brief, concise, and relatively forceful document. Note how the resume's author employed these techniques and apply these same simple approaches when writing your own resume document. You should find these techniques particularly beneficial in improving the overall quality and impact of your resume document.
§ Use of articles (e.g., a, an, and the) is unnecessary and should, for the most part, be eliminated. They add no real meaning or clarity to the resume.
§ Eliminate use of personal pronouns (i.e., he, she, me, you, they, them, us). Such pronouns are unnecessary in a resume and tend to distract from its impact and forcefulness.
§ There is no need to use complete sentences when writing a resume. Highly descriptive phrases and clauses can communicate quite effectively, and consume far less space.
§ Be concise. Eliminate all unnecessary words from the resume. If a word adds little meaning or clarity to a statement, simply delete it. It adds no real value to the document.
§ Begin most resume sentences and statements with a verb. Doing so will force brevity and conciseness.
Hopefully this chapter has provided you with a good understanding of what is important in preparing an effective resume document. You will find the advice presented to be professionally sound and, if followed, your resume document will significantly enhance your overall interview effectiveness. I have provided the same resume advice to thousands of job seekers who have gone through our corporate career transition programs, and can tell you that many hundreds have specifically commented that their resumes played a key role in landing job offers.
CATHERINE S. DAVIDSON
1604 Riverside DriveIrvine, CA 18274 <Cadav@AOL.com> (816) 557-0925 Home(816) 957-4075 Cell
PROFILE
Senior marketing executive with consistent success in developing and establishing new and existing chemical brands as market leaders in their product category. Strong market research, brand management, advertising and promotional expertise. A strategic thinker noted for outstanding leadership, team-building, customer relations, and presentation skills.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
BAXTER CHEMICAL COMPANY, Oceanside, CA 1996-Present
Leading, $6.5 billion, 28,000 employee manufacturer and distributor of chemical specialties with 8 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and distribution facilities in over 35 countries worldwide.
Vice President of Marketing (2002-Present)
Report to the President and CEO with functional responsibility for product development, market research, brand management, advertising and promotion for over 130 specialty chemicals sold principally to the steel, automotive, and electronics markets. Direct staff of 30 professionals with annual budget of $130 million.
§ Led development of 12 new specialty products sold to the cable industry, generating $380 million in new revenue in just under 2 years.
§ Revamped steel industry marketing strategy, propelling Baxter from #4 industry supplier to #2, resulting in over $240 million in new sales within 1 year.
§ Spearheaded sale of paint chemicals division to Wilson Paint Specialties for $180 million, reducing corporate overhead by over 15% and dropping nearly $20 million annually to the bottom line.
§ Led breakthrough effort in the automotive specialties market, capturing 3 major accounts (GM, Ford and Chrysler), accounting for $10 million annual revenue increase.
§ Reorganized marketing division reducing headcount by 10% ($2 million savings).
Director of Marketing -Steel Specialties (1999-2002)
Reported to Vice President of Marketing with full marketing responsibility for chemical specialties sold to the steel industry ($2.1 billion annual sales). Functional responsibility for product development, market research, brand management, advertising, and promotion (12 professionals, $62 million budget).
§ Led development and market introduction of 6 new chemical specialties for steel coating, generating $420 million in new revenue and capturing nearly 25% market share in 3 years.
§ Convinced management to re-price the entire steel coating product line, offering tiered volume discounts that resulted in a 20% increase in sales volume and 5% increase in sales revenue.
§ Implemented sophisticated competitor tracking and intelligence gathering process, allowing company to predict and counter major shifts in competitor marketing strategy before they occur.
§ Reorganized department, building strong, cohesive, effective team that significantly upgraded the image of the marketing department and increased its credibility with the senior management team.
Senior Brand Manager - Steel Specialties (1996-1999)
Hired by Director of Marketing - Steel Specialties to focus on the declining steel coatings market with the goal of improving market position and increasing sales. Managed 2 Brand Managers and a $6 million budget.
§ Implemented new strategic initiatives that raised company's market leadership position from # 6 to # 4 and increased market penetration by 18%.
§ Increased sales by 15% in less than 1 year.
§ Introduced new market analysis software and improved methodology that greatly enhanced accuracy of market analysis and projections, bringing increased credibility to the function.
WILSON CHEMICAL SPECIALTIES, INC., Cherry Hill, N.J. 1992-1996
A $950 million, 4,500 employee manufacturer and distributor of specialty chemicals to the electronics industry.
Brand Manager (1994-1996)
Reported to Director of Marketing with responsibility for developing and implementing new brand strategies for the company's specialty chemicals sold to the computer and telecommunication industries.
Associate Brand Manager (1992-1994)
EDUCATION
M.B.A., Marketing, Michigan State University, 1992
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan. 1990
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Chairman's Award for Outstanding Performance, Baxter Chemical, 2001 & 2003
Employee of the Year Award, Wilson Chemical, 1996
Wilson Chemical Academic Scholarship Award, 1987, 1988, & 1990
