8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

1/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

1. Identify whats relevant.

A valuable saying to keep in mind is: Get out o your ego and into the

employers ego.

As you decide what inormation to include or leave o your rsum keep one word

in mind: Relevant. What is most relevant to the employer? The experiences you

include, the details you provide, and the language you use should all relate to the

job youre seeking and what the employer would want to see.

Dont make employers work to gure out your value or how what youve done

relates to the job. Tell them. Focus on the employers needs, not yours.

Look at your rsum rom an employers perspective. Can you

immediately make the connection between what youve described on

your rsum and the job youre applying or? Revise accordingly.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

2/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

2. Prepare your rsum for scanning.

Surveys show that employers spend less than a minute reviewing your rsum

the rst time. Some employers even use scanners when they anticipate a large

number o applications or their position. But whether your rsum is being

scanned by human eyes or a computer, certain eatures will make it more likely to

be selected or urther review.

n Use keywords or the industry you hope to work in, not your current industry or

ormer work beore you went back to school.

n Use standard typeaces like Geneva, Times, Helvetica, or Palatino. Use a ont

size o 10-14 points. Do not use tiny onts which are hard to read.

n Use boldace or all capital letters or section headings. Avoid ancy eatures

such as italics or underlining which a computer cant scan.

n Do not use horizontal or vertical lines.

n Use active, concrete phrases and worlds to describe your experiences.

Does your rsum ollow the suggestions above? Revise accordingly.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

3/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

3. Create a powerful heading and opening summary.

The opening o your rsum has the chance to grab potential employers or make

them move on to the next candidate. Make sure your rsum emphasizes your key

strengths and skills in a powerul way.

Start by making sure all your contact inormation is at the top o rsum: name,

address, email, and phone. Your email should sound proessional (as should the

message on your voicemail). Do not use a ancy ont or your nameuse the same

or similar ont as the rest o the rsum.

Ater the heading, consider a strengths section which will contain 3-4 bullet pointsemphasizing your key technical skills and education related to the position youre

seeking. Make them clear, ocused on the employers needs, and easy to read.

Dont load them with jargon and unnecessary bragging. Tell the reader what you

can do or them by ocusing on your skills and outcomes.

Does your rsum quickly get to the point? Can you tell rom the rst

ew lines what job youre seeking and what strengths/skills/knowledge

you have that relate to the position? Revise accordingly.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

4/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

4. Sell your education.

I you are graduating soon or recently graduated and you acquired a degree which is

directly related to your employment, you will want to put your education ahead o your

experience. You should also put your education rst i you havent had proessional

employment and are relying on the strength o your degree to help you nd your rst

proessional job.

Keep in mind the relevance rule when you write your education section: what will

the employer be most interested in?

Use this section to highlight any eatures o your education including academic

achievements or awards, special projects you completed, and study abroadexperiences. Include your g.p.a. i its at least 3.00. I your major isnt directly

related to your career eld, but you took specic courses that do relate, consider

listing those courses in your education section.

Once you have an A.A. or B.A. degree, you can remove your high school inormation.

Take a ew moments to think about what was most valuable about your

education as it relates to your uture employment. Have you ound a

way to include that on your rsum?

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

5/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

5. Make the most of your experience.

The experience section typically includes the key inormation about your

ormer employers (names o companies, their city and state, the dates o your

employment) as well as an explanation o what you did there.

Remember that experience doesnt always mean ull-time paid experience: you can

include leadership roles in activities, volunteer opportunities, summer jobs, part-

time jobs, internships, research studies, academic projects and more.

This is arguably the most important section o your rsum, so take your time

writing it and describing your various experiences. Make sure that you write your

entries with the employer in mindocus on the experiences and skills which aremost relevant to the job youre seeking.

One way to think about your descriptions is to consider: problem, solution,

outcome. Think about a problem you had to solve, the method you used to solve

it, and the outcome which came as a result. Using numbers to indicate the positive

changes (as in resulting in 50% more sales) will greatly enhance your chances o

getting an interviewand a job.

Review your experience section with the employers point o view: why

would s/he care about what youve described? Make sure you ocus on

outcomes and actionnot duties.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

6/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

Review your rsum. Do you have room or an interest section? Do you have

anything that will enhance your chances o getting a job? I no, leave it o.

Employers are divided about whether they like to see Hobbies/Interests on a rsum.

Some enjoy learning something about the personal interests o job candidates; others say

that personal inormation has no place on a rsum.

Both arguments are valid, so the decision to include an interests section comes down to

your preerence. You should only include an interests section if you are trying to add

more information to a rsum that is too short, or if you believe it will enhance your

chances of employment.

I you meet those criteria, consider the ollowing:

n Hobbies or activities that demonstrate achievement or goal-setting like triathlons or a

black belt in karate.

n Well-known organizations you volunteer with such as the United Way.

n Unique experiences that highlight a special quality-- such as speaking 5 languages.

n Successul examples o writing such as a published novel.

n Activities where you have won a competition.

Do not include:

n Potentially controversial hobbies or interests.

n Religious activities (unless relevant or related to the job).

n

Odd hobbies such as unusual collections.

6. Make your interests interesting.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

7/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

7. Format your rsum like a professional.

Proessional rsums all have certain characteristics that make them stand out:

n They are generally one page in length, particularly i youre going into business.

I you must use two pages to avoid a crowded looking rsum, make sure the

most important inormation is on the rst page.

n They are organized, neat, and contain no spelling or grammatical errors.

n They have a balance between text and white space so they dont look cluttered

or too empty.

n They are consistent in punctuation and verb tense.

n They are consistent in their use o bolding, italics, and other special characters.

n They are printed on proessional 24-lb bond paper in white, cream, or gray.

n They dont contain unusual onts, pictures, or other attention-getting devices.

Take a look at your rsum rom a distance without reading any o the

words. How does it look? Is it centered with white space around the

edges? Does it look cluttered? Can you see a consistent pattern o

bolding or layout with each o the entries? Adjust it as needed.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

8/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

8. Watch your language.

Rsums are written in an unusual style, almost like a telegram. They rely on short

bursts o inormation rather than ull sentences. Always lead with action verbs that

convey the skills you have developed.

When describing your experiences use words like:

n Managed

n Supervised

n Accomplished

n Classied

n

OrganizedAvoid weak or passive phrases like:

n Was responsible or

n Was in charge o

n Did some work with

n Duties included

n Handled assorted jobs.

Go through your rsum careully and remove any passive phrases,

particularly any time you wrote responsible or. Change it to an

action term, as in going rom Responsible or reconciling accounts to

Reconciled accounts.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

9/10 2011 Caliornia Community Colleges Chancellors Ofce

Write Yor Rsum

Go online and look up the three dierent rsum ormats. Look at samples

and decide which ormat would best highlight your strengths and appeal

to an employer. Then adapt your current rsum to the new ormat.

There are generally three rsum ormats that will work or most jobs. You will want

to select the style which best showcases your work and lie experiences.

1. A Chronological Rsum is the most traditional and widely used ormat. You

simply list your education and experiences in reverse chronological order

that is, with the most recent rst. It works best when you are ollowing a airly

consistent and straight career path.

2. A Skills-based or Functional Rsum ocuses on the skills and knowledge

you have acquired rather than the specic places you worked or the dates you

worked there. For that reason, it is oten used by people who have been away

rom the workorce or awhile or reasons other than schooling. I you have

been away rom the workorce or more than two years, you might want to use

a unctional ormat. Just be aware that employers can be suspicious o this

ormat since it is sometimes used to hide problems.

3. A Combination Rsum uses the basic chronological style, but divides your

experiences according to type. Instead o just listing your 4 most recent jobs in

order, in a combination rsum you might divide those jobs by a category, or

instance Advertising Experience and Hospitality Experience. The advantage

is you can organize your experiences to better t what the employer is seeking.

9. Find the rsum format that ts you.

8/8/2019 6 - Write Your Rsum 51-60

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Write Yor Rsum

10. Join a professional organization to improve your rsum.

One advantage o joining a proessional organization is that you can include it on

your rsum even i you never do anything beyond joining the organization.

Just having the name on your rsum implies that you are serious about your

career eld. This can be particularly helpul when you are switching rom one

career eld to another.

You may not have experience yet in your new eld, and a proessional organization

can help you build that experience beore you graduate. By volunteering and

working with a proessional organization you not only build up the experiencesection on your rsum, you will make new connections who might serve as

reerences or you in the uture.

Proessional organizations are almost always looking or people who want to help:

you can provide a service while at the same time derive a lot o benet or your

rsum and career.

Identiy one proessional organization or your career eld. Join it today.