Sometimes, I feel like I have seen it all. As a headhunter, and later a corporate recruiter, I looked at thousands of résumés. Each one got an initial one-minute perusal, at the most.
I have seen résumés with color pictures of the applicant on them. I have opened the cardboard résumé of an architectural applicant to have it pop up in my face. A three-dimensional room appeared. The applicant had put his education behind a door, his work experience on a table and his computer skills on a tiny computer. Sometimes, you can be too cute. The worst was an 18-page résumé of someone who had five years of experience!
Your résumé is you when you aren’t there. If you don’t make your résumé as strong as possible, you will not get past the gatekeepers. As a job seeker, you need to look at your résumé as a product moving along an assembly line. Who is the first person that will look at it? Who’s next? Who’s after that?
In a typical company, an administrative assistant may skim through résumés, quickly deciding which ones he or she will pass on to the human resources manager or recruiter. When the latter receives the résumé another quick perusal is made. Should I pass this on to the hiring manager? The hiring manager will be spending the most time in looking at the résumé. So, your goal is very simple: get that résumé to the hiring manager! To achieve this, you must do the following:
Have a clear summary statement at the top, which shows your basic skills.
Show your education up front.
Make sure that résumé is no longer than two pages long.
Remember that a résumé should be a summary, not an encyclopedic description of your work history.
Once your résumé has gotten behind the gatekeepers, it should contain the following:
• A detailed, bulleted summary of your skills. Hiring managers are looking for specifics, not generalities. Make it easy for the reader to screen you in. Here are some examples:
Proficient in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher
G/L Accounting
Auditing
• A clear exposition of your duties. Paint a clear picture of what you did, who you supervised, what you were responsible for and the scope of your responsibilities. Two examples:
“Public Relations Manager – Responsible for supervising two employees and four outside consultants to provide public relations efforts for a six-state regional home health care company.”
“Sales Representative – Represented a national textbook company at 30 colleges and universities in the four-state region of
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Also responsible for manuscript development.”
• A résumé should be written in such a way that it reflects your accomplishments, not just describes your job responsibilities. If you have done No. 2 well, you do not need to emphasize the responsibilities. Many job seekers write résumés that read like job descriptions. Make sure you put you into the résumé. It is time to shine. Time to strut a little. For example:
“Saved $10,000 over a six-month period by researching and subsequently changing office supply vendors.”
“Created a brochure that resulted in a 25 percent increase in response rate.”
“Trained all incoming employees (average of two a month) in guest service techniques.”
• Numbers. Numbers. Numbers. Quantify your accomplishments as much as you can. You’ve heard the expression, “the numbers don’t lie.” (At least we hope not.) If you place a measuring stick against your work, you’ll be showing the reader what you did in a clear black and white manner.
The first argument I get on the above is usually, “But my job doesn’t involve numbers!” or “I’m a creative person!”
I have a simple response: Nuts! All jobs involve numbers.
Let’s say you are an art teacher. How about the following:
“Taught six hands-on classes per day with approximately 30 students at varying skill levels in each session.” Whoa! Numbers!
• A résumé that sounds like you. Read your résumé out loud before you send it out. By hearing your résumé, you will be able to catch grammatical errors, omissions and also get a sense for what the reader will perceive. You will be able to catch phrases that are meaningless, such as “Seeking a position which will fully exercise my experience, skills and goals.” You will also be able to “hear” if the résumé represents you, the real you, or just another person looking for a job.
• Brevity. Don’t get carried away. The worst thing you can do with a résumé is to throw in everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. Make the reader want more. Give hiring officials a strong but concise description of your work history.
One of the best books on résumés is “Resumes That Knock ‘Em Dead” sixth edition by Martin Yate. He gives clear examples of what to do and what not to do on a résumé.
Improving your résumé is really quite simple: Ask yourself what you would like to look at if you were reviewing hundreds of résumés.
Sinara Stull O’Donnell is a professional speaker and writer through Springfield-based SinaraSpeaks. She is the author of “Be The Star Of Your Life: Are You Ready For Your Close-Up?”
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