Article by: Jon Harvill CPC
APICS Atlanta Career Center Director
Article appeared in the May 2009 APICS Atlanta Newsletter
Think of your résumé, not
as a biography, but as a marketing tool.
To avoid including a lot of data that you may be very
proud of but that does not sell your suitability for this
particular position, try to emotionally separate yourself from
the résumé writing process. Imagine
what an ad agency would choose to include and what they would
choose to leave out.
Your résumé should clearly show your employment goal and give
supporting arguments in a powerful and easily understood way,
and leave out most of the rest.
résumé FORMATS - The use of one of a couple of a
traditional résumé formats will make it easier for the hiring official to
quickly read (or visually scan) and come away with enough good reasons to
consider you further.
Because your most resent
employment is typically the most important, an
Inverse Chronological
résumé puts that information right up
front and therefore is used most frequently. It
will show each employers’ name, dates of employment, your last title there, your
primary duties and your major accomplishments.
Some reasons to opt for a
Functional résumé, which lists your skills and accomplishments first
and then lists only your former employers’ names, your titles and the periods of
employment; are the following:
ˇ
a need to play down the
subject’s age,
ˇ
to disguise a job-hopping
pattern,
ˇ
to show transferable skills
to support a change of careers,
ˇ
to disguise a lack of
steady advancement or consistent career path.
With either format, your
résumé should include complete contact information, your educational background
(unless by omitting your education you avoid calling attention to your lack of a
degree), related honors and certifications and, at least, the most recent ten
years of professional experience.
Your résumé should be no longer than two pages, preferably one, with enough
white space for an interviewer to be able to make notes in the margins.
A "Profile/ Accomplishment/
Keyword" format is sometimes used when catering to the
résumé-scanning software that automatically screens résumés and fills in
databases from the data and keywords found in the résumé. This type of software
has gotten pretty sophisticated and can handle most résumés but may still have
difficulty processing overly fancy formats and deciphering résumés made up of
tables, floating text boxes, graphics and embedded images.
Omit personal information
that is unrelated to the job you are applying for.
Omit marital status, age, height, weight, number of kids, social
organizations, references, salary, reason for leaving, religious organizations,
etc. There is also no need to waste
a résumé line advising that, ”References can be provided”.
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVES.
Your résumé should present your professional background in the most
positive manner, and answer questions without raising unnecessary new ones.
Use strong, confident language to describe your achievements, not just by
describing a feature you bring but
also spell out the benefit the new
employer can extrapolate receiving. For
example, "As the chief manufacturing engineer, I redesigned our assembly line
process, cutting production time by 20 percent, increasing annual profits by
$2.3 million." Or, "As senior account
supervisor, brought in seven new clients and increased existing client business
by 25 percent. These efforts boosted the agency's profitability by more than 15
percent over the previous year."
Use strong action words
such as directed, established, created, designed, earned, saved, produced, took
control, accomplished, lead, developed, installed and implemented.
For job pursuits within most for-profit
industry, weaker words to avoid are administered, documented, liaison,
participated, attempted, tried, requested, and coordinated.
For the benefit of the
résumé scanning software, show keywords in all their common forms, avoiding
proprietary nomenclature, unexplained acronyms and uncommon job titles (give
more commonly used titles in parenthesis).
PERFECTION COUNTS.
Neatness counts and typographical errors, poor spelling and faulty
grammar are unacceptable It may take
several drafts to turn your résumé into your ideal marketing tool.
Proofread it carefully. Have someone else
proofread it, too. Get another opinion on its content and presentation. Now make
sure it answers "yes" to the following important questions:
-
Does it effectively describe your background?
-
Does it highlight your strong points and
accomplishments?
-
Is it honest and accurate?
-
Is it complete, yet concise?
-
Is the format clean and attractive?
-
Is it a successful marketing piece?
-
Does it focus on your value to your previous
employers?
-
Does it make you stand out from the crowd?
Jon Harvill CPC, APICS Career Center Director, can be contacted at 770 952-0009,