Tips for Writing an Effective Resume

Tips for Writing an Effective Resume


 Hiring managers and recruiters alike say they've seen more poorly written resumes cross their desks recently than ever before. Attract more interview offers and ensure your resume doesn't eliminate you from consideration by following these six key tips:

1.   Format Your Resume Wisely "Do the Hiring Managers" Work for Them

No matter how well written, your resume won't get a thorough reading the first time through. Generally a resume gets scanned for 25 seconds. Scanning is more difficult if it is hard to read, poorly organized or exceeds two pages.

    Use a logical format and wide margins, clean type and clear headings
    Selectively apply bold and italic typeface that help guide the reader's eye
    Use bullets to call attention to important points (i.e. accomplishments)


2.   Identify Accomplishments not Just Job Descriptions

Hiring managers, especially in technical fields like engineering, seek candidates that can help them solve a problem or satisfy a need within their company. Consequently, you can't be a solution to their problems without stating how you solved similar problems in other companies and situations.

    Focus on what you did in the job, NOT what your job was there's a difference
    Include a one or two top line job description first, then list your accomplishments
    For each point ask yourself, What was the benefit of having done what I did?
    Accomplishments should be unique to you, not just a list of what someone else did
    Avoid using the generic descriptions of the jobs you originally applied for or held


3.   Quantify Your Accomplishments

Q: What's the most common resume mistake?
A: Making too many general claims and using too much industry jargon that does not market the candidate. A resume is a marketing document designed to sell your skills and strengths rather than just portray a bio of the candidate.

    Include and highlight specific achievements that present a comprehensive picture of your marketability
    Quantify your achievements to ensure greater confidence in the hiring manager and thereby generate interest percentages, dollars, number of employees, etc.
    Work backwards to quantify your accomplishments by asking, If I had not done X, what could have happened?


4.   Cater Your Resume for the Industry

Unlike advertising and design professionals who have greater creative license in designing their resume for those fields, the mechanical engineering industry won't be impressed and may be turned off by distinctive resume design.

    Err on the side of being conservative stylistically
    Your accomplishments, error-free writing, grammatically-correct, clean, crisp type and paper will make the impression for you


5.   Replace your Objective" with a "Career Summary"

A Career Summary is designed to give a brief overview of who you are and what you do. Most Objectives sound similar: Seeking a challenging, interesting position in X where I can use my skills of X, Y, and Z to contribute to the bottom line. Not telling at all.

    Grab a hiring manager's attention right from the beginning, remembering you
    have only 25 few seconds to make a good impression
    Spend time developing a summary that immediately gets their attention, and accurately and powerfully describes you as a solution to their problems


6.   Network. Network. Network.

For unemployed candidates, handing out resumes should be a full-time job. The majority of mid- to senior-level positions are filled through networking, so contact absolutely everyone you know in addition to recruiters who are in a position to hire you or share insights. Networking can include

    Personal business contacts, people you've worked for or who worked for you
    Vendors and sales representatives you've dealt with in the past five years
    People listed in the alumni directory of your alma mater

With a solid resume in hand you'll greatly increase your odds of earning a closer look and getting that interview.

Resume mistakes to avoid

Resume mistakes to avoid


1. Typos and grammatical errors

Your resume needs to be grammatically perfect. If it isn't, employers will read between the lines and draw not-so-flattering conclusions about you, like: "This person can't write," or "This person obviously doesn't care."
2. Lack of specifics

Employers need to understand what you've done and accomplished. For example:

A. Worked with employees in a restaurant setting.
B. Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 20 employees in a restaurant with $2 million in annual sales.

Both of these phrases could describe the same person, but the details and specifics in example B will more likely grab an employer's attention.
3. Attempting the "One–size–fits–all" approach

Whenever you try to develop a one-size-fits-all resume to send to all employers, you almost always end up with something employers will toss in the recycle bin. Employers want you to write a resume specifically for them. They expect you to clearly show how and why you fit the position in a specific organization.
4. Highlighting duties instead of accomplishments

It's easy to slip into a mode where you simply start listing job duties on your resume. For example:

    Attended group meetings and recorded minutes;
    Worked with children in a day-care setting;
    Updated departmental files.

Employers, however, don't care so much about what you've done as what you've accomplished in your various activities. They're looking for statements more like these:

    Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference.
    Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance.
    Reorganized 10 years worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members.

5. Going on too long or cutting things too short

Despite what you may read or hear, there are no real rules governing resume length. Why? Because human beings, who have different preferences and expectations where resumes are concerned, will be reading it.

That doesn't mean you should start sending out five-page resumes, of course. Generally speaking, you usually need to limit yourself to a maximum of two pages. But don't feel you have to use two pages if one will do. Conversely, don't cut the meat out of your resume simply to make it conform to an arbitrary one-page standard.
6. A bad objective

Employers do read your resume objective, but too often they plow through vague pufferies like, "Seeking a challenging position that offers professional growth." Give employers something specific and, more importantly, something that focuses on their needs as well as your own. Example: "A challenging entry-level marketing position that allows me to contribute my skills and experience in fund-raising for nonprofits."
7. No action verbs

Avoid using phrases like "responsible for." Instead, use action verbs: "Resolved user questions as part of an IT help desk serving 4,000 students and staff."
8. Leaving off important information

You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you've taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you've gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.
9. Visually too busy

If your resume is wall-to-wall text featuring five different fonts, it will most likely give the employer a headache. So show your resume to several other people before sending it out. Do they find it visually attractive? If what you have is hard on the eyes, revise.
10. Incorrect contact information

I once worked with a student whose resume seemed incredibly strong, but he wasn't getting any bites from employers. So one day, I jokingly asked him if the phone number he'd listed on his resume was correct. It wasn't. Once he changed it, he started getting the calls he'd been expecting. Moral of the story: Double-check even the most minute, taken-for-granted details -- sooner rather than later.