The Importance Of Resume Content
When writing a resume, remember that it should tell the story of your
career history. An ideal resume should:
- explain what you are looking for in a position
- show a brief list of your skill set
- show a consistent work history with continued increasing responsibility
- convey your computer skills
- provide your education
- advise any special training you've obtained
- advise any special accomplishments you have achieved
- provide a way to contact you
It is sometimes very helpful to refer to a professional resume book for
detailed assistance that covers many job types.
Ensuring you have a quality resume that covers all of the above, greatly
increases you're chances of getting called for an interview. But remember, the
quality of your resume work history is most important. Now that you know what
to put when writing your resume, let me give you a brief description of each of
these resume items. A more detailed description of the importance of each will
be discussed in future posts to this blog.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Resume contact information should include a phone number. Make sure that if you
can't answer, you check the voice mail often. Provide an email address that you
check frequently. Hiring Managers must have a way to contact you. Do not add
personal email addresses that reflect poorly on you.
OBJECTIVE:
Consider what you are looking for in a job/career
and write a clear statement that explains it. Do not copy a friends resume
objective because you think it sounds good. Your objective should tell a hiring
Manager what YOU are looking for in a job/career so that they can match you to
open positions they have to fill. Vague, irrelevant and extremely fancy
objectives with too many buzz words could get your resume tossed aside quickly.
SKILL SET:
Provide a bullet point list of any skills you have
obtained that are relevant to the type of job you are seeking. Don't list
menial skills.
WORK HISTORY:
List each company you have worked for along with
the title of the position you held and your month and year of employment. Be
sure to list them from current (or most recent) to oldest. Under each position
include a bullet point list of all relevant job duties. Your work experience
should reflect a growing increase in responsibility. Any gaps in your resume
work history, specifically repeated gaps, could cause doubt with the Hiring
Manager regarding the length of time you might stay with them. Make sure you
plan your job changes to always ensure consistent employment. One layoff may be
overlooked, especially in a poor job market, but consistent layoffs tell them
your prior employers saw you as a dispensable employee and again, could cause
your resume to be tossed aside.
EDUCATION:
Provide the name of the school, course of study,
college degree and year of completion for each level of school you have
completed. If high school is the highest level you have completed simply list
the information for that school. If you have completed any college, leave high
school off and list all colleges attended. Some employers look for degrees and
some don't, as there are benefits to both. Some companies prefer a higher
education and some prefer on the job experience
COMPUTER
SKILLS:
List all computer software you have worked in and
are comfortable with. You don't have to be proficient in each of them. You can
explain your use of each in more detail at an interview. Do not list software
for the sake of listing them because it could backfire on you. The purpose is
to get a feel for how computer proficient you are and how quickly you might
learn a new system.
TRAINING,
SEMINARS and CERTIFICATIONS:
List all additional job training, career seminars
and certifications that are relevant to the position you are looking to obtain.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
List all achievements you accomplished that are
over and above what your job duties required.
Lastly, proof read! A
resume error can cost you the job! Use spell check and grammar check, then
print it and have at least one other person proof it for errors. If a company's
first impressions of you are errors, odds are you won't be considered for an
interview.
References should not be included on your resume.
If there is adequate room to add "References provided upon request"
at the bottom then do so, but it's not necessary. References should be typed on
a separate sheet of paper and provided at the request of the prospective
employer.
Resume objectives are very important. If your
resume doesn't have an objective or your objective doesn't state your goals in
an effective manner you may miss out on relevant job opportunities. An
objective assists employers in matching your goals with theirs. Obtaining a job
that will assist you in meeting your goals will be difficult if your resume
objective doesn't accurately portray what those goals are.
Writing A Resume Objective Isn't As Hard As You
Think. What's your goal? You do have a goal, right? Sure you do. Everyone has a
goal. Your goal may be different from your friend and your neighbor, but we all
have goals when it comes to our career. Your goal is your objective. It doesn't
have to be extremely fancy; professional yes, but overly fancy no.
Ask yourself these questions about your
career:
1. What is my
expertise and for how long?
2. What am I doing
now?
3. What are both my
short-term and long-term goals?
4. Is what I'm doing
now relevant to either of my goals?
5. What am I
personally not getting out of my current situation that I need? (Consider:
commute time, employee benefits, salary, relevance to education and
background/skills)
6. What is the 'NEXT'
step I need to take in my career to reach my goal?
7. How long will it
take to accomplish this? Or How long do I plan to work in the next position/for
the next company?
8. What type of
company do I want to work for to meet this goal? (Consider: industry type,
company size)
9. What can I offer my
next employer?
10. When this step is
complete, what's step is after that?
If you take a moment
to sit and think this through you will have your objective. Now you just need
to get it on paper. Not all of what you determined with the above questions
need to be put in your objective. The answers to the above helped you plan your
big picture/long term career goal. Your resume objective should primarily
concentrate on your answers to questions 6 and 7, but will have aspects of many
of the other questions as well.
Remember, you have 10-30 seconds to make a
favorable impression and tell the employer if you are a good match for them.
You have to make sure an state your goals, while also telling them why you
would be an asset to them.
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