Encyclopedia of Job Winning Resumes, Third Edition

Myra Fournier, Jeff Spin

• Publisher: Career Press
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781601638717
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Careers

Encyclopedia of Job-Winning Resumes, Third Edition, is the most helpful and comprehensive resume book you can buy. It includes more than 400 success-proven resume examples that teach you how to personalize your resume according to your own unique career situation. The 17 chapters contain resumes that cover all major industries, span every job level from entry-level to CEO, and are helpfully arranged by both job field and title to make it easy for you to quickly locate the resumes that address your particular field or situation.The first chapter, The Essentials of Writing Your Resume, is as informative as it is brief. It includes expert advice about what information to include in your resume, what to omit, what to emphasize, and what to tone down. For a quick start, it's specifically designed to keep reading to a minimum so you can start sending out your resume as soon as possible.

The second chapter, devoted to creating hard-hitting cover letters, includes 40 examples that cover a wide variety of typical career situations. And for those not-so-typical career situations, the next chapter includes 30 resumes that cover difficult circumstances such as frequent job changes, gaps in employment, layoff, lack of experience, weak education, and many more. For students, there's also a chapter containing 40 resumes to help new graduates enter the work force more quickly and easily. There are helpful hints located beneath each resume, showing you the right way to quickly create a job-winning resume that will get attention and win you an interview. The last chapter includes a Recommended Reading list and a Recommended Web Site list.

Whatever your age, industry, career, level of experience or education, you'll find the resume template you need! In 1980, Myra Fournier and Jeff Spin founded A Lasting Impression, a highly successful resume writing and career development firm located in the Greater Boston area. In 1990, they jointly developed ResumExpert, a top-rated and best-selling resume-writing software for the Macintosh computer.

1 The Essentials of Writing Your Resume

GETTING DOWN TO BASICS

The Universal Lament

“I’m so boring on paper” is the common belief that causes people to procrastinate in preparing their resumes. Other inhibitors include, “I don’t have enough job experience,” “I need several resumes for different career goals,” “I don’t have a specific career objective,” “I don’t have a college degree,” “My experience won’t fit onto one page.”

These are concerns we hear daily from our clients. And we know some easy remedies, which we share with you throughout Encyclopedia of Job-Winning Resumes.

This chapter addresses the essentials of writing a job-winning resume. To ease your reading and eliminate your confusion, we have concentrated only on the important elements of resume writing and ignored the insignificant. It’s the very same approach we utilize when writing resumes for our clients, and it’s one we hope you will follow also.

You will find straightforward tips, a dramatic “before” and “after” resume comparison, and a comprehensive list of action verbs to give your resume more punch. After reviewing this chapter, read or re-read the section “How to Use This Book” on page 19.

Develop A Theme

The dual challenge in developing a resume is to present your credentials on paper in a manner that is both easy to scan and interesting to read. Prospective employers are busy, and your resume needs to make a strong impression quickly.

The first and most important step is to develop a theme. What message do you want to convey? Your depth of experience? Breadth of experience? Academic achievements? Technical expertise? Decide what it is you want to sell about yourself and only include information which relates to that theme.

Second, concentrate on the three components of your resume—content, format, and finishing touches. Each of these areas is vital to projecting your resume’s theme. Comprehensive tips related to each area follow below.

Third, do most of the writing in your head before you even approach the typewriter or computer. During your morning commute or your weekend jog or your trip to the grocery store, think about the information you’ll include or omit. Jot down pertinent phrases, discard irrelevant information, and stick to your theme. This technique will save you countless hours of frustrating revisions once you begin typing.

Content

Your resume should not read like a job description. It should not be a re-creation of your past history, but a brief, focused, dynamic marketing tool that conveys your key credentials for a future position. Stress your qualifications, skills, and achievements instead of your duties and responsibilities.

Make the information interesting to the reader by describing your experience in short statements. Although your resume should be written in the first person, do not use “I” when describing your work history. And do not start any sentence with “Responsibilities include.” It is a weak phrase that takes up space and prohibits the reader from getting right to your most important information. Instead, begin each sentence with an action verb. You can find a list of useful action verbs on page 34.

Utilize narrative (paragraph style) sparingly. Instead, adopt a technical writing style—factual, clipped, to the point. Use short, simple words. Let the reader’s eye glide from one important fact to another by omitting the articles “a,” “an,” and “the.” Try to avoid abbreviations because they detract from the overall professionalism of the resume. Some permissible abbreviations include names of states, college degrees, and “Inc.”

Proofread several times to ensure that your content makes sense and that there are no typographical errors. An effective method to use when proofreading for spelling errors is to start from the bottom of the page and read the sentences backwards. This method forces you to concentrate on each word separately, out of context, and lets you identify any spelling errors quickly.

How much is too much? Your resume should contain all the pertinent information needed to sell yourself effectively for the position you desire. No more, no less.

It is preferable to limit your resume to one page unless your qualifications include special areas such as certifications, publications, presentations, etc. It is also preferable to limit your information to the past 10 years, unless special circumstances warrant more. However, as you will see in examples throughout this book, even 30 years of experience can be condensed effectively onto one page with the correct format.

The trick to condensing your information onto one page is to omit job descriptions of similar positions, lower level positions, and irrelevant employment.

Do you need an Objective? Probably not, because if you are like many candidates, you do not know the exact title of the job you’re pursuing. Therefore, the tendency is to write an Objective that is far too general. Avoid trite phrases such as “challenging position” and “growth potential.” They take up crucial space in which you could describe your qualifications.

Challenge yourself to write a meaningful Objective in five words or less, naming a specific job or industry. If you can’t do it, consider an “Alternative to an Objective” found in Chapter 3, or omit an Objective completely, stating your goals in your cover letter.

In what order should you present information? People read from the top down and from left to right, so begin with your most persuasive information. For example, do not use valuable space on the left for dates, usually the least important data on the resume, unless stressing the dates will enhance your candidacy.

Start by presenting the section which demonstrates your strongest qualifications, whether it be Education, Certification, Experience, or even Volunteer Activities. If your job title is more impressive than the company, list it first. Similarly, if your degree is more impressive than the college, list it first.

Should you include a Personal section? Rarely. Information such as age, height, weight, health, marital status, and hobbies usually has little relevance to your qualifications for the position. It might even work to your detriment by providing a reason for a prospective employer to exclude you from consideration. For example, citing membership in a controversial organization might reduce the number of prospective employers interested in hiring you because of their biases.

In some cases, however, certain personal information can promote your candidacy, so a Personal section would be appropriate. For example, if you are an older candidate, you might show vitality by citing sports and travel activities; a sales candidate might indicate unmarried status combined with a willingness to travel and/or relocate. If you are a student, a Personal section is a plus and we have elaborated on this point in Chapter 14.

How do you handle confidentiality? It is understood by most prospective employers that candidates want their search to remain confidential until they are ready to make the actual switch to a new company. However, if you want to alert prospective employers to your concern, head your resume with the phrase “Confidential Resume Of.” Or withhold the name of your present employer from your resume. Instead, state “Fortune 500 manufacturing firm.”

Do you need to mention References? Candidates seriously under consideration for a position will be required to furnish references to the prospective company. Therefore, it is not necessary to end your resume with a sentence about references except as a space-filler.

Never list the actual names, addresses, and telephone numbers of your references on your resume, except for highly unusual circumstances, for example, if individuals providing you with references are very well known or the mention of references will compensate for gaps in employment. Instead, keep reference information on a separate sheet of paper ready to be submitted if requested. Or, even better, obtain a written letter of recommen...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• What Makes This Book Unique
• Chapter 1 THE ESSENTIALS OF WRITING YOUR RESUME
• Chapter 2 COVER LETTERS
• Chapter 3 SPECIAL CAREER SITUATIONS
• Chapter 4 ADMINISTRATION
• Chapter 5 ARTS AND LEISURE
• Chapter 6 COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
• Chapter 7 EDUCATION
• Chapter 8 FINANCE AND BANKING
• Chapter 9 HEALTH CARE
• Chapter 10 HUMAN RESOURCES
• Chapter 11 LAW AND SECURITY
• Chapter 12 MANAGEMENT
• Chapter 13 SALES AND MARKETING
• Chapter 14 STUDENTS
• Chapter 15 CAREER CHANGERS
• Chapter 16 THE AGE OF THE INTERNET—ELECTRONIC RESUMES
• Index by Title