How to Do a Résumé
If you are new to job search, you may be wondering how to do a résumé, knowing it is a required part of applying to jobs. Most résumés are simply job descriptions of all the jobs the candidate has ever held, but don’t provide any evidence to the reader of how well the candidate performed those jobs or how they relate to the job requirements. That is not how to do a résumé.
A marketing campaign
To develop a résumé that stands apart, think about it as a key piece of your marketing campaign. Marketing campaigns begin with a thorough understanding of the campaign target – the hiring manager. For the job you are hoping to land, what does the hiring manager need? You may have to conduct some market research to find out. The easiest source of information is the job advertisement itself, where the employer tells you what is important. Then think about how your qualifications meet those needs.
The facts
Gather factual information about your previous jobs, education, awards, certifications, training programs, technical skills, language fluency, etc. – whatever your research has told you is relevant to the job you are seeking. You only need to show years of employment, not months. For education, you do not need to show dates at all.
In a résumé, everything should be accurate and truthful. However, you do not need or want to show everything. If you have a long list of jobs, you may want to limit it to those that give evidence of your qualifications for the job you are seeking. But be careful that the resulting list does not show a lengthy gap in employment if there actually was not a gap. The same goes for skills, training programs, etc. If you did not graduate from college, but did attend for a time, list your college but do not list a degree.
Job descriptions
For the jobs that you have decided to include, list the employer name, location (city and state is sufficient), years of employment, your job title(s), and a brief list of the major responsibilities of your job. Again, here you will want to think about the needs of your target hiring manager and focus on your responsibilities from past jobs that qualify you for your future job. Include information about the scope of your responsibilities if it is impressive. For example, if your work involved international exposure, if you had charge of a budget (especially a large one), supervised employees, ran a region, worked on expensive equipment… these are some examples of scope information you would include.
Your accomplishments
In your past jobs, what contributions have you made that are relevant to the job you are seeking? Have you helped a company earn or save money by bringing in new customers, providing quality services, improving processes, creating better products, doing something better or faster? Have you helped the company stay out of trouble with your accurate, safe, compliant work?
Write these accomplishments in short bullet points (they do not need to be complete sentences), beginning with a powerful action word, in past tense. Try to include some sort of quantifiable results, such as: “Increased sales by 25% in a down market,” or “Created and implemented new process, saving 100 man-hours/month.” Some accomplishments will not have quantifiable results, or you may not have access to them, but you should always try to think about and include the positive impact your achievement had on your workgroup, department or company. These things give evidence of how well you did your previous jobs and, therefore, how well you are likely to perform for a new employer.
Keywords
Many résumés are entered into applicant databases and are only seen by recruiters and hiring managers if they appear in search results. The screener will search the database using keywords that are most important to the hiring manager and those résumés containing the search term keywords will be further screened. Those résumés which do not contain the search keywords will not be seen at all. To find the keywords employers are likely to use, note what words and phrases they are using in their job advertisements and make sure that those that fit your qualifications are included somewhere in your résumé.
Summary / profile
One of the most difficult to write, but important parts of the résumé is the summary or profile, which appears at the beginning, just under your contact information. It is mentioned last in this article, even though it is first in the résumé because it is easier to write this after you have already worked through the other sections. This section provides, in a few sentences, a quick snapshot of your most impressive experience, achievement, strengths and qualifications that are relevant to the job you are seeking.
Begin your text with a statement of who you are – i.e., Financial analyst with 12 years in the banking industry; Human Resources professional with experience in IT, healthcare and telecommunications industries; Administrative assistant with experience supporting executives and directors in a fast paced office environment; Research scientist with 20 patents in the field of molecular biology, etc. This helps the reader quickly know what kind of job you are seeking.
Putting it all together
Generally, you do not need multiple versions of your résumé, unless you are applying to different types of jobs which will require you to highlight different qualifications.
Now that you have all the information you need, lay out your résumé is a visually pleasing way. Make use of spacing, fonts, bullets, bolding, underlining, capitals, lines and white space to set the sections apart so the reader can easily scan down to see the information he/she is seeking. Be meticulously careful about spelling, typing and grammar – a tiny mistake can disqualify you from consideration. Ask others to review and comment on your résumé, help you proofread and check to ensure it is clear and understandable. How to do a résumé involves honing your product until it is an effective marketing tool, concise, readable, with every word chosen to spotlight your qualifications in their best light.