Professional and Technical Writing/Career/Resumes
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[edit] Resumes
What is a Resume?
A resume is a summary of your educational background, employment experience, and skills. It is a way to communicate your qualifications to an employer related to a specific position. Your resume is your marketing tool to get an interview.
There is no single best way to write a résumé. While there are some general guidelines (e.g. clarity, accuracy, neatness) there is no single format that will work for every person for every job application. It is important to choose the résumé that will work best for you. How do you decide what approach with be best? Here are some questions you can ask yourself with the decision:
What are the employer's needs and interests for the position for which I am applying?
What are my strengths for the job? How can I emphasize them?
What are my weaknesses as far as this position is concerned? How can I downplay them?
How can I use format, organization, content, and graphics to make the most of what I have to offer?
[edit] Types of Resumes
The Chronological resume lists work experiences by date, with your most recent position appearing first. In addition to being listed by date, jobs are listed by title with a brief description of main activities for each position. This style works well for people with solid experience and minimal job changes or people who have advanced in a single profession.
In Functional resumes the information is organized in skill clusters and work experience. This type of résumé can work well for people with limited experience, people with lots of job experience and many jobs, people who are changing careers, military personnel searching for civilian jobs, people with minimal experience or experience unrelated to their area of interest or the job, and people who have done a lot of volunteer work or college activities (class projects, coursework).
The Combination resume combines aspects of the functional and chronological. It contains a section that discusses the skills that you bring to the position plus a chronological listing of work experience. This resume is useful for people with diverse backgrounds because in can effectively communicate numerous types of work skills, as well as, experiences that have helped to develop those skills.
[edit] Defining Resume Objectives
Personal Information: Include your name, mailing address, and a professional email address. Your name should stand out as a prominent part of the resume.
Career Objectives: The career objectives portion of your resume should define the purpose for your resume. This can be excluded if your resume is generic. If your resume is for one specific job, then write that as your objective.
Education: Education should be included immediately after your identifying information unless you have had significant job experiences in the field for which you are applying. In that case, education should be placed at the end of the resume. You should name the institute you attended, the degree you achieved, and the graduation date. Provide information directly relevant to the employment such as specific courses taken or achievements. GPA should only be included if it is higher than the average. You should avoid adding anything about high school unless it is particularly impressive.
Define Employment: Include information on your former employment within your resume. Information included should be company name, location, and specific dates employed. Employment should be listed in reverse chronological order. If applicable, specific advancements in the company or accomplishments should be included.
Achievements: Awards, recognitions, or other special circumstances should be included if they are outstanding and directly related to the job for which you are applying.
Job Skills: Knowledge of specific programs or systems should be included if directly related to employment.
Volunteer Experience:Include information on present or former volunteering site with your resume. Information included should be company name, location, and specific dates volunteered.
References: References are at your own discretion, including "references available upon request" is appropriate.
[edit] Designing Your Resume
Your resume is the first step in the door to a future employment. A major question you might ask yourself when creating your resume is "How do you want the employer to see you", a responsible individual, creative, active, bold, eccentric or humorous? Illustrating your personality through your resume will create a resume that is uniquely yours and will stand apart from the stack.In the text book Technical Communication they give a list of key visuals you should include in your resume design that employers look for:
- Short, informative headings
- Lists
- Bullets
- Italics
- Variety of type sizes
- Different typefaces for headings than for text
- White space to separate sections
- 1" margins
- Having a visual balance
As companies market products, you must market yourself. Below are some helpful tips on how to design your resume.These visuals tips can help stand your resume out for others if done properly.You also must organize your information in a way that is accurate yet interesting to the employer. You do not want an employer to overlook your resume because the type is too small or graphics on the page are too distracting. Having a clean, crisp, and organized resume design will enable easy readability, information flow, and an esthetically pleasing experience.
[edit] Electronic Resumes
The electronic resume has the same content with the traditional resume but different formatting and is intended to be send in e-mail messages, paste into electronic forms, or post online. Electronic resumes are becoming more and more popular in today's society. This type of resume should be in plain text format (ASCII text file) in order to be open and read by most computers (PC's, Macintoshes, UNIX Workstations, and mainframe terminals). Most word processing software provides the option to convert the document into an ASCII file or some other type of text file. Find out how to create a plain-text version of your resume.
The resume should be saved as a Rich Text File (RTF) or converted into PDF if it is intended to be an attachment to e-mails or if keeping the formatting is important (unless there are specific directions from employer to use another format.)
Since many employers use keywords searches to find qualified candidates it is very important to use relevant words associated with particular job openings, industries, and professions, especially words that appear on the job announcement (NOT their synonyms). In addition, action verbs like "managed" or "designed", which are recommended for use in traditional paper resumes, are not effective in electronic resumes because most applicant-tracking systems (ATS) keywords are nouns. Nouns indicate your accomplishments rather than verbs that focus on duties. It is better for you to use the noun version of these verbs like “management” instead of “managed” or “design” instead of “designed.”
[edit] Scannable Resume
The Scannable resume is formatted in such a way that it can be easily scanned and stored electronically. Many employers use automated applicant-tracking systems that scan traditional resumes and store them in a database. This means that the first "person" to scan your resume, is a computer. Then, employers search the database for candidates whose resumes contain specific keywords relevant to a particular position.
Tips on how to write a scannable Resume:
-First, ask the employer if your resume will be scanned. Otherwise, enclose both a regular resume and a scannable one.
-One trick to increase your number of hits your resume will receive is to make a list of keywords. Some suggestions for ways to come up with these keywords are to look at the job description and pick out words that relate to you, include names of professional organizations you have worked for, and words such as leadership, writing ability, interpersonal skills, etc. It is important to think of the job that you are applying for and brainstorm words that would be used in that industry.
-As stated above, make sure to put your keywords in the form of nouns.
-It is fine to create a "keywords" section on your resume for words that you cannot fit nicely into anywhere else in your resume.
-Make sure everything is spelled correctly, computer programs will not pick up misspelled words.
-Avoid the use of fancy text, italics, underlining, and other decorative designs. Stick to bold, caps, and bullets.
-Do NOT use staples. Mail your resume.
-Make sure your name is on top of every page, on a line of its own.
-Scanners don't care how many pages your resume is.
[edit] Submitted by E-mail
Resumes submitted by E-mail are used by more than one-third of human resource managers. It is more convienient for them to take a quick look at your resume, without having to waste their time in an interview right away. Employers may have different ways that they suggest e-mailing your resume to them, but the common ones are to send it as an attachment or copy the resume into the actual body of the e-mail. If you are sending it as an attachment, make sure to save the file as a pdf file. This way all of the formatting will be still entact, even if the person opening the e-mail is not running the same version of a software as you are. The employer can see the resume exactly how you intended. If you are instructed to copy the resume into the body of the e-mail, design your resume the way you would for a scannable resume. In both of these instances make sure to include a subject line. A great subject for an e-mail resume is, "Resume- Full Name: Position applying for". If you don't include a subject, the employer might accidentally disregard your e-mail. One more thing is make sure that you don't use a cute name in your e-mail address. Keep it simple and straight forward.
[edit] Web Page Resume
The Web Resume is created using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and displayed on a personal Web page. The Web resume is preferred for people in professions where they benefit from multimedia and rich detail such as actors, graphic designers, photographers, dancers, etc. For these, keep your design simple and uncluttered. Also, make sure there is a link to your e-mail address so it is easy for an employer to contact you. Lastly, keep in mind security. Make sure that the website is secure so no one else can alter your resume.
[edit] Resume Design Tips
Simplicity: Do not clutter the page with unnecessary information. Keep your headings short and informative, and your page clear of graphics.
Format: Resumes should not be longer than one page. Keep your margins at an appropriate distance, typically 1” from the edge of the paper.
Consistency: Use the same formatting for similar sections on your resume. Utilize line breaks, indents, and/or slight color variation to organize information.
Hierarchy: Create a system that utilizes different typeface sizes for headings, subheading, and body text. Minimize the use of too many bold headings, underlines, and other effects, such as shadows and reverse text.
Typography: Typography is the design and arrangement of type on a page, otherwise known as typefaces or fonts. Using typefaces that are easily readable is essential. When sending your resume as a Microsoft Word document use fonts that are common such as Arial, Times, Helvetica, and Courier. To avoid typeface restrictions and to have creative freedom, save you resume as a PDF file.
Size: Keep font sizes between 10pt and 14pt. Make sure that the type does not appear to be too overwhelming to the viewer.
Paper: Choose a fine grade paper. There are many paper options. Find something that you like and that you connect with. Your resume is the first glimpse into who you are.
Branding: Create your own brand through a unique font choice for your name, the paper you choose, and the envelope you send. Create your own identity system. Using consistency with all the parts of the resume package will create a lasting impression in the employers mind.
Verbs: When speaking of past tasks you had at a previous job, verbs should be in past tense. If you are speaking of tasks you do at your job currently, put verbs in the present tense.
Templates: Microsoft Office has templates for Resumes. Using these templates is acceptable if the job you are applying for has nothing to do with design or art. Some employeers prefer that all resumes look the same to allow them to go through them quickly and look for specific qualifications.
Helpful design trick: To see how your potential employer will look at your resume, hold your resume upside down and view it at a distance to determine if it catches your attention at a glance. If you see something that sticks out, fix it.
[edit] Tailoring Your Resume
To tailor your resume, you need to figure out what specific things to include or exclude. Of course include your name, address, phone number and email at the top of the page. The objective is rare, but when you are applying for a specific job, this might be an option. Your education should always come before anything else. In your education, you must include the name of your university, your major with an optional emphasis, and the year of your expected graduation. If your Grade point average is higher then a 3.0 you can always include this with your education. If your grade point average is lower then a 3.0, you should think about leaving it out of your resume and if the interviewer asks you about it, than you should tell them.
You should also include every related job that you have worked at. For example, if you are applying to be a designer and have worked for a design company or department store, include it. On the other hand, if you are applying for a designer and have worked for a gas station, that would be one job that you would want to leave out.
If you have attended any related classes about your hopeful job, that would be something to include. You must always think about what the reader wants to hear and that is what you include. Awards and evidence of teamwork is always a must if you have any. When you include your rewards, you should put them in chronological order and the highest awards first. If you do not have any awards or leadership opportunities, you should think about including some interests that might help you build relationships with coworkers.
Some things you should exclude and should not be involved in your resume are: your gender, religion, race, age, national origin or martial status. Your employers legally do not need to know about any of that stuff. At last, you do not need to include your references. You can just type in references available upon request. That way if your interviewer needs to know your references, they can simply ask you.
[edit] Types of Resumes
There are three main types of resumes: Experiential, skills, and a combination of the two. What format to use is up to each job seeker to decide. Each type emphasizes a different component of the resume. Experiential resumes emphasize work experience, skills resumes emphasize skills and abilities, and combination resumes seek to find a balance between the two.
[edit] Experiential Resumes
Experiential resumes list information in reverse chronological order. Resumes are organized under headings such as “Work Experience,” “Education,” and “Activities.” Most college students will choose to list education first, because students have limited work experience. The most recent degrees are listed first followed by previous degrees. The same format is followed under the other headings. Skills gained from each employer are listed under each job title along with accomplishments and responsibilities. Experiential resumes are useful for establishing a work history and for showcasing accomplishments made at each career position. Experiential resumes are the most common type of resume and are a simple way to detail responsibilities held at different careers. Example of an experiential resume: http://www.stpaulcareers.umn.edu/img/assets/14461/Env_Nat_Resources_Resume.pdf
[edit] Skills Resumes
A skills (or functional) resume organizes information around types of skills and abilities. Headings may include “Computer Skills,” “Foreign Languages,” and “Leadership Experience.” A skills resume will list the skill and then explain when that skill was used. Skills resumes are useful for several reasons. People who have held several job positions that have similar responsibilities may choose to use this format instead of repeating the same information under each job title. Skills resumes are also useful for recent college graduates who want to emphasize skills and abilities and downplay their work history. A college graduate’s work history may be only part-time work, and a skills resume will merely mention these positions. A skills resume is also useful when there are gaps in an applicant’s work history. Anytime attention should be focused away from work experience, a skills resume should be used. Example of a skills resume: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/sampleresumes/l/bltransresume.htm
[edit] Combination Resumes
A combination resume lists skills and abilities first, but also lists accomplishments and responsibilities under specific job titles and experiences. A combination resume allows an applicant to highlight specific skills that may be desired by the employer while also emphasizing job experience. Combination resumes are useful for applicants with an extensive job history in a highly specialized field. For example, applicants in computer programming may want to highlight their computer language skills before detailing their computer programming experience. Example of a combination resume:http://www.stpaulcareers.umn.edu/img/assets/14461/Applied_Econ_Resume.pdf
[edit] PAR Statements
PAR statements should be utilized in your resume to describe past work responsibilities, tasks, and accomplishments. PAR stands for:
P - Problem A - Action R - Result
The PROBLEM is an issue you dealt with while performing a certain task.
The ACTION is what you did you address the problematic issue.
The RESULTS are the positive consequences resulting from your action.
PAR statements can be difficult to write, and pinpointing incidents in previous jobs can be even more difficult. Revisions on PAR statements should be made when applying for different jobs. You tailor what experiences you share with potential employers, and you should in turn tailor your PAR statements. PAR statements allow employer's to see what exactly you can do to benefit their company.
Examples include:
Supervise and direct numerous kitchen activities to increase productivity of newly hired employees.
Attended several sales seminars, resulting in a 25% increase in branch sales.
Worked with local non profits to raise community involvement by 33%.
[edit] Helpful Resume Tips
- Write out the word for all numbers ten and under. For example, ten instead of 10.
- When writing dates, spell out the month rather than writing it in number form.
- Be as concise as possible while still including all the important information.
- Be sure to include keywords that might make your resume stand out. This is because many employers will scan a pile of resumes for key words they're looking for before an employee will actually look at them. Examples of keywords that employers might be looking for could be Microsoft Excel, CADD, or Microsoft Office.
- Make sure verb tenses are correct. Use past tense for items completed and present tense for those items that you still do.
- Make sure to include email address on resume. Only use appropriate email names. For example, firstname_lastname@yahoo.com.
- Leave only one space in between sentences. Professional writing is not the same as academic writing.
- Cater your resume to each employer to which you apply.
- Fill your resume with PAR statements.
- Write using an inverted pyramid style, with the most important information at the beginning and the least important at the end.
- Keep the length to one page, unless applying for a senior executive position.
