Resume Advice 

Please contact Carl Blum at Tip of the Arrow Foundation for one-on-one resume advice.

Purpose

The purpose of a resume is to detail your experience for a prospective employer. It should be a precise description of accomplishments, skills, and experience. You may need more than one version if you apply to more than one job.

Resume basics

Contact Information – name, address, phone number, fax, and e-mail
Background Information – a summary or brief overview
Education – training, employers, and dates of employment
Specific Accomplishments – relate to performance on the job and leadership activities in professional, civic or community affairs
Employment – list experience and education, in reverse order (highest degree or most recent job)

Omit

Names and address of references. These can be supplied at the interview. Listing “References available on request” is not required; it is assumed.

Salary information. If requested, include in cover letter.

Personal data, such as age, marital states, height, weight, etc. Prospective employers must consider you solely on the basis of your qualifications. It is illegal to request pictures or information related to race, religion or national origin.

Personal pronouns. They weaken statements.

Objectives narrow your options. Your objective is to get an offer from the company.

Include

• A general stated professional summary. It is an overview of what you have done and how you fit the needs of a company. Include relevant experience, personal characteristics and industry key words.
• Unpaid experiences as well as paid employment if it is significant, professional, and pertinent to the industry.
• Resumes placed on Internet sites must follow company format. Avoid bullets, italics, underlines.
• Careful editing to check for typos and grammatical errors. These may suggest to prospective employers your work is careless
• May be more than one page with experience, but not more than two

Expressing Skills and Achievements

• The following guidelines are important. Translate skills and achievements into action statements.
• Express skills with action verbs and industry key words to show benefits or results of the work you have performed. Express problems you have solved that lend punch and add variety to your resume.
• Quantify and qualify using statistics, percentages and numbers whenever possible.
• Include key words or nouns that specify areas of experience, e.g.: Team Leader, Manager, Strategic Planning, MIS, Bilingual, Computer Software Skills, and Systems Analyst.
• Begin statements with actions that are followed by results: Increased company market niche and profitability by designing customer preference survey and focus groups. Supervised ten focus interview teams to conduct focus groups of more than 350 people and 2,000 surveys. Analyzed data and presented results of 2,000 interviews to senior management.
• Omit personal pronouns, “I” and articles, “the” and “a.”

 Organize Information

 Chronological – This type of resume lists work experience in reserve chronological order. It is best for the person who has had extensive experience in a chosen career field.

 Advantages

• Allows for different formatting to include key words and career highlights.
• Human Resources interviewers, recruiters, and employers seem to prefer this format.
• Easiest to prepare since it is arranged by titles, companies and dates.
• Steady employment record is highlighted.
• Provides interviewers with a guide.

  Disadvantages

• Reveals employment gaps. It is recommended that any gaps include reasons, e.g. job search, family responsibility, travel, or education opportunity in cover letter
• May not emphasize areas that you want to maximize
• Skills and achievements at last position must match current position search

 Functional – generally not recommended because it raises too many red flags.

• Organies work experience into skill clusters.
• Date and places of employment are left out.
• Re-entry people and recent graduates may find this style effective.
• A special section, Analysis of Experience, is written instead of listing employment history. Usually three to four areas are emphasized, showing results and accomplishments.
• Sections may be arranged in any order.

  Advantages

• Stresses selected skills and experience areas that are marketable or in demand.
• Attempts to camouflage a spotty employment record.
• Allows the applicant to emphasize professional growth.
• Positions not related to current career goals can be played down.

 Disadvantages

• Employers are suspicious and need to see additional work history information.
• It does not allow you to highlight companies or organizations for whom you have worked. 

Combination – this type of resume combines the skills and achievement section from the functional format with the employment history listing from the chronological format.

  Advantages

• Provides opportunity to emphasize the applicant’s most relevant skills and abilities.
• Order of sections on the combination resume can be changed to market yourself in the best possible light.
• Good tool for almost anyone; however, re-entry people, recent college graduates and career changers find it particularly useful.
• Provides opportunity to highlight skills, while showing evidence of employment.

Disadvantages

• Employers can lose interest unless it is very well written and attractively laid out. 

Resume Do's and Don’ts

Do's 

• Write brief phrases. Full sentences not necessary.
• Start with a first draft. Expect to do several revisions.
• Begin with a summary statement that describes the functional area of your work.
• Use present tense in describing current job. All previous positions are described in past tense.
• Support all activities and responsibilities with results scribe specific responsibilities.
• Summarize early employment by briefly describing your functions at the end of the resume.
• Pick a resume format and be consistent. Dates appear on the right side of the page.
• Write out all numerals up to and including the number “nine.” Use the numerical form for 10 to 999,999.
• Layout resume so that a job description or a sentence on the first page does not run over to the second.
• Proofread final product for correct spelling, punctuation, grammatical, and typographical errors. Have independent, “critical” person proofread for errors you may have missed.
• Omit information or dates that may be used to screen you out.

Don’ts

• Do not use italics, dashes, or underlining to emphasize items and make them stand out. They confuse scanners and electronic mail attachments.
• Do not use abbreviations. Use professional and technical information when it is relevant.
• Do not use odd-sized, bordered, or colored paper – anything that may be considered eccentric.
• Do not include your picture with the resume.
• Do not list references; reserve them for the interview or follow-up activities.
• Do not include personal data, marital status, number of children, or “excellent health.”
• Do not devote more space to earlier jobs than to more recent employment. Employers are interested in most recent, relevant experience.
• Do not list grade point average or college honors unless you are a recent graduate.
• Do not leave gaps between employment dates. List jobs by years rather than by month and year. Briefly state a good reason for the gap, e.g., returned to school full-time, worked on temporary jobs, or left career for family responsibilities.

 Cover Letters

Always include a cover letter explaining your reason for submitting the resume. It serves as an introduction, highlights specific qualifications or objectives you may have for this job, and exhibits written communication skills. Do not use standard letters from books. Create your own business letter. Every resume, whether faxed, e-mailed, or hand delivered, must include a cover letter. The cover letter can also include additions to the resume that specifically match the job description.

 Other uses for letters

• To initiate networking.
• As follow-ups after interviews, to thank interviews emphasize skills, and summarize your fit for the position.
• To cover any omissions or errors during the interview.

DISCLAIMER: This is only advice, this does not guarantee that you will get a job interview.