PREPARING A WINNING RESUME

Your resume has a purpose. It must impress potential employers sufficiently to consider you further in the hiring process. It is the document that in one or two pages represents everything you have done to become desirable in the employment marketplace. Salary, security, and career satisfaction all depend on the job you hold. Your resume shows where you have been professionally and where you are qualified to go next.

The preparation and presentation of a resume is part of the standard job application process. It is at once a challenge and a great opportunity to make a favourable impression. Before hands are shaken or voices heard, images and expectations are formed in the minds of those who will judge your worthiness. Your resume makes those first impressions.

Why Your Resume Is Important

The hiring official is probably considering dozens, even hundreds, of applications along with yours. Equal opportunity regulations, modern communications, and highly mobile life-styles are but a few of the most obvious factors contributing to the large number of applicants for desirable positions.

Serious contenders will know the rules of the resume game and see to it that their resumes receive serious consideration. The hiring process often begins on a negative note - reducing the number of candidates to a manageable level. There are candidates who are not contenders:

1. The sloppy resume senders. They could be perfectly qualified or even applicants whose qualifications make them standouts in the crowd. There are often a few such people in every hiring cycle. They are fine until someone just as good comes out of the stack who took the trouble to make a professional presentation.
2. The resistibles. Here are applicants who have dropped a stitch in the procedural quilt - they missed the "received by" date, failed to include the three references required, a college transcript or whatever. They have given cause to be eliminated.
3. The underqualified. They lack the required master's degree or some other clearly advertised prerequisite, but thought that would be okay. Objective turndowns.
4. The negative standouts. They sent a mimeographed, unpersonalized cover letter; spilled something on their resume and sent it anyway; crossed out entries from their last try and scribbled in your key words or people; and so on. Subjective turndowns.
5. The poor communicators. Applicants who are apparently qualified, but whose resumes just don't communicate in some important regard too much obvious fluff, too long (more than two pages, except in rare cases), sentences and paragraphs that go on and on, and so forth. They just don't come across as being capable of marketing their point - they are not the one hired, if there are other choices. Largely a subjective judgement.
6. The overqualified candidates. They have held vastly superior positions or salaries, have degrees or work histories that are inconsistent with the position, etc. They fall by the wayside for inability to read the situation realistically although they are not apt to be given that reason for the turndown. More than likely they will just find that someone else was judged to be "more appropriate" for the position.

An executive in an East Coast human resources firm wrote in a National Business

Employment Weekly reprint (Richardson, undated):

I keep seeing resumes that are little more than buckets into which a lot of data has been dumped in the apparent belief that I will fill in the gaps, synthesise diverse information, connect the dots, and tell you what kind of product you are. I have no incentive to do this, given the number of knights eager to enter the lists. It is not my job to make sense out of your life. [Italics added.]

This man reflects the plight and the attitude of many potential employers who face large stacks of resumes. It is important to recognize that you have the power to present him with what he considers material worth reading as he moves rapidly through the pile cutting it down to size.

Do's and Don'ts of Resume Writing

There is a large body of wisdom about what you should and should not do in preparing a resume. The following is a collection of the considerations that warrant your attention. They also demand your good judgement - every rule does not apply to all situations and you will have to determine when to depart from the conventional approach enough to give your resume the little something extra that is appropriate in your circumstances.

Use this summary as a checklist when it comes time to plan and critique your resume.

Do                                      Don't                                    

View yourself as a product to be sold   Assume the reader has time to absorb     
to the reader of your resume.           more than the essentials.                

Make your resume believable.            Stretch small or incomplete things into  
                                        more than they will be if scrutinised    

Start with something that the reviewer  Bore the résumé's reader.                
can identify with and attach value to                                            
easily.                                                                          

Use only the words needed to convey     Try to impress anyone with big words or  
your message.                           philosophical statements.                

Leave white space.                      Fill every inch of paper with type.      

Lead the reviewer through your points   Get too carried away with different      
with headings, bullets, bold type,      typefaces or graphic effects that can    
underlining, etc.                       distract instead of lead and separate.   

Avoid opening up problem areas that     Volunteer a photograph or similar        
were not required items or things       unexpected extras - attractive,          
clearly to your advantage.              average, or too good-looking can all     
                                        pose problems in the wrong situations.   

Limit your resume to a page or two      Use white space and formatting gimmicks  
unless there is a compelling reason to  to the extent that they make your        
make it more.                           resume too long.                         

Go easy on the adjectives.              Don't try to show action or importance   
                                        with modifiers whose purpose is obvious  
                                        to the reader.                           

Give specifics where there isn't a      Expect the reviewer to attach            
compelling reason not to names and      importance to things that you haven't    
numbers let the reader judge the        demonstrated as being significant.       
significance of the things you                                                   
mention.                                                                         

Include a clear qualifications          Leave it to the reviewer to figure out   
statement in your resume.               how your preparation might satisfy his   
                                        requirement.                             

Use a brief summary statement that      Make your summary a second resume.       
embraces your overall qualifications.                                            

Determine that the position has the     State a salary requirement in your       
potential to meet your realistic        resume.                                  
salary requirement before applying.                                              

Prepare a list of relevant references   List references in your resume or state  
and make them aware of your             the obvious that they are available on   
job-hunting activity - get their        request. Don't let an employer surprise  
permission to use their names.          a reference by contacting them before    
                                        you do.                                  

Resist the urge to include personal     Tell the reviewer about your hobbies,    
data not directly relevant to the job.  number of children, excellent health,    
                                        love of boating, other than              
                                        professional memberships, etc.           

Let your accomplishments and            Appraise your own worth.                 
preparation speak for themselves.                                                

List dates even in the modified         Make the dates the main feature of any   
resumes that are not chronological      resume that deserves a different focus.  
lists of past positions.                                                         

Avoid qualifying statements such as     Stretch your experience beyond that      
"had exposure to."                      which can be directly claimed as yours.  

State an honest reason for leaving if   Make negative statements about the job   
other than just looking for a better    or people you are leaving behind.        
opportunity.                                                                     

Show evidence of hard work and          Merely state that you are hard-working   
dedication.                             and dedicated - if it has to be          
                                        separately claimed, you didn't           
                                        communicate it substantively.            

Prepare your resume professionally -    Settle for a mechanically weak resume    
that doesn't necessarily mean go out    that looks like a something out of a     
and hire someone. It does mean, at the  beginning high school typing class.      
very least, using a good typewriter                                              
and paper - try to gain access to a                                              
quality word processor.                                                          

Eliminate unnecessarily long words,     Overstate your case.                     
sentences, and paragraphs.