RESUME TIPS

RESUME DEFINITION

A summary of one’s academic qualifications and work history experience.

Your resume should be composed of your:

• Objective
• Skills
• Experience
• Achievements
• Education
• Training
• References

It does not include Personal Information like marital status, date of birth, etc.

RESUME PURPOSE

• Used as a marketing tool for job seekers.
• Allows an employer to become familiar with a potential employee’s work and education prior to the interview
• Functions as a reminder, after an interview, of an employee’s assets
• Screens out unqualified employees in a highly competitive marketplace

Companies today receive many resumes every month. Your resume when done correctly, will stand out above the rest and provide prospective employers with a strong picture of your abilities.

Writing a resume should showcase your strongest skills and achievements and provide a prospective employer a view of what you do best.

Your resume will be the first impression that a potential employer will have of you. If your resume ends up in the trash can, they will never meet you. Your job is to convince the employer that you are worth further investigation.

RESUME PREPARATION

Below are listed the sections of the resume and some pointers to help you prepare your resume. Resume should be kept to six pages or less.

Header

• The Header on the first page should be your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and/or cell telephone number.
• Use your full name, no nicknames.
• The entire Header is in Bold typeface and is always centered in the middle of the page.

Experience Summary

• This is the area that is used to catch the potential employer’s eye and make them want to learn more about you.
• It is a quick highlight of significant experiences or areas of expertise.

Technical Summary

• This summary lists all the tools you have worked with in the past and want to continue working with in the future.

Employment History

• Potential employers will be mainly interested in the most recent projects and technical skills used.
• Work experiences should only be shown for the last 15 years. Skills used further back than that are not always applicable today.
• Summaries written about the Company Description, Project Objective and your role should be brief (2 or 3 sentences each).
• Reason for leaving a position is never listed on your resume, as this will be asked for on the job application or in the interview.
• Salary is also never listed on a resume. A salary that is too high may eliminate you from consideration and a salary with a low figure may indicate to an employer that you will work for less than the salary they would have offered.

Education

• All honors or special achievements should always be listed, in addition to the college, course of study and grade point average/rank in class.
• Listing the year of graduation is not necessary, as the year you graduated could lead an employer to discriminate against you due to age.

Resume Sections

The Sections of the Resume are listed below in the order that they should be written. Each area lists the information that should be included and the order in which it should be listed. Areas in bold type below, should be in bold type on your Resume. All areas should be on the left side of the screen, except your name, which should be centered at the top of the page.

First Name, Middle Name, Last Name
Address
City, State/Province, Country, Zip Code
Area Code and Telephone Number (Home)
Area Code and Telephone Number (Office optional)
E-Mail Address (Optional)
Cell Telephone Number (Optional)

Experience Summary: Listed below are the areas to include when writing your summary.

• Number of years of experience or expertise.
• Field(s) of expertise or areas of skill (Designing, Evaluating, Installing, Problem-solving, etc.).
• Type of industries worked in or preferred.
• Your preference to team or individual work.
• Proficiency in languages spoken optional.

Technical Summary: Below are some sub-headers you may wish to use to list your various areas of expertise. List only those tools that you are proficient in and you wish to continue working in on your next assignment.

• Hardware:
• Software:
• Languages:
• Databases:
• Operating Systems:
• Web Tools:

Employment History: Start your resume with your most recent job.

• Dates of Employment (from month yyyy – to month yyyy).
• Your Title (Designate whether Full-time Employee or Consultant)
• Company Name.
• City, State/Province.
• Brief description of Company Business and client names (optional).
• Brief description of Project and overall objective.
• Brief description of Your Role and then bullet the following statements starting with an action verb.
  • List one “impact statement.” (See separate page on how to write).
  • List two to four additional responsibilities.
• Environment: List those items (Operating Systems, Languages, etc.) from your Technical Summary that you used while working at this company.

Education: List all schools attended even if a degree wasn’t obtained.

• Colleges or Universities attended.
  • Degree and Major Field or Course of Study.
  • School Name, City and State/Province.
  • Grade Point or Rank in School (Your Rank and Number of people in the Program).
• Technical Institutions attended (Same information as above).
• Training Courses, Seminars or Workshops completed.
  • Name of Course, Company Sponsoring Course, if appropriate, Date, Certificate.

WRITING AN IMPACT STATEMENT (EMPLOYMENT HISTORY)

It is in the Employment History Section of the resume where you need to describe the jobs you have worked on for the past fifteen years. For each job you have held, you will briefly describe Company Business, the Project and your Role. The sentences that follow should emphasize your responsibilities, what you did, for your employer. The first sentence is called the impact statement, because it should make an impact on how a potential employer will view your resume.

• The impact statement is your strongest result or accomplishment. When an employer scans your resume quickly, the first statement is the one that is read most often.
• This statement can be something you alone achieved or you achieved working on a team.
• The impact statement and other responsibility sentences should begin with an Action or Skill verb. (Use the Action or Skill Verbs page to select the best action word(s) to describe what you did).

Use the following questions to assist you in writing the impact statement:

• What did you do? Over what period of time?
• What impact did your accomplishment have on the department, company, city, state, etc?
• How did you or your result
  – increase performance?
  – add to profits?
  – save time?
  – increase knowledge?
  – decrease errors?
  – save money?

IMPACT STATEMENT SAMPLES

• Designed, developed and implemented a new payroll system, affecting 2200 employees. Payroll is processed now in two days instead of three, accuracy is up 2%, with a savings of $38,000 a year.
• Introduced technology that reduced accounting’s time requirements for month-end close of books from seven days to two days. This process was subsequently adopted by the company’s three satellite offices.
• Re-designed a management inventory software program that eliminated three days of costly and time-consuming inventory counts done monthly.
• Within two weeks after being hired, resolved chronic computer crashes that had plagued the company for over a year. Traced the problem to vendor software.

FINALIZING THE RESUME

• Resumes should be concise and length kept to six pages or less.
• Your Name and Page Number should be located on every page, just in case pages become separated while in the hands of the prospective employer.
  (The Name and Page number can be in the Header or Footer part of the resume, or at the top of the page using a smaller font size, to avoid distracting the reader. Page Numbers can be written as: Page 2, Page Two, Page 2 of 3, or Page Two of Three.).
• Do not put a photograph of yourself on the resume. Potential employers will not be hiring you based on your looks!
• Type your resume in a word processing document and back it up on a disk. Updating your resume then becomes easy. If you are not a typist, ask a professional to type it.
• Use one typeface such as Times New Roman, Arial, or other traditional typeface. The standard font size is 11 point. Headers may be increased to 12 point.
• Margins should be no less than one inch on sides, top, and bottom. The white space serves as a border and keeps the resume from looking cluttered.
• Avoid underlining within the resume narrative. If you have written the statements well, they will need no further emphasis.
• Always do a print preview of each page of your resume, to view the layout and spacing.
• E-mail your resume document, with a short introduction letter to your Systems Integration Solutions, Inc. contact. The document can then be opened, printed, and distributed to clients.
• Laser-print your completed resume or have it professionally typeset.
• Give or mail an interviewer your resume printed on an off-white, tan, or light gray quality bond paper. Never give them a photocopy of your resume.

Editing the Resume

A prospective employer will spend less than 30 seconds reviewing your resume.

• Ask yourself a couple of questions after you have prepared your resume.
  • Have I communicated to an employer that I could fill a need?
  • Do my strengths come across in the resume?
  • Have I cited examples of my leadership, initiative, creativity, or problem-solving skills?
  • Would an employer think the resume was too wordy?
  • Have I presented it in a clear, concise, and focused manner?
• Always check for correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Read it aloud slowly. Don’t rely on spell check to catch all the errors.
• Ask several friends, family, and trusted co-workers to review it, not only for grammar and spelling, but also for content. They may be able to remind you of accomplishments or skills you may have overlooked.
• Remember to use action verbs and avoid “I, my duties or responsible for”?
• Do not abbreviate words or use acronyms that might not be understood by everyone reading the resume? (Example: If you use the abbreviation RPC state that it means Remote Procedures Call).
• Qualities that will set your resume apart from others are:
  • a sense of confidence and sense of purpose is conveyed.
  • clear and concise language has been used.
  • page layout is clear and inviting to read.

REFERENCES

References should be listed on a separate page.

List names of three Managers who will support you with a strong recommendation. These references should be from the Companies you have listed on your resume.

Prior to putting Reference Names on this Page

• Call the Managers and ask if you can use them as a job reference.
• Ask them what they would tell a potential employer about your strongest and weakest areas, and what would be their overall comment about you. (This is only for your knowledge, it is not to be typed on the resume).

Presentation

• The Heading of the page needs to be: References for “your full name”
• List the following information:
  • Manager’s Name
  • Manager’s Title
  • (Area Code) Telephone Number
  • E-mail Address
  • Project
  • Company Name
  • City, State/Province
  • Country
• The reference page should be printed on the same color quality bond paper as your resume and at least three references should be provided.

REFERENCES PAGE FORMAT

References for (First, Middle, Last Name)
Manager’s Name
Manager’s Title
(Area Code) Telephone Number
E-mail Address
Project
Company Name
City, State/Province
Country