Job Search: Part 1—How to Write an Interview-Winning Resume
July 15, 2008 by Lillie
Table of contents for Job Search
- Job Search: Part 1—How to Write an Interview-Winning Resume
- Job Search: Part 2—Cover Letters
- Job Search: Part 3—Interviews
Job-seekers often think they need a resume that will get them the job. However, the purpose of the resume isn’t to get you the job. The purpose of the resume is to get you the interview.
For most positions, hiring managers are faced with a formidable stack of resumes. Just like editors reviewing writers’ query letters, they look for any excuse NOT to consider a resume. Often they glance at each one for only a few seconds before deciding to reject it or to put it aside for review in more depth.
Your first goal, then, is for your resume to make the cut so the hiring manager takes a closer look at it. Your second goal is for you to be called for an interview after the review of your resume.
Following these tips will give you a much better chance that both of those goals will be achieved.
- Assemble all your information. Review old job descriptions and performance evaluations, school transcripts, awards and compliments you have received, and other documents related to your work history, education, and community activities.
- Don’t give the hiring manager any reason to reject your resume out of hand. Provide the information the employer needs and make it simple to find. Be sure your complete contact information is at the top of the first page and your name and phone number and/or e-mail address are in a header on the second page.
- Format the resume so it is easy to read. Use a clean, simple font, preferably in 12 pt but no smaller than 11 pt, on plain white or cream-colored paper. Make margins at least .5 inch all around; 1 inch is better. Reduce the line spacing between paragraphs rather than the margins or font size. Use bold, italics, and underlining to make headings stand out. Ensure that the formatting is consistent throughout the document, and present information in bulleted lists so the resume is scannable. Keep the document to no more than two pages.
- Begin with a profile or summary of qualifications. ”Objective” is passe - emphasize what you have to offer an employer, not what you want. Many people don’t like to toot their own horn, but if you don’t tell the hiring manager what you will contribute to the company, your resume will land in the Rejected pile. If you’re too modest to brag on yourself, review evaluations from previous employers, recall compliments you’ve received from customers and coworkers, and ask associates what they think your strongest attributes are.
- Include keywords. Often employers are looking for specific attributes and experience and will scan the resume for those words. If your job title (such as Vice President for Southern Region) did not readily identify what you did, include a more descriptive noun (Regional Sales Manager) in the profile or job description.
- Focus on your accomplishments, not job descriptions. Use short sentence fragments beginning with a strong action verb. Describe what you did (without using “I”) and what the results were: “Handled customer service calls, resolving complaints and building customer loyalty.” Quantify your accomplishments and results whenever possible: “Administered $2 million construction budget and brought project in under budget” or “Increased sales by 31% in a 2-year period.”
- Be completely honest but position yourself in the best way possible. If you normally supervised 12 employees but supervised 30 people for six months during a special project, say “Supervised up to 30 people.” If you have related volunteer or hobby experience, include it as well as paid work experience: “Managed 3 fundraisers for Local Charity, raising over $500,000″ or “Coordinated summer reading program for Children’s Club; 75 children read 10 or more books during the summer.” List continuing education and seminars, if applicable to the job you seek, as well as formal education.
- Consider a functional resume if your work history is less than stable. Employers generally prefer chronological resumes, in which jobs are listed in reverse chronological order. However, if your experience is limited or if you have gaps in employment, a functional resume, in which accomplishments are broken down by function rather than by employer, may be more effective. However, a blended resume may be better yet – list your accomplishments by function, then list your employers and dates of employment. The hiring manager isn’t left wondering where you worked and when, but your accomplishments may capture her attention before she reads far enough to see the gaps in your work history.
- Proofread thoroughly and have another person review the resume. If you can, get input from a coworker or someone who knows your accomplishments. Another person may recall something you’ve overlooked or point out the significance of an accomplishment that you took from granted.
- Create a text-only resume. When you apply for jobs online, you will often be asked to submit a text-only resume. Many employers want a scannable resume so they can search for keywords without taking the time of a live person. Be prepared by saving your resume as a text document and removing all formatting. Left-align everything; use capital letters instead of bold, italics, and underlining for emphasis; and add terminal punctuation at the end of every bullet point and statement. Otherwise, everything might run together.
- Remember: it’s all about what you can do for the employer. Ask yourself if you would want to interview the person who submitted your resume. If not … start revising.
For more information about what to include in a resume and how to gather the information, see my Information for Resume Clients.
This post is an entry in An Island Life’s How-To Group Writing Contest.
Note (added 7/15/08): Be sure to read the comments for some great advice from our community.
Note (added 7/29/08): This post has been so popular that I decided to expand on job search advice and create a series of three posts, of which this is the first.
Thanks for the feedback. It’s good to have reinforcement from someone in the field.
[...] Lillie Ammann How to Write an Interview-Winning Resume [...]
I replied to every comment, but my threaded replies were lost when I moved my blog.
This is great advice. I find it current with the most recent “unspoken” protocol of the best way to submit a resume. It also could come at a better time. The unemployment rate is sky rocketing and the competition for jobs is becoming more and more fierce.
The best advice I found and most applicable here is the blended resume attempting to highlight the accomplishments and have them read prior to a hiring manager discovering a gap in employment. (many people are going to face that gap now too). Another suggestion for covering gaps (and receive some possible work) is to apply at the temp service agency. You do not have to take any jobs that are sent your way, but you can list that temp service as an employer for the period of the “real employment gap”.
Rick,
Thanks for the reinforcement. It’s amazing how much more important this advice is now than it was when it was written nearly 8 months ago.
Nice tips on resume writing. Most of the times it is the wrong formatting or wrong order that makes it look out of order. It should be easy to go through.
Coll,
Easy to go through—that is key.
I can not agree with you enough about the keywords being important. It is also helpful to know how to extract keywords, and what to extract them from. Useing keywords is useless if they do not accomplish the task needed.
Sean,
Thank you for adding your insight.
Thanks for the post I’m sure I’ll be able to apply your tips!
A little thing that works for me is adding a quote from a former employer. Something the employer liked about how I did my work.
.-= Mykonos@buymichaeljackson´s last blog ..Buy Micheal Jackson CDs =-.
Mykonos,
That is an interesting idea that I’ve never seen done. I’ve done this in cover letters but not in the resume itself. Good to know it’s been effective for you.
Yeah, I use it most in cover letters. I put the results I was responsible for during a particular job in the resume and if it fits I put in the quote.
A book that helped me write a resume was ‘Guaranteed Resume Secrets’.
.-= Mykonos@buymichaeljackson´s last blog ..Buy Micheal Jackson CDs =-.
Mykonos,
That sounds like an effective way to do it. Thanks for passing that on.
Hi Lillie, I just gone through your post and found it interesting. Just few people try to make the post on job resumes or interviews. This post will really work and help people all the time. Thanks for putting your thoughts so precisely.
Nancy,
Glad you found the post helpful.
Very nice & informative post. I think resume writing is very important before applying to job. It’s very important & valuable document of one’s life, it’s help company to understand the applicant. Good resume always affects the companies. Your points are really impeccable & I will make sure to apply them in my resume.
Debbie,
Job-seekers sometimes don’t realize the importance of a good resume, which is the first step in getting the job.
I have worked within recruitment and headhunting, before I changed my career path.
An important part of the resume, was also the structure.
The first part of the structure is the personal information, this has to be short and consistent.
The second part of the resume was the work experiences, combined with – and this was a very important part – the responsibilities and outcomes of your work experience.
The third part was your educational background.
If you want to you can write interests, but this was not something we viewed as a necessary information.
Bodil,
Thank you for the input from a recruiter/head hunter perspective. It’s always valuable for job seekers to get advice from someone on the inside.
You have given nice tips in this post. Even I agree that the purpose of a good resume is to get an interview and not the job. I likes the tip of focusing on your accomplishments than the job descriptions.
Thanks, Jane. I appreciate your input.
I like this article, especially the advice to list the quantifiable results of your achievements instead of listing your job responsibilities or duties. Also if you can use your network to identify the major problems the potential employer is currently experiencing (that you solved previously) and put this in your resume, it will also increase your chances for landing an interview.
.-= Kenrick@Executive Job Search´s last blog ..How to Differentiate Yourself and Rise to the Top of Your Profession =-.
Kenrick,
That’s an excellent point to learn what problems the employer has and show how you can help solve those problems.
[...] comments on my Job Search series from about a year and a half ago suggest that with the current high unemployment, job [...]
This is really an impressive work. Thanks for the great advice. A resume is really an important factor to consider when applying for a job.
.-= Cindy Young´s last blog ..DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS =-.
Thank you, Cindy. The resume can mean the difference between getting the interview and not being considered.
I think that all of your ideas are good but I made resume after resume and I got the same results nothing but them I got creative and made a digital resume and made about 15 for people I know and incorporated alot of things that was in your tips on how to write a resume and it turned out good I just put a twist on it but thanx for the advice on actually telling an employer what you can offer to that company very good points I didnt even think of
Robin,
I’m glad the tips helped. I’m interested in knowing more about your digital resume.
Great information! I really like how you list the main points.
Thanks, Kev. Glad you liked it.
Nice list, it is really helpful for all freshers and experienced seeking job
.-= Vinish Parikh´s last blog ..Deflation – A Vicious Circle =-.
Vinish,
Glad you found it helpful.
[...] write something—an essay about a cause important to you, an article about something you know, a resume for a new job, a blog post, a character sketch of the main character of the novel you want to [...]
Lillie, another great post – thanks.
It’s so true & so often forgotten that the resume’s job is to get you the interview. From experience when helping out a HR manager, a concise, easily scanable CV makes a big difference, I would recommend highlighting keywords/phrases from the job description in bold in the resume/CV, peole have so many CVs to scan that they naturally start picking out keywords they expect to see.
Mike,
Thanks for the good suggestion on highlighting keywords. Make it easy for the person reviewing the resume to recognize your talents.
A good piece of advice – especially if you are fairly experienced is – instead of a personal profile or as part of it – take your written references and use some lines form them. Make sure you include the full name and job title of the writer. For example these are taken from the resume of a 28 year old who did just that:
XYZ, Senior Manager, ABC Corp Chicago / New Jersey:
“XYZ did an outstanding job. He was flexible with the client’s needs and was flexible with his schedule. I enjoyed working with him and hope to work with him in the future.”
XYZ, Senior Manager, ABC Corp Chicago / London:
“I was very pleased with XYZ on this engagement. He picked up things partway through and very quickly got up to speed. Thank you for all your hard work.”
I think it works well.
Chris,
This is a new concept for me. Very interesting! Thanks for explaining this technique.
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Thanks these are great tips. One thing you should definitely not do is include a picture of yourself on your resume. I have seen this done a few times and let me tell you, it goes straight onto the scrap pile.
Interesting, Bill. I know sometimes CVs for international jobs request a photo, but I’ve never thought about one for a resume.
It`s very much useful for. Really good post for job less people who want is good job.
Thanks! May be it`s will affect on my future life.
Miss Sumi,
I hope this does help your future.
I believe that writing an effective cover letter is the most important part of winning any job. I am a professional writer and many of my friends come to for guidance in writing cover letter. However, resume holds the utmost importance as it is the first introduction of the candidate. The above tips are excellent and helpful. Thanks!
Mac,
The resume is extremely important, but, as you say, the cover letter is critical because that’s what gets the hiring manager to look at the resume.
Jackie,
I edit a lot of resumes for career transition clients of a executive coach, and I’ve learned a lot from her. I’m glad to get reinforcement from another coach.
Mozi Esme’s Mommy,
You’re welcome.