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.
Lillie, this is indeed a great list of tips. I’d also add there’s no “good for all jobs” resume. When looking for a job, the actual CV should be tweaked to fit each position you’re applying to.
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Alina,
That’s a very good point. There was a lot more I wanted to add but decided to keep this short.
Hi Lillie – Thanks for this. My husband has been trying to put a resume together and I was struggling to help him, as it’s so long since I’ve written one.
He had just written job descriptions, so I’ll get him to change it to include accomplishments instead.
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As a former recruiter, I’d like to add to personalize each resume for the job that you are applying for. Find out as much information as you can about the job, then personlize your resume to reflect that job. For example, if the job is for a programmer that leads a team of 6 on a customer’s project. Then you should try to find experiences in your past where you have done the same and indicate that in the resume. When HR reads the resume, they are looking for people that have similar accomplishments to what the job entails.
Your advice about action words is also very important. Most people copy responsibilities that were listed in their original job announcement. For example, “Responsible for creating marketing plans for new products” should be changed to “Created marketing plans for 4 products during 2008″.
With my daughter leaving for college and my son totally self sufficient, I’m looking to reenter the work force. Obviously I have a huge break in employment history. I will definitely get up to speed on online keyword specific resumes as well as look into functional resumes rather than chronological.
Thanks for the tips.
Cath,
I’m glad this came at a good time for your husband and hope the advice helps him write an interview-winning interview.
Thanks for your insights from a recruiter’s perspective. This carries more weight than anything I say.
Kathryn,
You have accomplished many things as a mother, and you have the experience of your blog and all your knowledge of knitting. Figure how you relate those experiences, knowledge, and accomplishments to the workplace.
Lillie, very nice article. You hit on the major priorities when writing a resume. Making the resume easy to read is critical. I’ve done a lot of hiring and have owned an executive recruiting for several years. When I used to do a lot of the resume screening at my firm, I would go through several hundred resumes in an hour or two. The only way to do this is to spend very little time on each. For the vast majority, 15 or 20 seconds and then a decision whether to keep reading. The most important factor was clarity – if I couldn’t see a reason to keep reading, I moved on. Undoubtly, I discarded job seekers that may have been qualified but that didn’t provide and easy to read resume.
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This is wonderful Lillie. I coach people during their job search. Last night I had dinner with a group of ladies I had met for the first time. Two of them are university graduates. One a mum of a son recently graduated. Each of them had been recommended to put together a resume ( we usually call it a CV here in the UK)in a different way – and they understood that was the only way! I spent most of the time at dinner giving them hints and tips – many of which you have included in your list. The bottom line seems to me that too many worry about whether it should only be 2 pages long – and don’t ( or don’t know how to – that’s where I come in!) focus on the content. And we don’t like to blow our trumpet ( or toot our horn ) here in the UK – but if we don’t in an recruitment situation who on earth will???
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Gary,
Thank you for the comment. Your input as someone with much experience reviewing resumes adds a lot to the conversation. I checked out your career advice blog and see you give great iformation.
Thank you for sharing this!
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The focusing on accomplishments rather than job description thing is *huge*, IMO. Good list of tips.
Vivian,
You’re welcome.
David W.,
Thanks. I’m glad you found the list helpful and agree with the importance of focusing on accomplishments.
[...] How To Write an Interview-Winning Resume [...]
I think it will help me a lot.Thanks a lot for the important post.
I hope the tips help you the next time you need to write a resume.
Practical advice – thanks!
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Excellent list and insight. I like the approach of letting the employer know what you will contribute to his/her organization, rather than what your “objective” is. I used to work in the HR department of a fairly large corporation, and I would see resumes come blazing through the fax machine all the time…the one thing that really stood out to me was how some people who have an extensive educational background and tons of experience didn’t even take the time to proofread their resume. Misspellings can completely kill someone’s credibility. Good stuff!
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Thank you for your insight. It’s really helpful to hear from someone who has been on the receiving end of resumes.
Thank you for the clear info. These suggestions would be good for any writing that represents you or our services/company to others.
While some of the specific details – such as writing in sentence fragments rather than complete sentences – apply to resumes, many of the suggestions do apply to any kind of writing.
A great article and reminder that good writing, however specific, can lend rewarding results, especially where careers are concerned.
Alina,
Resume writing is an excellent example of the importance of considering your purpose in whatever you write. While the specifics may vary, all good writing achieves its purpose … and what better purpose than finding the perfect job.
All excellent points, to which I would add only one thing: consider hiring a professional resume writer!
Few documents which we create in our lives are as potentially valuable as our resumes. And few subjects on which we write are harder to deal with than listing our personal accomplishments.
I’ve found that good resume writers are worth much more than their modest costs. The very act of describing your professional history to another interested, objective person can clarify your mind wonderfully. Once you have a well-written, well-formatted resume of your professional history it becomes quite easy to personalize it for every new opportunity or interview.
You’ll certainly get my agreement on this.
Thank you for a GREAT post. It is really difficult to write a good resume as you never know what to pay special attention to. Have bookmarked this page and will use as a list-of-points-to-follow.
Lillie — This is great resume information. I am going to start pointing people to your post when they email me with how-to resume questions. I have never much used a traditional resume, so it is difficult for me to fully answer folks’ questions about resumes. You’ve covered everything quite well here though!!
Nice overview Lillie, and the comments add some nice tweaking ideas. I hate writing resumes and cover letters, it’s so much pressure! Having some guidelines like these does help, though, so thanks. I may be looking again soon, so I’ll head back here when the time comes and head everyone’s wise words.
Polina,
I’m glad you found the tips helpful.
Thanks, Amy. I’m glad this will be a resource for you.
I appreciate the good advice here in comments. That just shows how important comments are and how much conversation contributes to a blog.
Lillie,
This is very practical–and helpful–resume advice! I’m sure many job-seekers will find it useful!
Jeanne
Thank you, Jeanne. I hope job-seekers benefit from it.
Thanks a lot for these tips! So far I had to write 3 CV’s and that was VERY hard for me. Maybe next time it will be much easier, because I’ll have these tips!)
Thanx again)
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Alex,
Hope the tips are useful to you the next time you have to write a CV.
[...] How to Write an Interview-Winning Resume [...]
Thanks for the wonderful tips. I have decided to polish off my resume recently, and this will come in handy.
Thanks again!
Justin
Justin,
I’m glad these tips came at a good time for you and hope they help you polish up that resume and get that interview.
Hi Lillie and thank your for this nice overview. I am having trouble with getting interviews and I think that my resumes are simply not written good enough.. I have relevant experience but people are not taking my resume seriously..
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Hamurabi,
I hope these tips help. You’re probably in very tight competition, and your resume gets only a quick scan. If it doesn’t capture the hiring manager’s attention immediately, it doesn’t even get considered.
[...] I wrote the post about writing a resume, I did not intend to create a series. That post has become the most popular I’ve [...]
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[...] How to Write an Interview-Winning Resume at A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye [...]
Ha! I was actually going to suggest hiring a professional writer for their resumes until I read the comments.
At first, I was completely adamant that “I could do it myself” but then I met an editor and also a consultant at work. He told me he got his professionally written and it did wonders for him. So I inquired about what was so special about it and they said that it was tighter but at the same time more descriptive. They just knew the buttons to push.
I also inquired about the price and they said $200. I don’t know if that is a lot as I’m not in the business but it’s something I might try for my next job. But saying that, I’m extra attentive and I will definitely make the person work for their money. They would need to know my field of work, what the keywords are for that industry, help me write a laundry list of my skills so I can tailor it for different positions.
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A professional resume writer, as you say, knows the buttons to push. In addition, many people are hesitant to brag on themselves and an objective third party can do a better job of describing skills and qualifications.
$200 is a reasonable price—near the low end of my prices for resumes.
That is great information. It is true, always keep the company for which you are applying, in mind. If you make yourself marketable to that specific company, you be so much more attractive as a job seeker.