Tips on Writing an Effective Resume
An Effectively Written Resume is the Ticket to Getting an Interview, Presented by Phoenix Staff, Inc.
Contrary to popular belief, a resume is not a presentation; it is the ticket to a presentation. A resume needs to sell an employer on wanting to interview someone. The average time spent initially looking at a resume is about 30 seconds, which isn’t a lot of time to make a good first impression.
It's important to take the time to create a customized resume that specifically highlights the experience that is relevant to the job.
An effective resume will be consistent, concise, and clear, easy to read, and relevant. The easiest way to target a resume (without rewriting the whole resume) is to include a Summary of Qualifications or Career Highlights section at the top of the resume. This will require a review of the job description and ensuring the resume accurately reflects the required qualifications based on professional experiences.
There are lots of opinions out there about what a professional resume should look like. Phoenix Staff recommends:
Implementation order:
1. Name & Contact information (at least include a valid phone number, professional email address, and LinkedIn profile)
2. Summary of Qualifications/Career Highlights (Bullet points or paragraph form is effective)
3. Technical skills (list languages, platforms, methodologies, etc. in order from strongest to least strongest as they relate to job requirement)
4. Professional Experience/Work history (from most recent or current in reverse chronological order spanning 10 years.) - It is often understood that relative experience may be more than 10 years, and if so, adding a notation at the end of the of the 10 year period reading “Additional relevant work history available upon request” is perfectly acceptable.
5. Education & Certifications (most recent degree or certification (CISSP, PMP, etc.). If a college degree is listed, like an Associates or Bachelors, there’s no real reason to put high school graduation, especially if it has been several decades. At that point, experience plays a bigger role. However, if graduation occurred from a prestigious school such as Stanford, MIT, or USC, it definitely would not hurt to put that at the top near Technical Skills section.
6. Professional Affiliations - Certifications (IIBA, PMI, CISSP Consortium etc.)
7. References or a note about those being available upon request (Traditionally, this is a section that is included on a resume, but nowadays, it is assumed that qualified references are available, so this section is optional from a post-modern perspective. That being said, from a recruiter perspective, listed references show a serious, proactive approach to seeking new employment and that definitely works as a favorable addition).
As for style of a resume and formatting the above information, bullet points rather than a bulging paragraph of information that nobody really wants to read make a favorable first impression in 30 seconds or less—that is the goal.
Write a resume that inspires a hiring manager to pick up the phone immediately to schedule an interview using the tips above.
A couple weeks ago, I attended a full day seminar, and was privileged hear the former CEO of Microsoft, Rick Buluzza speak about the kind of professional leader he learned he wanted to be early in his career. The day was very effective for me—I left inspired to share two things with my professional network. Two critical components of professional development: having a positive attitude and being a person of integrity.
Initially, it may seem unlikely that attitude and the character feature, integrity, are part of professional development, but here’s why they are:
Having a positive attitude enables you to be flexible and patient both in your job search & career. No matter where you are in your professional development, or career, or even during a new job search, attitude is important:
- Building & refining a resume (refining multiple times and keeping it updated even when you aren’t actively looking so you can keep track of your own growth and development)
- Dressing & behaving like a professional
- Networking & building relationships (even prior to looking, make sure you don’t let your network get ‘stale’. People like to stay connected with you because of their own network and not only when you ‘need’ them for something)
- Being receptive to constructive criticism
- Keeping skills current (and always looking for opportunities for more professional development)
If you’re in between jobs or embarking on securing a new one, it’s a full-time job getting a full-time job. Regardless of your specialty – programmer, business analyst, instructor, recruiter, student, CEO, you deal with people – patience & flexibility are necessary when dealing with people. I try to follow two rules for dealing well with people:
- Golden Rule (Treat others as you would have them treat you)
- Platinum Rule (Treat others as they want to be treated)
Not everyone will follow these rules, but you (I, professionals, people, etc.) should take the high road because in the long run, you want to build long-term professional relationships with people and these rules will always help you do that. You want to always be identified as a person of integrity. As professionals, we are our own enterprise, and therefore, we have to own our own development—which is an on-going process. Rick Buluzza said to be “hard headed and soft hearted…never burn bridges…be accepting of bad news and stay humble.” Everyone knows about Microsoft’s success; hard not be inspired by a guy who knows a thing or two about professional and personal success.
We always try to make certain that our candidates are well prepared for interviews because, let's face it, after we make that final introduction to our customer, we have very little control from that point forward.
There are 2 things that still boggle my mind when it comes to an interview. There are MANY, MANY more things to remember, but these 2 are very much on my mind right now.
- Bring a pen and paper. If you have nothing important to remember and you are assuming that the person interviewing you will have absolutely nothing important to say, then you are right, leave the pen and paper (and yourself) at home and cancel the interview. You may think very highly of your photographic memory, but you need to understand that people do enjoy talking about themselves and their companies. If you don't take notes during the conversation you are showing very little interest in them, the company and the potential of working there.
- Ask questions. It shows interest and it shows that you are even more prepared if you have them written down. No interviewer likes to hear "I think you have answered every question I could ever think to ask" - that gets interpreted as "I am bored. How quickly can I make my exit?"
I just found this list of questions in another article, worth re-publishing!
- What kind of characteristics are you looking for in the candidate? - Cheryl E. Palmer, Call to Career
- If this is a new position, what prompted the company to decide to create it? - Rod Hughes, Oxford Communications
- Do you have any hesitations regarding my background? – Tom Gimbel, LaSalle Network
- How would you measure performance for this position? - Mark Grimm, Mark Grimm Communications
- What do you see as the key challenges facing a person in this position? - Elaine Boylan, Adelphi University
- What makes this company different from competitors in the industry? – CareerBliss
- What happened to the person who held this job previously? – Jodi R.R. Smith, Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting
- If you were evaluating my success 6 months from now what would make it a home-run? – Roy Cohen, Career Coach
- Where will the company be in three to five years and how will it get there? – Lisa K. McDonald, Career Polish Inc.
- What challenges are being faced by the company? – Alan Guinn, The Guinn Consultancy Group
Your Brand, or your idea of what your brand should be, is only as good as your people. Tonight on “Undercover Boss”, Stephen Cloobeck CEO of Diamond Resorts International found that out first hand while working on the front line in several of his resorts.
Having an idea, motto or saying is one thing; being able to back it up is another. Certainly having the necessary tools and enough staff to efficiently uphold or convey your corporate message is important, but training is what makes the difference. Training on your product and your systems. When your product is a service, your system is everything and only as good as your training.
Headquartered here in Las Vegas, Nevada, Diamond Resorts has an extensive training department. We have helped many great software engineers, business analyst, and customer service specialist secure rewarding careers at DRI. Many of the folks we have put to work develop training materials that help convey that “YES” motto to the staff at each one of Diamond’s resorts. Clearly Mr. Cloobeck is on to something and recognizes that education is the key and underling principle to the success of any organization.
Kudos to Cloobeck and Diamond Resorts International.
Candidates and college graduates alike have long tried to make themselves stand out among their fellow grads and job competitors, but perhaps not with as much difficulty or anxiety as they do in today's job market. The current economic malaise has created a labor marketplace more volatile and competitive than at any time since the Great Depression. It has become both more difficult and more important than ever to differentiate yourself from your fellow-job seekers or industry peers. So how do you? How can you enhance your standing in the labor force in such competitive times?
Well, you've taken the first step—that of identifying the need to do so. The foundation is, of course, your degree. But that's the foundation of everyone similarly situated. So, in order to make yourself dissimilar, so to speak, you'll need additional skills and additional resources as well as the ability to clearly distinguish yourself from the crowd.
A degree may provide you with the ability to perform a job, but does it give you the requisite competencies to perform that job? Have you attempted to upgrade your skill set, to augment it with proficiency in an area such as information technology, for example? Given the fact that 80 percent of internet users in the U.S. access social media and/or read blogs, 40 percent of all consumers use their phones to access social media and that Facebook reports it has 800,000,000 users worldwide and LinkedIn claims over 120,000,000 users, it's clear that being computer literate is absolutely essential to enhancing the value of your degree.
Continuing education, then, is key. Research online courses or adult education classes that will help you increase both your knowledge and level of competence. Perhaps consider a volunteer opportunity that will take you outside of your comfort zone a bit and give you exposure to or experience in an environment or activity that challenges you or your perceptions, even if it doesn't involve IT. The connections you make in these venues could be invaluable and the fact that you are engaged in worthwhile work and “giving back” can be a great way to break up your job search activities.
Finally, if you are seeking a job or a change in jobs, consider the benefits of aligning yourself with a staffing firm that understands the importance of continuing education and technology and how those factors can build on the strength your degree brings to your foundation.
Would you hire you? Most of us would, because we have built a solid relationship with our self and have a good understanding of what we are capable of (much like a good recruiter would do with you). But besides that, if you were given your resume would you reach out “to yourself” for an interview? Further, I ask–have you read your resume lately?
The reason I ask, is most people have a copy of their resume somewhere on their hard drive from the last time they were looking at opportunities. What typically happens, is they open the file, fix any font challenges, change the dates on their last job and add their most recent company and position and send it off. Just basically adding another layer to a “legacy” resume. I would like to think that as we further ourselves along in our career our objectives change, we acquire new skills and maybe gain some new certifications.
I suggest you become a resume analyst, architect, and designer all in one. First decide what is the purpose of your resume? Are you targeting a particular role, or company; are you looking for management or an individual contributor? Assuming you are wanting to get the attention of hiring managers, allow for scalability and customization of your resume, essentially your marketing materials. Take a fresh look at your resume and ask yourself “how would a stranger perceive my skillset?”, and “What does my resume say that I do?” You may be the most senior person on your current team, and even the smartest person in the room; but does your resume convey that?
Your resume needs to contain five things. First-your contact information, second-a summary of your current skills, third-professional experience; including accurate titles, company, daily activities; fourth –education and industry certifications, and finally-your hobbies or special interests. Everything else is just filler. Keep your profile current and succinct. Use all the other stuff on your resume for the interview and conversation. KISS – Keep it Super Simple! (my version)
When I think about teamwork, one movie that comes to my mind is “The Replacements”. It’s about a professional football team that goes on strike just before the playoffs. The owners are forced to assemble a quick team of misfits in hopes of finishing the year with a chance of making the playoffs. These players come from all walks of life, have no discipline and, in the beginning, feign their interest in success and one is a soccer player. In true Hollywood fashion, these bad news bears get crushed in the first game. It is not until they end up causing a raucous and are thrown in jail together that they start acting like a team, winning games and, of course, proceed to win the championship.
So what makes a winning team? We all think of companies like Google, Zappos, Whole Foods and W.L. Gore who forge the way in being the greatest companies to work for and creating environments that attract and retain the best and brightest employees AND customer’s!
What is it about these environments that make these companies so incredibly successful? Their employees want to come to work and be with their team. More importantly, they want to WIN for their team – every day. They each have a common mission to deliver the highest quality product, service, customer service or technology solution – these companies have been able to forge cohesiveness, each function and think like a team; and productivity is all about teamwork.
You can have the best talent or the smartest engineer in your group, but if he is not on your team what is the point? Your culture is dictated by values and practices your team practice, share and follow every day. Having a solid culture means having a productive team and ultimately staying ahead of the competition.
Company culture has been a consistent theme in business. I believe it stands to reason that with all the social media outlets and online networks, company culture and setting a very deliberate direction for your own company has never been more important. It is visible in everyday life, everywhere and becomes viral real quick. It has never been more evident that you have to be very purposeful and intentional about a company culture – writing it on a wall or trying to move your employees toward your own thoughts isn’t an “on purpose” culture. Culture comes from within the organization and is viral, it spreads. Cultures can adjust and correct themselves over time. What remains behind is what is healthy for the team and ultimately the company’s longevity.
Your culture is a complex algorithm, certainly compensation, benefits, bonuses and training are components of your culture, but each new hire brings their own personality and flair to the team and with that comes a new dynamic filled with new values and practices.
When hiring it is important that you not only hire for education and skills, but also culture. Make sure the new hire will mesh with the current values and practices of your team.
The same is true for candidates when you are looking for a new opportunity. You want to be happy at work and excel in your career, so make sure you ask your recruiter for details about the team they are representing you to. Make sure you communicate with your recruiter what is important to you and what environments you thrive in.
When you hire a recruiter, make sure the team you choose to work with shows some internal synergy – you are hiring that recruiter to act on your behalf. Those who hire for culture will show tenure in their own organization, they will have happy people and those focused on you winning first – knowing that when you win, they win as well. People who are working on a solid team will fight to get you on one as well.
We’ve all heard the phrases “social networking” and “social media” at some point or another. As a recruiter, I attend at least two social networking events monthly and my company utilizes social media daily in the client and candidate recruitment process. As an individual, I enjoy the use of social media—mainly, to reconnect and stay connected with friends and family whom I am unable to see on a regular basis. It’s incredibly difficult to imagine both my professional and personal life without all outlets of social media from Facebook and LinkedIn to email to cnn.com.
There’s nothing wrong with making use of technology that brings people closer together, or that which keeps us informed on the go. However, it’s important to understand that if you are in job-search mode and/or have applications and resumes on the internet or in recruiters’ and hiring managers inboxes, you have to monitor the information about you on the web. Alison Doyle is a writer on About.com Guide and recently published the article To Blog or Not to Blog: How Blogging and Social Networking Can Impact Your Job Search. Her advice: “Be very careful what you put online. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account, people you won't want to be reading your profile may be able to access it, even if you think nobody will read it. Make your account private, so only your friends can access it. Be extra careful, and don't post anything that you don't want a prospective employer (or your mom!) to read (¶ 6).”
From a recruiters’ perspective, it benefits us to make use of the same media you utilize to find out all we can about you before representing you to our client(s). Also understand that part of what goes into best representing you is to form a relationship with you. As with any positive and strong relationship, communication and honesty are paramount, and guiding you to put your best professional foot forward is part of our goal. Your professional footprint includes your social presence.
By definition, social presence is “the ability of persons to project socially and effectively their personal characteristics into the community…thereby presenting themselves as real people. (Rourke, Anderson, & Garrison (2001) (¶ 1)).” Most studies conducted on this topic revolve around the online learning environment, but they certainly apply to other outlets such as Facebook and Google+. Just this week, I read an article via LinkedIn that Facebook and the U.S. Department of Labor and national employment services are trying to form a job search forum targeted to Facebook users. Some predict this alliance will become a rival to LinkedIn, Dice.com, and other candidate sources, and whether or not that may become the reality, my point remains the same: having a professional social presence is a component of going from unemployed to employed or being promoted. If employment opportunities are going to be available via our society’s most closely related alternate universe (Facebook), then, as in life, a picture (or post) is worth a thousand words. Post carefully.
Article Citations
The hiring process is never the same. While most companies have a protocol or a standard procedure in place they typically follow, even that can change given the situation and the quality of the interview. Knowing this, it is in our best interest to prepare and practice for the process each and every time.
Typically the process starts with a phone call and an email to the prospective company which contains a short, succinct profile that highlights your skills as they pertain to the job description or requirements. When using a recruiter, the difference is that the introduction takes place at the top with the actual hiring manager or VP of Development/Infrastructure, etc. and works its way down. When you begin the process as an applicant you apply through their HR department or web portal, and many times the process stalls.
The second step many times will be an introductory phone call with you and the manager of that department. This call is usually more of an introduction to gauge initial fit, how and what you can bring to the team dynamic, how quickly you can begin to contribute and where your skills truly are relative to what they need.
This call is very important, if the manager doesn’t like what he hears in the first few minutes you might miss out on this opportunity. Prepare yourself; make sure you dress for success even on the phone. Don’t do the interview in your pajamas, put on a suit and get in the “business mind set.” Stand up when you talk, and smile. Yes, smile as it comes across on the phone! Prepare a list of questions along with a copy of your resume and keep them in front of you; not a digital file, an actual hard copy.
Sometimes, depending on the situation, you may be asked to come in for your first in-person interview. This is a good sign. It means that there is a sense of urgency on their part and they are ready to hire. It also may be an indication of the quality of relationship that exists between your recruiter and the hiring manager. BUT, don’t ever think the job is yours. You don’t want to get too comfortable with the process or the manager unless or until you are sitting at a desk working there. Even then, work performance on the job and your attitude are everything.
The next step usually involves a more technical interview with your potential peers and the team lead. Be prepared, brush up on the fundamentals, terminology and buzz words. Many times they are gauging your responses and trying to see how you perform under pressure. Never guess! Be honest and let them know you know where to get the answer and understand the concept. Also be prepared to chat about your background and the team dynamic. Don’t forget to listen and engage in the conversation. Do your research, ask your recruiter for help. Working with a recruiter is a huge benefit and is a great resource for information and can make the entire process seem painless while s/he guides you to success.
After all the interviews and all the meetings comes the offer stage. The important thing is not to lose a job that is yours because you have not prepared properly. Nobody wants to be underpaid, but companies have budgets, and don’t want to overpay. Be honest about what you are making and what you would like to make. Be realistic. Everyone wants as six-figure salary, but not everybody has the experience or skills commensurate with that salary. Tell your recruiter your minimum and maximum. Share your ideal salary and let your recruiter handle the salary negotiations. And remember there should be more to a job than just getting paid. Do what you enjoy!
Always end by asking the next step and if you were to get the job, what would they like to see you accomplish in the first 30 days? Two things that remains constant with any interview at any company in any stage: your preparedness and your attitude. People who are unprepared usually come across as “not interested” and nobody wants to work with a bad attitude.
Let’s work together and we can get it done!