The Resume Blueprint

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The Resume Blueprint

• Business Core 315
• Professional Development II

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Types of Resumes

• Chronological
• Most commonly used
• Stable work history
• Professional growth
• College Graduates
• Education (1st)
• Experience (2nd)

• Functional
• Career Change
• Change jobs frequently
• Focus on skills and experience
• De-emphasize dates, employer names

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What HR Professionals Look for in a Resume

• An intelligent, concise summary of your best
  skills and attributes
• An impressive list of accomplishments relevant to
  the position you seek
• Splendid educational and professional credentials
• A solid, exemplary career history with few
  employers
• A track record of loyalty and longevity, without
  inconsistencies or time gaps

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Goal of the resume

• To get you interviews

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General Considerations

• No cut and dried formula
• Yes, there are guidelines
• It should be easy to read at first glance
• You should write the resume
• Say it on one page, if you can
• Lead with your assets
• Plan to write several drafts

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• Limit your liabilities
• Structure should be brief, clear, and informative
• Make every sentence and bullet count (will
  strengthen your image)
• Use Action or Active verbs
• Eliminate first-person singular, i.e., I, me,
  mine
• Make it visually inviting...appearance is
  everything

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6 Universally Essential Skills

• Higher Productivity
• Strong Interpersonal Skills
• Effective Problem-Solving Skills
• Quality Results
• Clear Vision
• Customer Driven Focus

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The Content

• Three kinds of information to convey
• Information about education
• Information about work experience
• Information about school-related and
  community-related activities
• Use the categories which best capture the spirit
  of what youve done

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Identifying Information

• Name
• Address
• Local
• Permanent
• Phone number
• General rule Avoid use of cell phone number
• E-mail address
• Avoid clever addresses partyboy_at_aol.com
• Personal data
• Avoid disclosing data regarding age, marital
  status, race, gender, weight, etc.

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Objective

• What is an objective statement?
• Employee focused - vague/common
• An entry level position in accounting.
• Employer focused - what you can do for ER
• A position in financial reporting that offers
  challenge and the opportunity to analyze data
  and prepare comprehensive, technical reports.
• Do not include on the resume submitted to the
  College for on-line purposes.
• Statement of Purpose or Qualification
• Five years relevant experience in personal
  financial planning. Demonstrated ability to
  develop individual investment strategies and
  articulate proposals to clientele .

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Education The First Sales Pitch

• Name of school
• City/town and state
• Degree (abbreviate - BA, BS, MBA, etc.)
• Year degree granted
• Program major/minor
• GPA (if to your advantage)
• Financing of education

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Work Experience Make this the central focus

• Description of each job should include
• Name and address of employer
• Title of job
• All-inclusive dates
• Focus on skills and abilities that were most
  important
• Describe briefly and clearly

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• Dont embellish achievements
• Focus on interesting and challenging assignments
• Consider sub-heading of part-time/temp., career
  related, summer/resort work
• List in reverse-chronological order

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What sounds better?

• Implemented new accounting system that reduced
  costs.
• or
• Implemented new accounting system that reduced
  indirect overhead by 35,000 and improved
  financial reporting accuracy by 33.

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• Developed a new production technique that
  increased productivity 7 (an operations
  manager).
• Significantly improved communications with the
  bank's service bureau and implemented
  modifications in the general-ledger system that
  streamlined operations and saved more than
  20,000 per year (a bank manager).
• Developed new collection procedures which kept
  collection costs 34 below budget and reduced
  overdue accounts 27 (an accounting manager).
• Since 1993, have reduced inventory from 5.4
  million to 2.9 million, with documented savings
  of 1.1 million (a facilities purchasing
  manager).
• Negotiated freight rates with a major carrier,
  cutting the rate by 18 and saving 85,000 per
  year (a traffic manager).
• Established a Total Quality program that reduced
  rejects 65 (production manager).

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Activities

• List most impressive first
• (Limit to four or five most important)
• Describe leadership and committee duties
• Exclude secondary school activities

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Honors (Always impressive)

• Include
• Scholarships
• Deans list
• Presidents list
• Order of Augusta
• Honor societies
• Departmental awards
• Community awards
• Describe each

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Professional Organizations/Memberships

• Other Headings
• Language skills
• Computer skills
• Study/travel abroad
• Self-employment
• Donts
• Omit salary--bide your time
• Personal data--none of their business
• References--understand protocol and etiquette

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The Design - Make It Work Visually

• Typeface
• Stay between 10 point and 12 point (no smaller
  than textbook)
• CG Times or Times Roman
• Spacing
• Use balance and the whole page
• Double-space between headings
• Single-space descriptions

• Paper
• 20 lb. stock w / 25 rag/cotton fiber on a
  conservative off-white, beige, or light gray
  color
• Margins
• 1 on each side right and left justified

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Formatting

• Date format
• 09/00
• September 2000
• Alignment
• Left/right margin
• Tabulations
• Absolutely no using the space bar!
• Left/right/center set tabulations

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Highlights

• Increase visibility
• Further defines space
• Creates visual depth
• Attention getting
• Not to be used for electronic resumes

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Proofread!

• Slowly
• Carefully
• Repeatedly
• End to beginning
• Look for - spelling errors, punctuation, spacing,
  missing words

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Reproducing the Resume

• 20 pound stock
• 25 rag/cotton fiber
• Reproduction
• Laser Printing
• Copy Centers

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Resume Blunders

• Too much focus on job duties
• What did you accomplish?
• Objective statement too embellishing or general
• A challenging position that will enable
• Too short or too long
• One page or two pages
• Use of personal pronouns
• I developed a new process whereby

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Resume Blunders

• Listing personal or unimportant information
• Age, gender, religion hobbies if unrelated to
  profession
• Not using the correct type of resume
• Chronological, Functional, Combinational
• Not using a summary or profile section
• Relative to the position you seek

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Resume Blunders

• Lack of keywords
• Resume scanning - buzz words from a job
  description
• Poor use of action verbs
• Responsible forHelped manage
• Typographical errors

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Questions??