How to Say It on Your Resume: Tips and Hints
By Courtney Pike
When times are tough, unemployment is soaring, and job seekers are knocking down any open doors, it is even more crucial that your resume is the absolute best that it can be. You have to think of your resume as an advertisement for you. How can you package your experiences and credentials on one piece of paper so the recruiting director knows you are the perfect fit for the job?
There are few common mistakes that most people make when writing their resume. Brad Karsh and I recently published a book, How to Say It on Your Resume, that guides professionals through the resume writing process. Here are a few tips from the book to keep in mind when writing your resume:
1. Do your homework.
When applying for a job, the first thing you should do is research the company and find out the details for the open position. The job description is basically a cheat sheet for your resume. If the company is seeking a candidate with strong communication and leadership skills, then you should make sure that the bullets on your resume prove that you are a strong communicator and an effective leader. You can also highlight experiences from your extracurricular or volunteer activities if they match well with the job description.
For the most part, recruiting directors want to put a round peg into a round hole. Therefore, the more you can line up your experiences with the job description, the better your chances of making it to the interview stage.
2. Focus on your job accomplishments.
Simply listing job descriptions and duties instead of job accomplishments is one of the biggest mistakes people make on their resume. If you want to stand out from the crowd, your resume needs to shine with bright achievements and notable accomplishments. In everything that you do, be specific and try to quantify the scope and results of all of your endeavors. What did you do that was different, special, or unique? With every bullet point that you write, display what makes you the best person for the job.
3. Keep it short and powerful.
The days of stretching a bunch of fluff across twenty pages ended after your last collegiate literature course. Short is better than long when it comes to your resume. Your resume is one place where it’s OK not to use complete sentences. For your experiences, use bullet points that begin with strong action verbs.
Unless you are in the academic field and have a CV, your resume should not be longer than two pages. If you have a couple years of experience, then your resume only needs to be one page. Force yourself to include only the information that is most relevant and compelling to the recruiting director. The fact that you know CPR is interesting, but is it really relevant on your resume to be a financial analyst?
For more great resume tips, check out the book, How to Say It on Your Resume: A Top Recruiting Director’s Guide to Writing the Perfect Resume for Every Job.
When times are tough, unemployment is soaring, and job seekers are knocking down any open doors, it is even more crucial that your resume is the absolute best that it can be. You have to think of your resume as an advertisement for you. How can you package your experiences and credentials on one piece of paper so the recruiting director knows you are the perfect fit for the job?
There are few common mistakes that most people make when writing their resume. Brad Karsh and I recently published a book, How to Say It on Your Resume, that guides professionals through the resume writing process. Here are a few tips from the book to keep in mind when writing your resume:
1. Do your homework.
When applying for a job, the first thing you should do is research the company and find out the details for the open position. The job description is basically a cheat sheet for your resume. If the company is seeking a candidate with strong communication and leadership skills, then you should make sure that the bullets on your resume prove that you are a strong communicator and an effective leader. You can also highlight experiences from your extracurricular or volunteer activities if they match well with the job description.
For the most part, recruiting directors want to put a round peg into a round hole. Therefore, the more you can line up your experiences with the job description, the better your chances of making it to the interview stage.
2. Focus on your job accomplishments.
Simply listing job descriptions and duties instead of job accomplishments is one of the biggest mistakes people make on their resume. If you want to stand out from the crowd, your resume needs to shine with bright achievements and notable accomplishments. In everything that you do, be specific and try to quantify the scope and results of all of your endeavors. What did you do that was different, special, or unique? With every bullet point that you write, display what makes you the best person for the job.
3. Keep it short and powerful.
The days of stretching a bunch of fluff across twenty pages ended after your last collegiate literature course. Short is better than long when it comes to your resume. Your resume is one place where it’s OK not to use complete sentences. For your experiences, use bullet points that begin with strong action verbs.
Unless you are in the academic field and have a CV, your resume should not be longer than two pages. If you have a couple years of experience, then your resume only needs to be one page. Force yourself to include only the information that is most relevant and compelling to the recruiting director. The fact that you know CPR is interesting, but is it really relevant on your resume to be a financial analyst?
For more great resume tips, check out the book, How to Say It on Your Resume: A Top Recruiting Director’s Guide to Writing the Perfect Resume for Every Job.
posted by BK at Monday, January 19, 2009
4 Comments:
nice for share
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I bought your book, How to Say It on Your Resume and I have found it very helpful. I do have a question, you stress the importance of listing the Scope and Results of one's achievements and accomplishments. But I do not see how one can do that if they are in a support role. I can say that I supported 60 field sales reps and that is about it as far as quantifying goes. I know I helped them close sales by providing information, but I have no way of quantifying my contribution. What about those roles where the workers are primarily executing tasks?
Thanks!
Amen to what Bibi is saying. My background includes roles as a receptionist and Executive Assistant. The only numbers that I can see are important are typing speed and how many phone lines I can handle. I'm not sure that anything I've done is quantifiable except for how many years of experience I have (and I've been told I'm over-qualified - grrr..). Perhaps I'm missing something.
And my resume does read like a list of job descriptions.
Please visit our new blog at http://jobbound.com/about-us/jobbound-blog for more tips, hints, and news. We'll also be answering Bibi & Nicole's question shortly.
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