A Résumé Sells Its Writer

by Carol L. Larson, Co-Editor of The Willamette Galley

This article originally appeared in the Willamette Galley, the newsletter for the STC Willamette Valley Chapter in Portland, Oregon.

A résume is simply a marketing tool to advertise the knowledge and expertise, achievements, and skills of people looking for jobs or promotions. But résumés are not simple - every word and its placement in the résumé counts. For a résumé to be effective, it must catch the attention of hiring managers and employers within 20 to 30 seconds or by the middle of page one.

Planning

Résumés require planning. Job seekers need to assess their knowledge, skills - both transferable and applicable - and work history. Transferable skills are acquired skills that job seekers take from one job to another; examples are communication, management, and writing skills.

Quintessential Careers (http://www.quintcareers.com/transferable_skills_set.html) states that there are five basic skill sets of transferable skills:

1. Communication
2. Research and planning
3. Human relations
4. Organization, management and leadership
5. Work survival

Other resources list additional transferable skill sets and corresponding action verbs used with each set.

Applicable skills are the tools of the job, such as Microsoft Office, RoboHelp, and Captivate.

In addition to assessing their skills, job seekers need to research the companies and posted jobs to learn which skills to emphasize on résumés. Every entry on job seekers' résumés should closely relate to companies' needs.

Format

While several résumé types prevail, job seekers primarily use the reverse chronological and functional formats or a combination of the two formats. Job seekers need to choose the best format to illustrate their expertise, skills, and work history. Resources that help job seekers choose the best-suited résumé format include:

• Quintessential Careers, "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Our Services: How do I know what kind of résumé is best for me?" (http://www.resumesandcoverletters.com/services_prices.html#resumes)
• Susan Britton Whitcomb, Job Search Magic, pp. 194-195

Three other formats worth mentioning, but not discussed further in this article, are the:

1. Curriculum vitae (CV), which is used to find jobs in academia
2. Targeted résumé, which is focused for a particular job
3. Scannable résumé, which many high-technology companies scan and upload into a database by to search for applicants

Chronological

This format is best for job seekers who have a work history with no gaps. Hiring managers and employers prefer the reverse chronological format because this format lists work experience in a logical, easy-to-read format that begins with the most recent job first. This format includes an objective and/or summary of qualifications and an education and skills summary. Job seekers' past work experience, previous employers, and employment dates are grouped together. Volunteer work experience is listed separately. By using a chronological format, job seekers show hiring managers that job seekers have exhibited a logical progression in job responsibilities and titles and are ready to make a new career move.

Functional

The functional format is best for job seekers who have gaps in their work experience, a wide variety of work experience, or plans to move to a new career field. The functional résumé also contains an objective. Job seekers group knowledge, achievements, and skills in sections that emphasize transferable and applicable skills and qualifications for a particular job. Previous employers, job titles, and employment dates may or may not be omitted. An advantage of the functional résumé is that volunteer work experience can be incorporated easily in the qualifications section.

Combination

A combination résumé combines the chronological and functional formats by using employment history with job achievements and skills. The combination format includes a summary of qualifications and skills list.

Design

A well-designed résumé shows hiring managers that job seekers are attentive to details and organization. However, if job seekers have limited time and prefer not to design their own résumés, a plethora of templates are readily available on the Internet. Job seekers choose the template that best fits their résumé needs.

Readability

As the adage goes "time is money." Hiring managers cannot afford to spend much time reading each résumé. For example, if a hiring manager receives 150 résumés for one job and spends just five minutes per résumé, the total reading time is 750 minutes or 12.5 hours! For the initial review of résumés, managers often scan each résumé in 20 to 30 seconds looking for specific keywords, knowledge, or skills. The managers set aside résumés containing the specific requirements for the job, while they discard résumés without the needed information.

Fonts/Bullets

Easy-to-read fonts are a must. Good résumé fonts include Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, and Times New Roman. The font point size should be large enough to be read easily (11-12 points). White space between lines of type (leading) and sections gives hiring managers' eyes a resting space and presents a clean-looking résumé.

Bullets are easier to read than paragraphs of information. Bullets should be commonly used styles, such as the default round bullet; other bullet-types may become a short series of symbols when résumés are sent as text files.

Questions

When developing résumés, job seekers should answer the following: how best to describe job skills, how to handle gaps in work history, what length should the résumé be, are references included.

Action verbs

Action verbs are concrete, descriptive verbs that describe job skills and achievements. Instead of writing: "Worked on an Excel spreadsheet to track projects", write: "Developed an Excel spreadsheet to track projects". The use of action verbs strengthens the writing style of the résumé.

Keywords

Keywords are nouns and noun phrases that describe job titles, expertise, job skills, and universities attended. Susan Britton Whitcomb feels that keywords supersede many of the 'action verbs'....

"Before: Administered networks, wrote scripts, and conducted diagnostic tests.
"After: Advanced skills in UNIX and network system administration support, scriptwriting, electronic testing equipment, diagnostic testing.... (Whitcomb, p. 212)

Many offline and online sources have lists of keywords. Job descriptions, informational interviews, job advertisements, and professional organizations are only four of the many keyword sources. Other sources include company, job search, or career search Web sites.

Keywords are important. Hiring managers and résumé sorting software look for keywords. For maximum effectiveness, Whitcomb believes that keywords should be placed "within the first 20 to 24 lines that appear on a computer screen" (Whitcomb, p. 214). Some career experts suggest that job seekers add keyword lines (no more than two) at the bottom of résumés to highlight specific keywords. But other career experts feel that the best choice is to place keywords throughout a résumé.

Employment Gaps

Gaps in work history almost scream, "Here I am," at hiring managers. In the past, career experts suggested that job seekers use a functional résumé to disguise work gaps.

Currently, however, hiring managers prefer chronological résumés, which logically exhibit applicants' career paths.

Ways to deemphasize work gaps in a chronological résumé include:

• Include volunteer or contract jobs as part of the work history if job seekers worked those jobs during the employment gap.
• Do not include the months if defining work times with months and years.
• Deemphasize the dates by not using boldface type when formatting dates.
• Begin the résumé with an objective statement or summary of qualifications.
• Consider using a functional résumé if the gap is lengthy.

Long employment gaps can be addressed in a cover letter with a brief one- to two-line explanation. If the gap happened many years ago do not mention it.

During employment gaps, job seekers should stay current with their profession by taking classes, volunteering, contracting, or consulting.

Length

There is no set length for résumés. The length depends upon necessity-the need for job seekers to highlight their knowledge, skills, and achievements concisely. General guidelines include:

• One page for entry-level applicants and new college graduates
• Two pages for above-entry-level to middle management applicants
• Three or more pages for middle- to upper-management applicants

In addition to page length, related issues are:

• Résumés need to capture hiring managers' attention within the top one-third to one-half of page one.
• Résumé text carries over and fills next page by at least one-third page, but job descriptions should not be divided.
• To aid résumé readability, headers, footers, and page numbers should be used.

Content

Every résumé should contain this basic information: contact information, work experience, education, and skills. Other sections, or categories, are optional. Résumé information must be essential for the job being sought. In Job-Hunting Online, Mark Emery Bolles and Richard Nelson Bolles believe that job seekers constantly must ask if the information listed in job seekers' résumés is "necessary and on point" (Bolles and Bolles, p. 41).

In Job Search Magic, Susan Britton Whitcomb recommends using the following or similarly worded categories (p. 196) when developing résumés:

• Contact information
• Objective statement
• Qualifications summary
• Professional experience
• Skills
• Education, credentials, and licenses
• Affiliations
• Supporting material

All content must be perfect: no typos; no grammatical errors; strong, descriptive action verbs and keywords; well-organized; easy to read. Initially, hiring managers judge job seekers' quality of work and attention to detail by how the résumé is written. Managers automatically discard résumés with errors.

Contact Information

The most important contact information to include on résumés is: name, address, telephone number, and email address. A professional URL also may be included. For example, Gertrude Belfast, a technical communicator, is the owner of Gertrude's Ink and Erasers, a writing and editing home business. Gertrude includes both her business Web site and LinkedIn profile URLs.

In addition to the résumé contact information, all supporting contact information sources - email addresses, voicemail, Web sites - must project a professional image. Email addresses, such as hipdoggy@woofwoof.com, do not project a positive business image for technical communicators. In addition, AOL addresses should not be used because AOL users are not considered to be technically adept (Alison Doyle, p. 32). The telephone numbers listed on résumés must be accessible at all times.

Objective Statement

The objective statement is an optional résumé section. Some résumé writers include an objective with their résumés, but others include the objective in cover letters.

However, well-written objective statements show hiring managers the positions that job seekers desire. The best objective is "specific about the position and type of employment desired" (Doyle, "Résumé Guide: Résumé Objective: Putting Your Résumé Together" http://jobsearch.about.com/od/resumes/a/compileres.htm).

Susan Britton Whitcomb suggests that job seekers "focus on the employer's needs." Whitcomb continues, "The difference is in the perspective" (Whitcomb, p. 197). Instead of writing about what job seekers want in a job, they should emphasize what the employer wants and what the job seekers can bring to the job. When job seekers respond to employers' needs, hiring managers will be interested in the job seekers. One way to target résumés for particular jobs is to change objective statements to reflect the needs of the hiring company.

Objective statements are short-generally, one to two sentences. An objective might be only a job title. An objective also might emphasize the job seeker's expertise, focus, intent, or goal (Whitcomb, p. 198). Example objectives include:

• Job title-Senior Technical Writer
• Expertise-Instructional designer with 12-years experience in training and developing banking customer services
• Focus-Technical writer with MS in Professional Writing and emphasis in online help
• Intent-To develop medical-records training videos
• Goal-To transition 15 years of graphic design experience in company branding and corporate materials into a graphic design instructor

Qualifications Summary

The qualifications summary serves job seekers in two ways: 1) it defines the type of desired job; and 2) it summarizes the job seekers' qualifications for the preferred job. Job seekers can easily customize the qualifications summary to focus on specific jobs.

This brief section highlights career experience and expertise, transferable and applicable skills, career achievements as they relate to the desired job, certifications and/or degrees, and special language skills. Well-chosen action verbs and keywords are especially important in this section.

Professional Experience

Professional experience is the primary section for a chronological résumé. This section contains a comprehensive list of job titles, employers, locations, dates of employment, and descriptions of important achievements and responsibilities.

Susan Heathfield, About.com Human Resources Guide (http://humanresources.about.com), suggests also including a brief statement describing "what the company does, its sales, products, and customers." Heathfield feels a company overview helps hiring managers assess job seekers' experience and qualifications (Heathfield, "Ten Tips for an Interview Winning Résumé." http://jobsearch.about.com/od/resumetips/a/tenresumetips.htm?p=1).

Skills

The skills section is the primary section for a functional résumé and emphasizes job skills highlighted with related work experience and achievements. Volunteer experience pertaining to job seekers' professional experience can be included. Dates and places of employment may or may not be listed in a small section below the skills section.

This section gives hiring managers a "skills-based menu" of job seekers' abilities. Example skills include analytical, creative, communication, flexible, language, organization, teamwork, and technical.

Applicable skills can be listed within the skills section or as a separate category.

Education, Credentials, Licenses

The education section usually goes toward the end of the résumé and includes information considered important for the job. However, recent college graduates often place this section after the objective as the first major section. Listed in this section are college degrees with areas of study (i.e., MS in Professional Writing), credentials (i.e., Microsoft certifications), and licenses (i.e., nursing license).

Affiliations

Affiliations are professional or community-based. If job seekers belong to a single organization, they should not list the organization unless it might carry great weight with the hiring manager. Susan Britton Whitcomb believes that categories with only one item draw attention away from other information, so job seekers should include the single organization with another category (Whitcomb, p. 203).

Supporting Material

Publications, presentations, patents, and awards are supporting material and should be included if pertinent to the job search. Publications are books, articles, brochures, and training video scripts. Presentations should be listed if the job seeker is the primary presenter or co-presenter. If the research and development of a patented product was part of the job seekers' work, the patent should be included on the résumé. Awards and honors from professional and community organizations also can be included.

In Closing

As a marketing tool, résumés advertise job seekers and become hiring managers' first impressions of the job seekers. Because hiring managers quickly scan résumés, job seekers must create their résumés with carefully planned details that emphasize job seekers' qualifications, skills, and achievements while also captivating the attention of the hiring manager.

About Carol L. Larson

Carol L. Larson is a self-employed technical communicator. Carol, an STC senior member, is the co-editor for The Willamette Galley, the newsletter for the Willamette Valley Chapter in Portland, Oregon. Email Carol at carol@larson-tech.com.

Resources for This Article

Books
Mark Emery Bolles and Richard Nelson Bolles. 2008. Job-Hunting Online, 5th ed. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
Alison Doyle. 2008. Internet Your Way to a New Job. Cupertino, CA: HappyAbout.info.
Susan Britton Whitcomb. 2006. Job Search Magic. Indianapolis, IN: JIST Works.

Web Sites

About.com Human Resources Guide: http://humanresources.about.com
About.com Job Search Guide: http://jobsearch.about.com
About.com Job Search Guide-Résumés and Letters: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/resumes/u/resumesandletters.htm
CollegeGrad.com: http://www.collegegrad.com
Quintessential Careers: http://www.quintcareers.com
The Riley Guide: http://www.rileyguide.com