How to Create a Resume that really works!

Is your resume getting you the interviews you want?

Job seekers often ask what's wrong with their resumes. If you have spent hours working on your resume, toiling into the middle of the night, you are like most people.

Here are some questions you have or should probably ask yourself:

While these are valid concerns, there's a greater issue. Never assume that people are going to read your resume thoroughly because the fact is that most resumes get only a passing glance. If a manager doesn’t easily see what he is looking for in 10 to 15 seconds, he usually tosses the resume in question into the circular bin. You must do everything possible to spark immediate interest during that moment!

Here is a guideline of what to do, and what NOT to do

1. Begin with a summary of your skills.
Bullet point your summary. First pick out the two or three of your most exciting or most notable accomplishments or skills. Use numbers when applicable, i.e. "Grew territory revenues 25% in less than 6 months." Then follow it with a brief summary of your strengths – i.e. “Extensive system level development experience, including 10 yrs of kernel and internals development, and 5 yrs of driver development.”

2. Use a chronological format.
The next section of your resume should be your professional experience. Always list your experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent job. A brief summary of the job and responsibilities with bullet points of accomplishments works best. Put the most important things you did first, employers often skim a resume and lose interest if they do not immediately see the relevance of your background to their position.
Note: Employers (and recruiters) dislike resumes that follow a "functional" format, where experience is cited by job function, like engineering, quality, management, or sales. These resumes are ineffective and often discarded immediately. Employers want to know what you did, where and for how long, and thus functional resumes have no impact and leave employers thinking you don’t have the skill or are covering up for something in your background like being out of work for two years. It is better to be straight forward and honest.

3. Tailor your resume to the job you're seeking.
More can be done to strengthen your candidacy within the chronological format.

Because the goal of your resume is to gain interviews for a particular position, always cite your activities in order of their importance to that job you are applying for. Omit information that's unrelated (for instance, if you were a software engineer, but did sales and marketing as well, but are applying for a software engineering role – focus your resume on your software engineering and not your sales). The less you say about your unrelated experience, the more impact the related activities will have.
If you're seeking two or three different types of positions, prepare two or three separate resumes, each tailored to the job you're after.

4. Focus on your accomplishments.

Next, discuss your accomplishments, not your responsibilities.

Here is a good example:

“Built backend application for communication with 2Wire products thru XMLRPC protocol mechanism in an SSL tunnel to real-time status of devices, and allow for real-time upgrades of firmware or new applications onto devices.”

Recruiters and prospective employers are primarily interested in the value you've brought to your past employers. Most important is development you did or improvements you made and their benefit to the department or organization. In y our accomplishments, your responsibilities are obvious, buy it actually shows you DID something, and were not just responsible for something.

To identify your most important accomplishments, follow the advice offered by Martin John Yate in "Resumes That Knock 'Em Dead" (Adams Media Corp., 2003). Ask yourself, "What did I do that I'm most proud of?" and "What did I do that I want other people to know about?"

Always look for opportunities to show how you exceeded expectations, outperformed peers, or excelled during adverse conditions, such as during a tough economic period or unique company setbacks - for instance, the loss of a large customer.

When asked in a recent survey, hiring managers said relevant skills are their top priority in evaluating a resume. They ranked age as the least important consideration.

Don't save the most exciting thing you did for last. Job hunters who do this -- and many do -- erroneously believe they are telling a compelling story that leads up to a dramatic climax. Instead, begin the discussion about your experience at an employer with that climactic statement. If you don't, your story may never get told.

5. Use Action verbs.
Describe your experiences in phrases that start with a past-tense action word. Bullet each item. Bullets and verbs in the past tense produce statements that are more vivid and illustrative. Use words that show ownership, and that are descriptive. These verbs are particularly effective:

6. Make your resume easy to read.
After deciding on what you want to say about yourself, be sure your resume has sufficient white space. The top and bottom margins should be at least a half-inch long, and the left and right margins should measure at least seven-tenths of an inch wide. Insert white space between your section headings, names of employers, job titles and discussions about your experience. Use bold-faced type for section headings, employer names and job titles. If the document lacks eye appeal, few people will review it. Make sure to use short paragraphs and bullets points – few people read through an entire paragraph, and if you try to put your accomplishments their, they will be missed. Your most important accomplishments and skills should be bullet pointed.

7. Make sure you have used proper spelling and grammar.
Have someone else proof read your resume, and make sure you have used spell check. Many managers will turn down folks who have spelling and grammar issues in their resumes – especially if any type of documentation is required for the position.

8. Make sure ALL your contact information is at the top of your resume – including good working email, and several phone numbers that you can be reached on.

When people can’t get a hold of you, often times your resume is put on a back burner and forgotten.

Now, the Don'ts

What you shouldn't do when writing a resume is nearly as important as what you should do.

1. Don't organize your resume by accomplishments.
Listing a string of accomplishments on the first page of your resume presents the same problems for employers as the functional resume format. If you want to showcase your accomplishments, use the summary of technical skills and accomplishments.

2. Don't use the same words to begin sentences or use the words "I" and "my."
Make your writing fresh and exciting by varying the verbs that begin each statement. Omit "I" and "my" because they can make you seem weak and immature. In addition, don’t use “we,” it takes away from your personal skill level. If you worked on a project with a group of engineers, list the parts of it you did: “Ported and debugged the kernel and utility code in system dump, boot, system startup, virtual memory, process switching, lock hierarchy, and both kernel and user debugger programs for the i860 product.” NOT “was part of the quality assurance team working on the kernel where we ported and debugged kernels.”

3. Avoid clichés.
Don't describe yourself as "dynamic," "people-oriented," "results-oriented" or "self-motivated," or state what a great "out-of-the-box thinker," "hands-on leader" or "visionary" you are. These clichés have been overused and typecast you as a follower instead of a leader.

4. Don't use underlining or italics to add emphasis.
These devices cheapen a résumé’s appearance, and are often very hard to read. Additionally, some computer scanners can't read underlined or italicized copy. Underline is really only appropriate with large section headlines like: Professional Experience, but even then, not necessary.

5. Avoid using a fancy font to gain readers' attention.
Fancy fonts aren't inviting or easy to read, and many people discard resumes that use them. Play it safe by choosing Times Roman, Arial, Garamond, or Tahoma.

6. Don't state the reasons for your job changes.
Explaining why you've changed jobs seems defensive or indicates that you think you have a troubled work history.

7. Don’t overstate your skill level, or falsify information on your resume. Be honest.
You should not just “look good on paper,” your resume is a snapshot of what you have done – make it reputable. It is ok to be confident about your skills, and talk yourself up. If you have done it, state it, but do not lie about it. I recently had a candidate say he had a BS degree, when in fact he didn’t. The company loved him and wanted to hire him, and in fact he didn’t even need a degree to get the job. When they discovered that he had falsified this information, they immediately rescinded his offer. Stick with what you have done and what you know.

8. Keep your resume down to two pages.
You can always have an addendum, or keep a long version handy, but you will get more impact with a two page resume than a ten page resume.

9. Don't put your salary on your resume.
If you would like to see a sample resume, please ask your recruiter if they have a good sample one in your field of work.

10. Don’t create your whole resume in paragraph format.
You should not list your skills, and accomplishments in paragraph format – try to keep paragraphs short, and use bullet points – they are easier to read.