How to Write a Resume. also Availabe on BYLC

1.1 Introduction

Hiring managers usually do not have much time to go through each and every single application fully with full attention. They usually spend six seconds on an average looking at each application they receive. If they notice even a small typo or have a negative impression about you during that time, they’ll likely put your application into the “rejected” pile.

How can you, as an applicant, make sure that your resume and other application materials make it past the initial screening?

In this course, you’ll learn the techniques for creating a strong and engaging application, including:

How to build your resume to appeal to hiring managers and demonstrate your value, and how to customize your resume for different industries and job postings.

You will practice portraying yourself in an honest, engaging, and persuasive way that not only compels the employers to have a good impression on you, but also lands you that final interview.

Let’s begin!

1.2 Common Misconception: Resume vs Curriculum Vitae

Job listings in some of the countries and industries typically request a resume; while in others, a Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the requirement. For example, in the United States, most jobs require resumes, but academic or research-based positions require CVs. Sometimes both are required for certain opportunities. On the other hand, in some companies, people use these terms interchangeably. A resume or a CV is the core of any application, so it’s essential to know what each are and what they do, and definitely before applying, make sure what does the company you are applying to wants.

·         Resume comes from the French word résumé, meaning “summary.” A resume is a high-level summary of a person’s professional experience, education, certifications, and skills. It serves as a snapshot of a person’s professional experience.

·         CV comes from the Latin phrase curriculum vitae, meaning “course of life.” A CV is a detailed collection of all of a person’s professional and educational experiences, accomplishments, and awards. It serves as a brief personal and professional biography. In the U.S., CVs are the most common documents in academia.

Neither document is meant to be entirely comprehensive. There is no way to capture on paper the full range of a person’s experiences, capabilities, and qualifications. Instead, both are meant to spark larger conversations about those experiences and qualifications. Ultimately, the core differences between the two come down to length, detail, and customization. Where a resume would aim for brevity, stick to one page, and be highly customized for different circumstances, a CV would aim for detail, have no page restrictions, and largely stay the same regardless of circumstances.

This course focuses on resumes, but most of the best practices the course lays out are applicable to both documents. Follow the cultural norms for your area and the professional norms for your industry. If one document is the expectation in your area or industry but an employer requests the other, always develop the document that the employer requests. If there is ever a discrepancy between the best practices in this course and a regional norm or specific job description, go with the most localized option.

1.3 Resume Realities

The reality is that resumes are almost never read in full. Hiring managers spend an average of six seconds on each resume. 80% of that time (only 4.8 seconds) they spend on your name, current title and organization, previous title and organization, and your start and end dates for those positions. The remaining 20% (1.2 seconds) of the time, they spend scanning for keywords that goes with the job description of the position one is applying for.

The areas where most hiring managers’ eyes go on a resume follow a simple “F” pattern. Look at the following graphic to see how it works.

Understanding where hiring managers’ eyes go helps you put key information in highly visible areas. Notice how headers draw their attention. Engaging headers encourage hiring managers to spend more time looking at your resume.

Understanding how hiring managers read resumes will help you refine your resume to ensure that they see the most important information in the few moments they spend looking at your resume.

1.4 Components

There are many different standards for and opinions on the “perfect” resume. However, no matter your location or target industry, there are several key ingredients most resumes have. Here are some ingredients you should include when you create your resume:

·         Contact Information: Be sure to include your full name at the top of your resume. Even if you submit a resume through email, don’t assume someone will make a note of your email address. Have your phone number, professional email address, physical address, and website (or online portfolio link) front and center. Remember: you want to make it easy for potential employers to contact you.

·         Summary Statement: This statement highlights your skills and experiences. Typically found before your work experience and education, the summary sets the stage for your accomplishments and highlights how you would contribute to a potential employer’s organization. A summary statement is a few short sentences highlighting why you’re a valuable employee. A summary statement can be a powerful way to capitalize on the short time hiring managers spend on your resume by succinctly presenting your skills and passions. You can think of it as an attention-grabbing blurb, tag line, or hook.

As you draft your summary statement, be specific about your desired role. Start your summary with a specific title like “Administrative Professional,” or “Fundraising Specialist,” and follow it with no more than three sentences summing up your experience, skills, and goals. These sentences should describe what defines you as a professional in your field.

You can also use your summary to highlight your goals and demonstrate how you hope to work toward them in your next role.

Once you have a strong summary statement, don’t be afraid to alter it based on your application. You can customize your summary just as you do your other application materials.

·         Education: This section contains the most recent two educational institution(s) you’ve attended, years of attendance, degree earned, CGPAs, and relevant coursework. If you are currently pursuing a degree, include that as well. As you begin your career, keep this section near the top. After you gain significant professional experience, it should fall below “Professional Experience.”

·         Professional Experience: Think about the various jobs you’ve done. Ideally, you’ll have at least two to put on your resume and can list a few bullet points about each. For each job, highlight any actionable, quantifiable responsibilities you had and the key skills you used or developed. Every item you describe should be in the past tense except those related to your current job. Finally, keep your entries relevant to the role you’re applying for. This requires a bit of extra work, but candidates who tailor their resumes to specific positions are more successful job-hunters than those who send a generic resume as a part of all their applications. You’ll learn more on how to customize your resume later in the course.

·         Leadership & Extracurricular Activities: If you have been/are involved with any forms of voluntary activities or extra-curricular activities during your undergraduate life or afterwards, which is not a professional experience, put them all here.

·         Additional Skills: You may have skills that do not fit neatly into any other section on your resume. Maybe you are fluent in another language, or perhaps you have a relevant set of awards or certifications. Depending on the industry, having a separate “Additional Skills” section towards the bottom that covers these abilities may prove helpful. For technical positions, this is where you should list your knowledge of specific programming languages or software tools.
Interest sections of resumes describe personal interests. They are an opportunity for hiring managers to relate to you on a personal level. You can include sports, books, movies, cooking, traveling, or any other (appropriate) hobby or personal interest. The more specific, the better!

1.5 Showcasing your Work Experience to the employers

For each job on your resume, you should have three or four bullet points that highlight the most interesting, impressive, and relevant things you did in the position.  This is your chance to draw attention to your achievements and responsibilities.

Here are some best practices for summarizing your work experience with bullets:

·         Focus on relevant responsibilities: You won’t be able to list all of your job duties. Instead, focus on the most impressive and relevant ones. Highlight tasks that required a high skill level or specialized knowledge and any additional responsibilities you took on, such as training other employees or managing large amounts of money.

·         Begin bullet statements with verbs: Use a variety of verbs throughout your resume. For current jobs, use present tense; all previous jobs should be explained with past tense. Make sure these verbs are active. For example, “Processed,” is a good way to start a bullet statement. On the other hand, “Was responsible for processing,” is not active, so you shouldn’t use it. Some powerful verbs include:

Analyzed Collaborated Conducted Controlled Coordinated Created Designed Developed

Established Evaluated Executed Generated Implemented Improved Increased Launched

Led Maximized Organized Prepared Quantified Reduced Secured Strengthened

·         Quantify your accomplishments: Each statement should also include numbers and time frames that quantify your impact and abilities. “Processed cash and credit transactions” is not a bad bullet statement, but “Processed up to Tk. 10,000 in cash and credit transactions daily” is much better. “Crafted and served up to 200 specialty coffee drinks per shift” is much more impressive than “Served coffee.”

·         Start strong: Remember that hiring managers typically read your resume in an F pattern, or by scanning down the left side of the page and following anything that looks interesting. To catch their eyes, make sure to lead your bullet statements with your most impressive accomplishments.

·         Do not embellish: Overselling your experiences may get you a lot of initial attention, but it will not pay off in the long term. If it appears you’ve misrepresented some or all of your qualifications, suspicious employers will either ignore your resume altogether or investigate your claims. Your credibility and reputation suffer when you misrepresent yourself.

It will take you several revisions to get these bullet statements right. For each new job application, you should revisit your bulleted lists and customize them to fit the role. Emphasize the accomplishments and responsibilities most relevant to a particular position.

1.6 Formatting

Now that you know the key ingredients of a resume, you need to bring them together. A well-formatted resume helps the hiring manager’s eyes logically and consistently progress down the page. To ensure that you’re helping hiring managers get the most out of your resume, consider including the following:

·         Clear, Readable Font: Your font choice should be professional and legible. Remember, the literal translation of resume is “summary.” Use an 11- or 12-point font; if you use anything smaller, people will be squinting to read it. Try Calibri or Arial as a standard typeface for a contemporary look and Times New Roman or another Serif style for a more traditional approach.

·         Simple Headings: Each section should be labeled clearly and professionally. Although it may be tempting to label your work experience as something more creative, the classic “Work Experience” is a good option. If you want to highlight a specific type of experience like customer service, a label such as “Customer Service Experience” could also work. Just keep in mind that simple headings make your resume more readable.

·         Succinct, Bulleted Task Lists: Breaking up long paragraphs with bullets calls out key points and makes your resume easier to read. “Work Experience” is likely to be your most content-heavy section, so you’ll want to use bulleted lists. They may also come in handy in your education section if you hold many degrees.

·         Consistent Margins: No matter what software program you choose to write your resume in, remember to keep the margins consistent. You want a balanced amount of white space, so try to avoid overly narrow or wide margins. It is standard practice to keep resume margins to one inch.

Quick Assessment

2

Arman sees an entry-level role at a hotel he would like to apply to. Which of the following is something he should do when drafting his resume? Select all that apply.

• Customize the resume to appeal to a target employer.
• Have a friend proofread and edit the resume.
• Research what the company is looking for.
• Frame his objectives and experiences appropriately.
• Exaggerate his foreign language skills.

2

As he drafts the different sections of his resume, Arman tries to include only the critical, standard components. What are the necessary ingredients? Select all that apply.

• Summary Statement
• Contact Information
• Ideal Work Environment
• Work Experience
• Hobbies
• Additional Skills

2

Arman starts to write his resume. Which of the following should he do throughout his resume? Select all that apply.

• Write very long paragraphs to tell his story
• Use a tiny font size to squeeze in lots of information
• Keep consistent margins for proper spacing
• Vary his style with a variety of font styles

1.7 Best Practices

There are as many opinions about resume formatting as there are hiring managers, but your resume is meant to represent you. You should choose a format you like and that showcases your work experience. However, there are some best practices to keep in mind:

·         Keep it to one page: Mid- and late-career professionals can exceed one page. Everyone else should keep it brief. You can keep your resume to one page by removing unnecessary language, experimenting with typefaces, and using active verbs.

·         Keep it relevant: Because your resume is a summary, you should emphasize different things for the various jobs you apply for. Save different versions of your resume for easier customizing later on.

·         Keep it searchable: The first person to read your resume may not be a person at all. Many organizations use computerized searches to sort through resumes, so make sure to clearly state your relevant skills and experiences.

·         Keep it in three formats: Saving your resume as a PDF preserves formatting for those who will read it on different devices. Saving it as a Microsoft Word document ensures that you have it in the most common file format. Saving it as a plain text document prevents the clutter of format-specific information when uploading to a computerized applicant tracking system. It’s always handy to have different versions saved just in case.

·         Keep it clean: One typo can undermine all of the hard work you’ve put into creating a professional resume. Check your spelling and ask your friends and family to review it. This may sound tedious, but you need to make sure it’s perfect before you hand it to a potential employer.